Day 2 Boulder Cup

Sunday started pretty early for us again, but instead of work it was for Breeze to race. She was solid on Saturday, but with a rough morning and a couple mechanicals then, we were hoping for better things Sunday. I rolled into Valmont a bit after her and found her warming up on course. All seemed well as she was riding my bike and looked relaxed and happy. I played "race bitch" as she likes to call me and had the spare bike in the pits and gathered her gear from her at the start. It was a big field for the Cat 4's and I went to stairs to watch her. It was cold and the course was still frozen and there was almost no mud and as they came through the top sand the first time, Breeze took the sweet line and the lead. By the time she hit the stairs though Michele (Scott Upton's wife) was on the front and the battle had begun. Michele led a good chunk of the race, but with a lap and a half to go, Breeze made the pass and hammered the backside of the course and opened a gap. She was pretty pumped to cross the line with the win and an upgrade to the Cat 4's.

It took a while to get to the podiums for Breeze's race and I want to be sure that I got to see her on the top step, so we sat around for while. As we did, the course was changing rapidly. I had tweeted to Keller that the course was tacky and fast, but as we waited the ground was thawing and the mud was getting bad. Not an hour after my first tweet to Greg I sent a second telling everyone to get their pit bikes and pit crews ready. I laughed out loud as Josh Whitney replied that he didn't have one, because essentially neither did I. Or at least not one with gears. I headed home for a while and breeze headed to the kitchen to make bars. It made for some uneasy hours, just sitting watching football and waiting to go back. Breeze came back home after a shortened kitchen run and we headed in around, just in time to watch my nephew race. I dumped my stuff in the Curve tent and went out on course and watched the boy. He was solid and took 8th in his second race ever. Pretty good, especially considering he is 9 and racing with the 10-12's.


It had been a great day for the family and it was up to me to back it up. The course was really muddy by now and it was completely different at the top of the run-up than it was on the backside in the glades. I decided to run the Specialized Terra (mud tread) with about 26 psi on the front and the Tracer (block tread) with 28psi on the rear. It was a pretty good call and I hit the trainer feeling good about the course. We rolled over for call ups and took to the start as the crowd built. As a side note, it was really cool. The Boulder Cup is a big time race and Chris makes sure that it is a big time event. This year was no different. There were a lot of people there and they were making a good bit of noise as we got going.

I was 46th called up. Not great, but not quite at the back and when the whistle blew, I hit it hard. We rolled through the straight and took the right hander and it happened...Boom down someone went and we were all caught. I rammed into the back of someone but never unclipped and managed to get around on the right and was off up the hill. We were on the gas through the top. It was awesome. I hit the 5280 run up in around 40th, but it was still so loud. the people out there were into it. I heard my name a bunch and ran it well. We came off the top and I nearly clipped my niece Kaia and nephew Jackson as they leaned over the tape and yelled at me. The backside of the course had gotten even worse and the mud was inches deep. The longest mud section had to be 20-30 yards long and was brutal. To make it worse, when you came out of the mud, you were on the long power section that continued to the start/finish and then you were on the climb.

Things shook out in the first couple laps and I found myself back battling with Ross Holbrook and trying to track down Shawn Harshman and Bryan Mickiewicz. I was riding the start and climb great and was really good to the stairs, but the descent off the top and the gravel pit were killing me. The other thing that was killing me was Ross' attacks. I swear that guy launches like a climber and it destroys me. I can get up to speed, but it takes my big body a little of time. With 4 to go, I knew we were short lived so I attcked up the climb and got up to Bryan's wheel. He out rode me on the descent but I made up ground and was able to close up the climb with 1 to go for us. I was ready to mount an all out attack through the mud when i just butchered the sand pit. I mean butchered it. I maybe made it a third of the way through and Bryan was gone. I was a bit frazzled and hit the mud only to find the tape was back up and the sweet line from early on was gone. Now I was looking back and hoping I didn't get caught. Luckily, I hit the sweet line through the big mud section and hammered to the last corner where the USAC official pulled me. I almost kissed her.

Photo by Cari Higgins 

38th. I'll take it. I placed my age. It was so much fun. My brother, sister-in-law and niece and nephew were awesome and kept me pushing. I was amazed at how many times I heard my name yelled as I rode the course. The crowd was incredible, from the front to the back. I know that Josh and I have talked about it. The crowd is what keeps us going. The people out at the races have so much enthusiasm for the sport that you feel you cannot let them down. Hopefully, we didn't.