Cross at the River

As an opener to the Colorado CX Cup, Cross at the River was held next to the Arkansas River in Buena Vista, CO. I figured the fact that it was the first points race would get people to make the ridiculous 2.5 hour drive from Denver (I do respect that some people drive that far to race in Denver every weekend but ….). Anyway, there wasn’t any were near the numbers as in Boulder the day before. The regulars and guys looking to do well in the CX cup competition were there. I believe we ended up about 43 strong, almost twice as large as last year. The coarse was very similar to last year except we had a nice little breeze/wind. We would be racing down the hill with a tale wind and back up into the wind.

When they were calling people up to the starting line I figured I’d be within the top five but they kept calling names. So I rushed up the judge to see what was going on and he said I wasn’t on the list. I told him who I was and then we notice I had an out of order race number. Apparently the race volunteers put me in a different race category when I registered. The judge recognized my name and let me jump in for the second to last front starting position. I was on the wrong side of the field for the opening right-hander but at least I didn’t have to worry about someone in front of me bobbling the start.

The whistle blew and we were off. Not one of my best starts as a few of the guys quickly jumped off the front. I settled in and tried to keep a good position during that first lap. We were all together until the beginning of the second lap when the guy in front of me started to open a pretty big gap. I had a teammate (Todd) up front so I didn’t want to chase them down until the gap was a little bigger. I let the gap open a little more then bridged up. The front was down to three of us, Todd on the front, a second guy not pulling through and me. I looked back and we had a gap but it appeared they were coming. Without much though I figured if I attacked Todd could sit on this guys wheel and he would have to do some chasing. I rolled the dice on the second lap and went for it.

Cross at the river - 35+ cat 4 Lap 1 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

At the top of the second lap, we had a tail when and I race down the hill. There were a couple of racers just behind me. Heading back up into the wind I sore they were going to catch me. I was already thinking, when they catch me I’ll pull off the front and try to keep them in the wind. But they never caught up, for whatever reason they couldn’t close the, what seamed like a little gap. For the next two laps I felt like they were breathing down my neck but never closed the gap. After two laps off the front I saw the three more laps to go sign and was worried a “late bloomer” would catch me. I just wanted to get out of sight of that lead chase group so they’d forget about me and start racing each other for second. I kept up the pace as high as I could. Soon it seamed the gap was getting bigger to the racers behind me. I just kept focusing on the obstacles within 3 feet of my wheel, riding them clean, no mistakes. By the last lap no one was behind me, not even warming up! Could I make it? I kept the pressure on and raced to the finish, my first cyclocross win!! I stopped after the finished to see how everyone else finished; I was about 30 seconds ahead of the second and third place finishers. I was so excited!

In the end Todd finished 9th and they guy he was with when I attacked was in 5th or 6th. So it ended up being a great time to attack. I think the wind really helped. You see, going into the wind everyone has about the same wind cross section. The bigger guys that typically have to put out more power then have an advantage over smaller guys that can't put out that power. Raw power and not your power to weight ratio were in play that day. The chasers trying to bridge up to me had to put out more power than me. Fortunately no one with that much more power was there.