Dude.... Buddy: Keeping the Flame Lit

After missing a racing weekend due to work and family time rebalance. Oh and can I just say my wife rocked the Denver Marathon. She set a personal best marathon time despite being sick all week. So I missed the Estes Park race so I could support the wife so she could enjoy and recover from her event. We all had a lot of fun.

I hadn’t been on my Ridley (cross bike) in two weeks until I raced the Blue Sky Cup at Xilinx on Saturday. I was pretty nervous going into this race, more so than I have been at previous races. I think winning the Cross at the Rock race messed with my head; I’d won, now I was pressuring myself to do well. The last time I raced Xilinx I did well but crashed twice, this was my rematch. The coarse was a classic Xilinx coarse, the usual west hill, the same obstacles in the woods and some flat open field. The SM35+/4 field was maxed out, fortunately with my win at the first Colorado Cyclocross Cup (CCC) race I was in forth place and had a front row call up. The start didn’t go that well, the race took off but I managed to stay in the top 10. The pain of the effort was certainly high. A few people dropped off the pace but I wasn’t closing any gaps. I really had issues getting thorough all the corners; the lack of time on the bike was slowing me down. In the end I finished in 7th place. I did get the maximum number of Colorado Cross Cup points without getting any upgrade points. A good result and good for the team.

In the past, I’ve done better racing the second day (Sunday) of the weekend, this weekend was the Boulder Racing Series #3 at the Louisville Rec Center and its "Bowl of Death". Somehow I’ve never done this race before so it was a new venue to me. Basically it’s a giant bowl were we raced the bottom, sides, rim, the backside volleyball sand pit, one steep rideable hill and two tough run-ups. The start didn’t go a lot better but I was able to quickly move to the front. I saw my teammate Todd and a Rio Grande rider with a gap. I decided to sit back and make others close the gap, if they did, I could attack. I was in fourth, sitting on my friend Wes's wheel for a couple of laps while Todd was in the lead. Soon a Boulder Cycle Sport rider came by and I jumped on his wheel. We road up to the Rio Grande rider and then I got dropped. The Rio Grande guy and I rode together for the rest of the race, he would open up gaps in the sharp corners and I would bridge back up on the long flat stretches. The Boulder Cycle Sport racer went on to catch Todd and win, I never got ahead of the Rio Grande racer and finished in 4th.

So the weekend was a success. I picked up 3 more upgrade points and a bunch of CCC points. With Todd finishing 4th on Saturday we have a big lead in the team competition and Todd is now 1st and I’m 2nd in the CCC rider competition. Sadly Todd has to upgrade, so we shared some good beer and I’ll look forward to racing with him again soon. Depending on how this coming weekend's races go, I could be joining him next week.