CO CX Classic

This was an exciting weekend, perhaps the biggest for Colorado Cyclocross. Dare I say bigger than States, perhaps for some. This is when the big boys and girls come to Colorado to rip it up in Boulder (and Bloomfield this year). Saturday was held at a traditional Boulder location, the Boulder Reservoir. Personally I like the location but it always seems to be used a little too often. Hell, there's another race there this next Saturday, 7 days from the last one; come on Boulder aren't there other locations? I'm looking forward to the Valmont Bike Park.

Anyway, after my teammate Todd upgraded I had the first call up and was lining up on the front with the cut throat competition. Well not exactly, a lot of them have become good friends. I actually look forward to a few minutes of conversation before the race gets underway, but when the whistle blows you'll find no solace.

For this race I had a great start. I ripped out of the starting blocks into second place and streaked down the road. We had a barrier section close to the start and I didn't want to get hung up in the traffic. We were flying through the opening lap and into the first set of sharp loose turns when one other rider passed me. I didn't recognize him so I let them go and got into my own groove.

The first sand cleared some people out, I love the photos below. If your going to race at the beach you'd better have the power and skill to pull it off.




Sand, long straight sections and areas for running. It was a hard race and I was at my limit for most of it.



Towards the end I could see my friend Brian from Blue Sky closing the gap. I tried everything and thought I had a big enough lead. Unfortunately I didn't and was caught going into the final lap. Unable to hold his wheel I thought I'd catch him in he sand. Sadly I let my self get distracted by a lapped rider and I let my front wheel dig in, sucking my power away. I had to run the entire sand section causing me to loose time.

In the end I had a great result, 4th out of about 100 racers. But it was the first place off the podium. It was hard to watch the podium presentation but I was glad for my friend that made it to second. Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day, as it has been so often this year.