Dude.... Buddy: 35+ Open CO CX Championships

This past weekend was the Colorado State Cyclocross Championship Races. They had a little different format, in that not all the races were held on the same day. This provided me the opportunity to race both days. I didn’t have particularly high expectations for the races as I just upgraded and didn’t have any Colorado Cyclocross Cup points, starting positions are determined based on the number of points a racer has acquired. Since I didn’t have any points, I knew I was going to start in the back. Starting from back there, even if I had a killer race I wouldn’t see the front. It’s just the game you have to play to do well at cyclocross.

Saturday I jumped in with the SM 35+ open category. This was a first race I’ve raced with this group and I anticipated they would be flying. There were 88 starters and I was in the last row. There were some racers I knew and would be gunning for but they all started in front of me. At least I’d have a rabbit to chase. The gun went off and it was like we were shot out of a cannon. Being in the back of the pack I knew we’d get stacked up badly on the first obstacles and I wasn’t disappointed. Fortunately everyone was pretty level headed and no one, that I saw, ended up on the ground. It took a while for things to thin out enough that I could think about moving up.

The place to make up time was certainly the long flat grassy sections. A lot of the terrain ended up being like a fast grass crit. I certainly felt comfortable railing the corners but when things opened up I found myself desperate to grab a wheel, I just didn’t have the flat out power I needed. I felt pretty good the first two laps but then started getting bad sensations. I tried to push though it but it made for a hard race. The last few laps steadily improved and I was able to make up some positions but it was way too late in the race. In the end I finished 65th out of the 78 that finished. Not a great result but I was able to move up from my last place start.

The best part of the day was hanging out with the entire cyclocross team. I had the two fastest racers (Todd and Michael) in the pit for me during this race. It was helpful to have them yelling while I was trying to push through my low points during the race. We brought out the team tent and BBQ. It was a great time to hang out, eat a veggie burger and enjoy the racing. After the race I felt pretty good, really good actually. The legs were opened up and I felt energized, not sore or tired. I tried to rest and recover; Sunday I would tackle the SM 3 race. So far this year, day two has always been better.