Two more races; two more bridesmaid results. Spooky Cross in Des Moines had a great course and really tough conditions. The rain from earlier in the week made for PlayDo mud in several long stretches, which were energy-zapping (but fun). The wind was howling out the west and turned what was supposed to be a rest stretch into the toughest part of the course. Rode reasonably well and was closing in 5th, but dropped a chain in a bad spot on the 2nd to last lap and lost him, so I ended up 6th (out of 18).
Yesterday was Boss Cross in KC on the new Nationals course (there's a great helmetcam video of the course here). Quite technical and very bumpy (a mountain bike would have been handy), it was still a lot of fun. The whole course is on a hill side. There's a lot of off-camber stuff that, if the weather does not cooperate, will not be fun to ride. Two of the descents in particular are tricky-look for a lot crashes in December. Got a decent start, even with all of the team 360 guys hogging the front row. I was still within 20 yards of Steve Songer midway through the second lap, so I knew it was going reasonably well. Had a slight bad patch with three laps to go, so Songer dropped me like a bad habit. I dueled it out with another guy for the next lap and a half, then managed to get a 10 seconds gap on him with a lap to go (he was very slow on the stairs and the hairpin that followed it near the finish-dropped him there), and ended up 4th (out of 19). If I had enough discipline to eat better and drop a few pounds, I think I could more successfully compete for the podium in KC races.
No comments:
Post a Comment