It was an interesting end to my racing season. Three races in 8 days. Subtracted some machismo points yesterday: I was a big weenie and bailed out of the last Jingle Cross race because of conditions (check out this video of the elite women's race or this photo album of the elite men and women to see why). So what happened?
Lincoln CX Weekend started well, finishing in the money with a 4th place on Saturday, beating a guy in the sprint. The course was terrific-fun and fast-and conditions were perfect. Got a poor start as usual but made up some time on the first lap. Andy Lucas blew everyone away. I tried to stay with Dan Hansen but his conditioning is getting better while mine is getting worse. I beat him at Boulevard and Omaha, but now he's 30 seconds ahead of me in any race. Looks like I hit my cx peak in late October. I chased down a guy from the front group over the last two laps and caught him with one to go, sat on his wheel until we started the climbs, then tried to put some distance on him. Got a small gap, but he got back on my wheel for the last 1/4 mile of pavement, but he gave up on the sprint for 4th.
Next day was the State Championship race. Kevin Burke and Marc Walters were racing, so I was looking at trying for 3rd Nebraskan. I was in a group of 4 by the end of the first lap: John Vondracek I had poor starts (I really need to work on my starts and be more aggressive), got gapped by a group of 7 on the first lap, and had Keith Walberg and Rich Pearson join us. Rich and Keith stayed on for two laps and then John and I dropped them. We caught one guy from the original group of seven and were closing on another with one lap to go. I had about a 5 yard lead on John as we went through the barriers. I heard a bang, and it turned out that John smacked his bike on the first barrier, then hit the second barrier with his bike and dropped it. Knowing something bad happened, I turned on the gas to take advantage, but couldn't quite catch the 5th place guy. So 6th place and 3rd Nebraskan. The nice thing was that I wasn't that far behind Walters or Burke-around 30 to 40 seconds.
Jingle Cross #1 had a fun, but tough, course. The picture is of the run-up from the first day (shot with the camera level to the ground). What it doesn't show is the mud on the steepest part just around the bend, then the addition they made that has you riding all the way to the top (where those tiny people are standing). The course got a little too cute this year-a spiral, then a weave through cattle pens slowed the traffic down a lot. I had an uncharacteristically good start and managed to ride a nasty mud section that a lot of people crashed on (pays to pick your line through the sections as you preride the course). The biggest problem we had was the 65 riders in the 35+ race starting in front of us. We immediately made up the minute gap on the slow ones and it turned into a mountain bike race with all the tight turns-impossible to pass in a lot of spots. I think it cost me 15 seconds on some of the front riders. I made up a lot of ground on the run-up, and was third for a good chunk of the first lap. I had a brain fart 3/4 of the way through the third lap by not hammering on the flat sections. Dan Hansen did hammer and gapped me. A couple of other guys passed me and I held off the rest for 7th place. The stupidity of relaxing on the flat sections cost me. A good result against a strong field, but with a better training program I think I could have finished 3rd or 4th. Next year I'll aim to peak for this race.
I skipped the second day. Iowa City got about 2 inches of snow Saturday night. The course was already gooey in spots on Saturday. I stopped by Sunday morning and saw that the course was a big sloppy mess. According to Troy Krause, it was "mud mud mud". Also, that run-up became a greasy descent on the second day. I did not want to be the victim of someone's inability to handle a bike, so I went home. Season's over-time for some fun rides.
