The boys from Victor Velo once again put on a great weekend of racing at MooseCross. Great courses, top notch competitors, food, beer, prizes, movies, and even a place to crash (stay the night, that is, there are plenty of places to "crash" on the course and I found a new one again this year)-pretty much everything you could want from a cyclocross race. The GAS/Intrinsik team showed up in force, and a great weekend was had by all. Victor, Idaho is a pretty cool little town just outside of Jackson, Wy. It has small town charm and beautiful scenery. I wouldn't mind living there if it weren't for the crazy reverse angle parking on Main Street. I don't know how they ever got that passed. The city council must be out of there mind! (just kidding Dave, we pretty much all agreed the reverse angle parking was a sweet set up).
I hitched a ride down in the Curry van. I secretly hoped that just being in close proximity to Mr. and Mrs. Cyclocross, as well as Mrs. Freight Train would somehow make me faster. I tried to absorb all there 'cross secrets and knowledge on the ride down. Turns out even all there secrets and knowledge couldn't make me any faster. In fact, it seems to have made me slower, if that's possible. Thanks for nothing, John, Lisa, and Amy. Guess I'll be getting my secrets elsewhere in the future.....
Some highlights from the weekend, other than what mtcx.com already listed include:
* A dramatic crash by Tomas. He slid out at high speed as he hopped onto the sidewalk. I was right behind him, and it looked BAD. Kudos to Tomas for dusting himself off and getting back in the race in a big way. There's no give up in him.
A probably almost a s dramatic crash by your truly as I somehow managed to step into my front wheel while dismounting. This resulted in me flipping over into the barriers (ouch!) nearly taking out JDoll in the process, breaking spokes on my carbon tubular wheel (sorry Aaron, I know I promised to take care of your babies when I purchased them from you, hopefully it can be brought back to life with some new spokes and some TLC). Once I got my bearings about me, I had to run over 1/2 lap to the pit for a spare wheel. Needless to say, the race was over for me, but I decided to stay out there and at least get a workout and some much needed practice. The cool thing was I ended up back in right where I probably would have been without the crash. I caught a couple people, then had my sights on PURE coached athlete JDoll, but he proved to be to strong, and simply rode away from me the last few laps. The results show me in 6th place, but I was a lap down, and should be listed DFL.
*PURE coached athlete Jim Nallick had a strong ride in the Masters race. Turns out some of my ignorance must be rubbing off on him, as he chose to then hop into the CAT 4/5 race for another strong showing. Way to use that hard earned fitness, Jim.
*Junior GAS/Intrinsik racer Benji Nallick takes the hole shot, and holds on for the W in the junior race. Way to go, Benji!
* Day one ended with food, beer, awards, raffles, movies, and keg tossing. My right arm was a bit sore from my crash, otherwise I'm pretty sure I coulda took the keg toss W from Eric Horn. Next time, my friend, next time.
*Day two had an epic three way GAS/Intrinsik battle for domination of the masters race. Tomas, Alex, and Jared duked it out for the whole race with Alex coming out on top.
* To hop, or not to hop? There were some cool "shorty" barriers in day two's course. Racers were practicing and nervously deciding whether or not to risk hopping them. Hopping them proved to be faster, but a bit risky. It seems it turned out to be about 1/2 and 1/2 as far as hoppers vs. runners. LCurry showed up the women's field, as she was the only one hopping. It worked pretty good for her, except for that one time, whoops....
* PURE coached athlete Jesse Doll once again put the hurt on the coach as he rode to a strong 4th place finish behind some very fast dudes. I didn't crash this time, and at one point early I was right on his wheel. He simply rode away from me again. The student becomes the master...Guess we know who's doing there work and who's slacking.
It was a great weekend of racing. I gotta admit that I left there a bit disappointed in my performance. I feel like I have been training pretty hard, and thought the fitness should be coming around. It seems I'm right about where I was last season- just a touch behind the fast guys. Oh well. I will turn the disappointment into desire and train a bit harder. The season is long, and I still have time to make some improvements. I skipped out on work today and got in a solid workout of 5 minute VO2max intervals, which actually felt not to terrible. Now I'm off to GAS/Intrinsik Tuesday night cross practice to see if I can improve the skills enough to at least not crash into the barriers this weekend. Bozeman cross weekend is coming, will you be there?
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Sweet report :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat report Brad. Thanks again for coming and for bringing the stoke. The "shorty" barriers were a last-minute addition and they worked out exactly as we had hoped. The "hoppers" with skillz made up some time there for sure.
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