WARNING: This post went way long due to me slacking and just adding stuff as the series went along.
The cyclocross season so far has gone ok. After 7 of 8 races in the Oklahoma grand prix series, I'm leading with a 19 point lead I think. Anyhow, I remember when the road season was almost over, I was really pumped up to get the cross season going and maybe a little tired of road racing. I guess in a way it's come full circle again, cause I'm getting exited to start preparing for the 2012 road season.
So, a quick review of what went down the first 7 races -
The OC criss cross
This race was put on by Team Undiscovered, the road team I'm on. The course was totally different than last year. The course was pretty long with some good technical sections. I remember it being pretty warm and Coatney helping with the scoring. She got a pretty wicked sunburn. I didn't get a good start. Bryan Duvall had about 15-20 seconds on me most of the race. I started to catch him with 3 laps to go, so I drilled it pretty good with 2 laps to go, but it wasn't enough. I think he had some in reserve because as soon as I got close, he surged to hold me off the last lap.
I ended up 2nd at the OC criss cross race.
Villain CX at Will Rogers park
The next race in the series was at the park where we have our Wed. night practices. The course was physically pretty hard. Lots of short, steep power climbs that took their toll after several laps. I led the first lap, but Will Gault took over on the second lap and I had nothing to counter with. I had a good gap on 3rd place, so I just put it in cruise mode and went as hard as needed. |
| 2nd race, another 2nd place |
PG-13 Race at the park
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| Getting ready to start race #3 |
Race #4 Showdown at sundown - Broken Arrow OK
My road teamate Judson and I took off Friday afternoon to drive to the Tulsa area to start a 3 race weekend. The Showdown at sundown race is pretty cool. By far the longest lap of any CX race I've ever done. The course is located on a golf driving range. Super sweet and lit up real nice for night racing. The weather was cold and windy for a change. As far as the race went, I made an error from the start in trying to stay on Will Gault's wheel. I blew up again, and by the time I recovered, the nice gap I had over the rest of the field quickly disappeared. I settled in with a group of 4 guys, some in the 40-49 race, some in the 50+ race and the single speed race that were all going on at the same time. Anyhow, I ended up 4th in my age group. I wasn't too happy with the result and knew I could have done better if I rode within my fitness limits.
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| Judson took this picture of me early in the showdown at sundown race. |
The next day was the ruts and guts CX race. The course was in the same location as last year, but had been changed up quite a bit. As was the case last year, the course was pretty technical. More like a mountain bike course than a CX course. I didn't mind cause I like the hard courses. I filmed this race, but only got the first half of the race. I crashed and my camera came undone. I couldn't get it hooked back on the bars, so I just turned it off and put it in my pocket.
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| Run up at ruts and guts. Photo by Nicki Smith |
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| Going up the steep section out of the woods. Photo by Judson Copeland |
I finally had to use my pit bike after I got a flat with about 3 laps to go. I ended up 3rd on the day which I was ok with. I felt like I rode within myself, and other than a couple of minor mistakes, I rode the race as best as possible.
This is the first part of the Ruts N' Guts race unil I crashed on a dismount and my camera fell off.
The 6th race in the series was at the Kids Lake park near my house. I don't have any photos or video of the race, but the quick breakdown is: It was very cold. My seat broke on the first lap and I decided to just ride it out. I ended up getting 3rd. The reason I didn't just swap bikes during the race was I couldn't get my flat Challenge tire to hold air, so I glued the Vittoria tire on just a couple of hours before the race. I had the freshly glued wheel on the pit bike. Anyhow, I was pretty beat up and tired after doing 3 CX races 3 days straight! Luckily there was a two week break until the next race.
The 7th race in the series was another PG-13 race at the old YMCA park a couple miles down the road from my house. I have a couple of pictures that I'll post up later. Anyway, the course was pretty sweet, and the weather was very cyclocrossish. 40-50 degreesF with on and off rain. The race for me ended up being pretty epic. We had a LeMans style start. I got the holeshot again and went probably a bit too hard, because before the first lap was over, I had gone a little anaerobic and lost one position then another after sliding out.
I worked my way back into 2nd, and was gaining on first, when I got caught up with a lapped cat 4 rider and knocked my brake arm under my rim. I thought it was worse than it actually was, and as I was running back to the pits to swap bikes, I decided to fix it instead. I got things working, but by this point, I was in 5th place.
There was only 15 or so minutes left in the race and the course was starting to get a little sloppy from the rain. I just stayed with it and eventually worked my way back up to 2nd.
I was pretty happy with the result all things considered. So after the 5th race, my points lead was down to 1 point over Will Gault, however, he didn't show for the 6th and 7th races, so I basically have the series locked up with a 19 point lead.
The last race of the series is the state championship race. It was originally going to be at the Will Rogers park, but got cancelled at the last minute and moved to Tulsa. Due to some time issues and having the series locked up, I'm going to do the pro1/2 race instead of the masters race. I'll be off to Tulsa in a bit with my buddy Judson. Hopefully I'll post the results quicker.
