September race reports

So far, September has been a pretty hectic month race wise. The Friday following the Hotter 'n hell, there was a criterium in Enid. Kind of weird that this was the first time this season that we finally had the core of our cat 1/2 team racing together. The course was a pretty short figure 8 style. The payout was pretty good, but due to the Gateway cup races going on at the same time, the overall turnout was pretty low.



A quick team meeting before the race

The race started pretty well with Jeremy and Rob getting in a good 2 man break, but it eventually died out. We're trying to get back into some kind of groove racing together as a team. Overall the race went ok. We had 4 guys in the money, but I think things definitely could have gone better. 


Enid Friday night race action - Photo by Biff Stephens

The following Wednesday, it was finally time for something I've been thinking about and looking forward to for a while now....Cyclocross practice night!!!



Hammering the hills in the big ring! - Photo by Marty Buchanan

This is the 2nd year that Chris Duroy has been hosting these cross practice events...and they're awesome!!!
Basically Chris maps out a different challenging course each week, and we do a practice race starting at 30 minutes and gradually getting longer as the races go week to week.

The following weekend we went to Arkansas for a couple of crits, and returned to do a circuit race at Lake Draper on Sunday. Jeremy, Brian and I did the 35+ masters race 1st on Saturday. The race went well for us with Jeremy getting 2nd, and I got 3rd. Brian is getting his speed back after being out all year recovering from his broken femur back in February. I think he finished 9th.

We had us 3 plus Rob and Judson for the pro 123 race later in the day. The thing with this race is it features a hyped up crowd pleaser pass the hat prime lap 40 minutes into the race. Last year it was $430.00. This year it was a little more. So basically, this race was 2 races in 1. Rob had his camera on. This is the first 43or so minutes of the race. The big prime lap starts around the 39:55 mark.

We had a little mis-communication, but it all worked out and I got the big prime. I was pretty blown afterwards. Rob almost stayed off till the end, but got caught in the end and got 6th. Judson took 2nd in the cat 3/4 race. All in all a good day for the team.

The weather all week was nice as it finally cooled off a little, and it continued into Sunday. The field for the pro 1/2 race wasn't huge, but there were quite a few fast guys there.



Trying to stay with Chad Cagle on the north side climb - Photo by Biff Stephens

It was just Rob and I in this race. The race itself was pretty animated with lots of attacks from the start. Rob and I were a little tired from the previous days race, but I think we were holding our own pretty well. About 35 miles in of the 69 miles total, I got another flat. The wheel truck wouldn't motor pace me back up, so I just tempo rode the rest of the race solo. Rob stayed in the mix and got 7th.

I believe all the racing is really helping to get the legs ready for the quickly approaching cyclocross season. The state championship road race is on the 24th, and then the cross season officially starts on October 1st. There is a pretty sweet race series going on this year. Lots of fun racing coming up.