Wrapping up the cross season

I didn't go out the way I had wanted with my first season of Cyclocross, but I am super stoked with how the season went as a whole.  I progressed pretty solidly throughout the season learning and building on my mistakes from racing every weekend, and had hoped for some good results, and a possible win, during the last two races.  Unfortunately, I learned I still have a lot more to learn.  I wasn't in the best riding form from a crash just a week before the second to last race at Irvine lake.  I fell on my left side and ended up shifting my sacrum and freezing up my right leg pretty good.  Quick accelerations or getting on and off the bike were no bueno, which thats pretty much what Cross is all about!

Enough excuses, the Irvine Lake race course was super fun, it had a nice little climb, and a few straightaways.  Adding in a rainstorm literally 5 minutes before our race started, made for some 'true' cross conditions in Socal.  Multi-time National CX champ Ryan Trebon was down training in the area and decided to race with everyone, and it quickly became a race for second.  I was leading the chase group after a lap or two when the course all of a sudden switched to a drivers course.  I got unexpectedly dropped on my side in a super slick left hand turn.  Unfortunately my shoe came unbuckled when this happened and I lost the chase group and rode the rest of the race by myself.  After experiencing some shifting problems, a flat, and having file tread tires on my 'B" bike I rolled through in 6th.

Just starting to get muddy...

The last race of the season was up in Nortwest LA at Pierce College.  I went into this race sitting in third overall for the series.  This season finale race offered 1.5x the points which meant I had the ability to drop all the way down to fifth or sixth depending on the outcome of this one race.

The course really suited me well with three solid climbs and some longer straightaways.  But for some reason when the whistle blew I just didn't have any pop in my step, and after having multiple people make errors ahead of me costing valuable time and positions, I was pretty stoked to roll through within the allotted distance from the riders that were breathing down my neck for third overall in the series.

I had no plans or goals racing cross this year and was mostly just using it for training, at first.  But I have 'applied the embro' and fully have the CX bug.  Every time Im out riding and I see a little park, or field or some trails I quickly put together a cross course in my mind.  I now want to use mountain bike racing as training for next cross season.  I want to go race in the freezing cold and sloppy mud, and barely be able to finish then lie to everyone and tell them I had fun doing it.

I ended up third overall in the Elite 'A' division for SoCal prestiges' cross series.  Overalls are scored on your best 9 races out of 17, and I barely squeaked in with 9 races total!  Couldn't be more happy about my result considering its next to cross master Brent Prenzlow (2nd) and Hammerhead Brandon Gritters (1st)  I had a lot of fun racing with everyone this season, and a big thanks to Dorothy and everyone that helped organize the series.  Most importantly thanks to Ellen for having the patience with me and allowing me to go race as mush as I did.  I couldn't have completed half the races if it wasn't for Gordon and Laurel's support over at Velo Hangar, the coolest most original shop ever!  And my coach Trevor Glavin of skinfit for allowing me to find the ability to ride at this level, heres to continual success!  Bryan Hill at Rehab United for helping me walk...and struggle to walk.  John Bailey for being an awesome guy, I did my first 4 races or so on his old bike from two years ago, thanks again for helping to give me the cross bug!

Time to start getting in more hours on the mountain bike and prepare for my ass kicking this next season, its gonna be interesting, so much more to still learn!

Photo Dump from the season...

Santa Cross

Game face at Santa Cross

Its pretty tough to get motivated to drive up and into the beast that is LA traffic, its a total crap shoot and you just never know what you are going to get.  There were two races this past weekend, both at Griffith park in north west LA.  Not knowing much about LA I was prepared to bring a gun for security purposes, another park in LA riding around in spandex, seriously?  Turns out though that Griffith park is very beautiful and in a pretty cool setting.  It was definitely a surprise and way nicer than I imagined, I even got to see the Hollywood sign for the first time.

Chasing the beard

The course for Saturday was pretty fun, albeit a little short.  It had a decently long climb right after the start/finish then went into the woods a couple times for some fun and fast, slightly technical riding.  I had plenty of time to warm-up and cheer on some other racers.  After getting warmed up, I heard last call to staging so I headed over to the start, figuring that would probably be a good idea.  I got there and everyone had already taken the entire front row, all 10 lanes.  I was a little perplexed not knowing if they had already done call-ups or not, as most of the people on the front probably didn't belong there.  The race official finally made his way down got everyone that earned a call-up up there, and I ended taking a second row spot right behind B. Gritters.

I had a pretty decent start and was sitting fourth at the top of the climb, with Gritters in the lead.  By the time we got to the twisty technical section he was starting to gap off the two riders in front of me, I knew I needed to get around them.  They weren't budging to my request through the turns, so I had to wait until we got to the sandpit and run by them to make my pass.  I was now about 5 seconds back from the leader and worked hard the rest of the lap to bridge up to him.

By the second or so lap Brandon and I had a little gap on third place Eric Bostrom.  We pretty much worked together the next 8 laps to try to get as big of a gap as possible, which is always good in case you need to pit or have a mechanical.  On about the 8th lap I had a little problem getting into my pedals after a muddy run-up after the barriers.  I had been clipping in immediately after the barriers but for some reason I decided I wanted to run to the top of the hill on this lap, which caused my cleats to clog up.  It gave Brandon a small 3 second or so gap, and he drilled it up the climb, as did I trying to get back on his wheel.  I managed to catch him before the end of the 9th lap but didnt get much recovery before climbing the hill again after the start/finish.  Gritters put down a solid attack at the start of the climb on the 10th lap and managed to put a good 5 or more seconds on me.

He maintained his lead and went on to win and I hung onto second about 8 seconds behind Gritters.  Jason Siegle managed to catch Eric Bostrom for third, and Gareth Fieldstein rode strong for top 5.  It was a fun day of racing to celebrate my 31st birthday.

Good times!

The race on Sunday was the toughest field that I have probably raced against this entire year (not including the UCI races)  The line up consisted of Brandon and Kyle Gritters, Eric and Ben Bostrom, Chris Jackson, Jason Siegle, Garteh Feldstein, and local cross guru Brent Prenzlow.  Having tired legs, and not much sleep from the day before I figured finishing in front of any of those guys would be good.

The course had been modified from the day before, adding in some more fun twisty climby sections, which was great, anything to not have to do 12 laps again!  I had a super crappy start when the whistle blew and was sitting back in 8th or so at the top of the climb.  I managed to get around a few people by the end of the first lap, but was still in 5th or 6th.  I could see the race starting to unfold in front of me and was frustrated by the traffic I was in and my current positioning.  I put my head down and gained another spot or two up into fourth.  By this time Chris Jackson and B. Gritters had already opened a gap on the rest of the field.

Getting chased by Prenzlow

About ten minutes into the race it started raining pretty good making for some super fun cross conditions.  I rode in fourth place behind Ben Bostrom for pretty much the entire race.  I took a good chunk of time out between us with two to go, but he managed to ride the last lap super strong and finish with a solid third place.

Always a lot of shit talking and fun on the podium!

The course was a blast especially with the rain.  I was able to put down the fastest lap time of the day, which bummed me out about my start as I know I could have been up there with the leaders.  Still pretty happy with fourth in that field, especially with tired legs.  It was nice to have Ellen and Jacki out there cheering me on too, in the rain and all!  There was also a mini "Santa Series" for the two days of racing which I managed to take second overall behind Brandon, and in front of Gareth, was glad I came up for the second day!

There are only a few more races left in the CX season (just as I start to get it down and my bikes dialed!) so I guess its time to start thinking about racing mountain bikes again, and maybe a few road races this year.