Cyclocrash

Headed up to Frisco to race Day 1 of the two day Frisco-X races. My races with the Cat 4s aren't until around 2:40 or 2:45 all season so normally I get to sleep in a bit, eat breakfast while watching GameDay, get some things done and then head to the race. However, I rode up with Adam and Yvonne and their 2.5 y/o Lenora Grace, and since Adam races earlier, we were out the door at 8.

The weather in the mountains was pretty much perfect all day long as it warmed up to about 50*. Maybe a little higher. Only a little wind and some clouds that were off and on. All in all, a great day to be in the mountains, a great day to race, and one more thing that's just great about living in Colorado in general.

Adam raced in the SM35+ Cat 4s and did really well finishing around 11th or 12th. While we hung out for the few hours in between his race and mine, we watched the Open Men race which included some guys that simply stated, are ridiculously good. Jake Wells, who finished 12th at CrossVegas, took 1st and did it without looking like he ever got tired.

I pre-rode the course a few times and realized that the tubeless wheelset I was running wasn't going to work so I switched it up and put tubes in and was ready to roll. It was a good course with an uphill right out of the start that was followed up by a winding descent with some tight turns, all of it being over woodchips. A few more tight turns led to a straight section that spit you at a technical downhill into a righthander and then a hairpin lefthander. The next tough part was a tight left hand turn on gravel that was pretty dug out and made things tricky. Then it was over some barriers, up and around the frontside, over some more barriers and a place to actually breathe before heading back up the hill. All in all, I thought this would be a good course for me. All in all, it probably would be if I had my cycling fitness from two months ago!

There were around 60 people starting and I got stuck near mid-back; not where I wanted to be. Nothing really changed going uphill and the first lap was pretty tight, but without incident. Feeling like you can't breathe deeply enough isn't enough of an incident to mention while racing since that's how everyone felt. Since most of the laps blurred together, here's what happened at some point. First, coming into the gravel-rutted lefthander, there was another rider that didn't make it through clean and when I came in carrying speed, I slammed my brakes, hit the rut and went straight over the handlebars. No biggie - get up and race. I was more pissed that two guys got past me than anything. On the next lap coming down the technical descent into the right hand turn, my wheels slid out and I landed on my side. Two laps later who knows what happened but my bike ended up being caught by a pine tree and I was on the ground about five feet in front of it. Again, two more riders got by me. Aside from that, I was lacking the leg strength needed to ride like I felt I should have. I was running the barriers well and re-mounting the bike well. That was probably the highlight since I was able to pass some guys there. The laps came and went and at the finish I think I was somewhere around 40 out of 60. Not my best day but it was still fun to be out there.

I think I'll round out the weekend with a good mountain bike ride tomorrow, and then hitting the trainer pretty hard during the week so I can start to get some of that cycling strength and fitness back!