2 November 2011 | Race Reports
Mid-Season CX Update and Boulder CX Race Report
After the USGP races in Fort Collins, I took a much-needed break. I didn’t ride my bike for a week- a sort of last-ditch effort to give my body a chance to recoup from the hectic start to the ‘cross season. Of course my first few rides after that I felt pretty crappy, but that’s to be expected.
The fall weather has been pretty fantastic, and Dusty and I headed up to Steamboat Springs to do a little mountain bike riding before the snow hit. We were both really impressed with the trails around Steamboat- some of the best singletrack I’ve ridden in awhile. We were lucky enough to have a local show us the trails (thanks Kelly!) which meant we could just enjoy the ride and not worry about getting lost (always a bonus). Turns out we timed our trip perfectly, as the first big snow of the season hit a few days after we got home. Then it was back to ‘cross racing.
Boulder Cyclocross. The first day of racing was at the Boulder reservoir which is usually a dry, gravelly, sandy course. However, the big snowfall made for a mixture of mud pits and fast, packed sand. I had a slow start but moved up pretty quickly to join Nicole and Caroline who were in 3rd and 2nd behind Katie who was already gone. I chose to ride the 2 railroad ties which wasn’t really any faster, but I rarely get the chance to earn style points, so that was pretty fun! The course was tough because there was nowhere to rest, it was pretty flat so you could pretty much be pedaling the whole time. After going back and forth with Caroline for a couple laps, I lost her wheel, rode around by myself for the last few laps and eventually finished 3rd. I wasn’t having a BAD day, but I wasn’t having a great day either- I just felt kind of average.
Having fun on a bermed downhill
Sunday’s race was held at the new Valmont Bike Park in Boulder. I was really impressed with the venue, and the course was awesome. There was a little bit of everything: some sand, some mud, some hills, some stairs, some pavement. I had a spectacularly bad start, but was able to make my way up through the field by the end of the first lap. I was feeling pretty decent, but I was riding much better technically than I had the day before. And I was killing it on the stairs! By the end of the first lap, I was riding in 3rd behind Katie and Caroline. Katie was about 15 seconds ahead, and by the time I caught Caroline I needed a little time to recover. She was riding strong, so I sat in and tried to figure out where I was faster. On the second-to-last lap, Caroline bobbled in the thick mud, and I was able to ride it cleanly and get a gap. I stretched it out by a few more seconds on the last lap and crossed the line in 2nd place behind Katie. Not too shabby.
Now it’s snowing again, and I am getting ready to head out to Ohio for some more racing this weekend.