Cross Report from AZ not CO

Well I got tired of reading all those race reports from my teammates up there in CO so I decided to dust of my Voodoo cross bike and hit the barriers at warp speed. Well at least as fast as I could anyway. So a couple of weeks ago I thought that I would warm up with a local race here in Flagstaff to get my cross legs back underneeth me. I had done plenty of training to get there but no real speed through the barriers stuff if you know what I mean. For me the biggest problem I have with cross races is the start. For the last couple of years now I have been racing a ton of road races so the starts are less than easy. But this start was a shock to the system. I was completely on the rivit within 30 seconds. I couldnt even see due to the tears of pain in my eyes. So once the first lap was over I found my self off the front with two guys on the same team. So I figured that this was going to be a long hour getting one two-ed by the teamates. So I just countered the first attack thinking that I would do some sort of pre-emptive strike on the old one two. Well it worked and I singled one of them out. So we began to put some time into the now number 3 guy on the road. Which was fine with me. Then with about 3 laps to go I said hey lets go for it. So I put a huge attack in dropping the guy that I was with. So from then on just nice and steady. I was putting some good time into him. Then on the last lap the dreaded sound of air leaving my tire came to my ears. Why, Why me??? So needless to say I was as far as I could get from the pit so I had to walk/run/ride the smooth stuff back to the pit/finish line for a misarable 6th place. So from winning to 6th all in a space of 5 minutes. So not what I wanted for the first time out, but hey the legs were good.

So on to this last weekend. Saturdays race was on a really tight techincal course with lots of turns and off camber hillsides. So John from Voodoo had hooked me up with a great new carbon fork that made the ride that much easier. Long story short is that I went off the front with the same two guys as the last race but this time they played it a bunch smarter. They were attacking before the tech sections putting gaps on me that I had to close when we got out in the straight sections. Well this worked for a while then I got wise and started to jump them before the tech sections makeing them case. Well at somepoint one of the guys came off trying to get his teamate up to me which he made it to me. From there on it was great tatical battle of who was stronger in certian sections. He was hopping a single barrier which was making life hard on me but further down the course was a tripple section that I had wired so I would get it all back. So it came down to a sprint which I took by a small margin. There are some good photos and videos on the site if you guys want to watch them. www.azcyclocross.com

So on to the State Championships. Same course as the one that I had flatted on the two weeks before. So a little more air in the tires and off we go. The race was again fast at the start. There were some new players in the game so I wasnt sure who to watch in the start. I just figured it was best to go with the first attack and follow and see who was there after the first lap. Well some guy from PHX decided he was going to try and win it from the gun. uggg it hurt. But I managed to stay on his wheel. Then on the next lap I seemed to sense him falter on a section so I just let him have it. Well I guess that did it because he was no wear to be seen after a minute or so of going really into the red. From there I just rode and nice steady hard pace for the rest of the race. Eventually winning by a good gap. Even after a few mistakes in some of the corners. Its amazing how tire pressure can really affect handleing.

So I would really like to thank my sponsors this year for helping me to win my 3rd State Cyclocross Championship. Voodoo for what I think is the best frame and for setup out there, Drunkcyclist for the fame and dropping my name to the world. Nokian for some sweet tires that hooked up like no bodys business. Sram for the all the chains and cassetts. Avid brakes for slowing me down when I got scared. hahahahaha So thanks to all those who help me in some way.

So see you on the road

snake