Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Joules CX



2nd has been my place of choice this year I guess.I'm still sporting some nifty blisters from Joules Cross. The courses were similar to last year: bumpy and windy with a little climbing thrown in. Winds were out of the south Sat and north Sun, meaning the longish S/F section was into a headwind both days.
Day 1

Both days featured smallish but fast fields in the 1/2/3 race. Saturday I ended up chasing Tilford and catching on about half way through. He sat up and let me pull the next few laps while Jenson chased. I wasn't sure what to do at that point and tried a few little moves and tried to save some energy for Steve's inevitable attack. On the last lap we got a little crossed up as he was bunny hopping the barriers and I was running them. This really didn't make a difference in the outcome of the race. Right after the barriers was the technical section of the course, which Steve was riding much better than I was. He got a quick gap here and I had nothing.

Day 2
On Sunday Joe Schmalz came out to play. I think that Steve convinced him to come out and lower everyone's USAC points. Anyway, it was another fast affair. Jenson lead the first lap and was riding very well. Joe then went to the front and dropped Brian, then Steve drilled it and I was popped. I chased but was consistently losing time, so I settled in and rode my own pace until  Joe started coming back. He paced me around for a lap before letting me go solo again.