October Wrap Up

The last couple weeks have been a blur off the bike. Work has been keeping me on my toes and i've not had great training or racing. Somehow that is how it goes. So here is a  quick update prior to running off to the kick off of the Series 60 CX races - the 360 cup and Blvd cup. 

Looking two weeks back: Shawnee Rescue Radcross - With the last minute cancellation of the Smithville and Leavenworth races, there were two big holes in the local calender that were snapped up by Mark Thomas & the Localcycling crew. The City of Shawnee deserves credit here as well for really stepping up and allowing for this race on short notice. The local KCCX crew was out in near-full strength meaning this was going to be a battle. The course was pretty tight and twisty as the park has a smallish footprint, so we ended up doing no fewer than 12 laps. I traded the lead with Joe Schmalz for the first half of the race after he slid out going into the barriers early on. Then had to hold off a hard charging Shadd on the second half as he was closing 3-5 seconds every lap. Made for a very hard day.

Boss Cross 3 was on a pretty neat new course at the Raytown BMX park. The first half of the course was super tight with not much room to pass including a fun section on the actual BMX course, and the second half was wide open. Topping that off it was super windy with gusts over 30mph, apparently. This made the course tape a bit of a hazard as well. At the start there were about 9 of us crammed into space for about 6 or 7, and I got the worst start of the year, going back to about 10th before we got to the open section of the course. So it was game over for me as Shadd and Joe had already gone up by 5-10 seconds and in the wind I had nothing. I raced with Colton and Adam but quickly realized if I wanted to be on the podium I'd have to go on my own. So I went into no man's land and fought alone. I brought Shadd back to under 10 seconds but couldn't close it any more, then Colton started to come after me and was closing quickly. He yardsaled on the last lap allowing me to sit up a bit and just cruise in. 

So it's November. About 2 months have passed of the season, and another 2 to go prior to nationals. I'm fairly happy with my fitness and have definitely learned a lot about racing at the front and skills I need to work on between now and then. 

I've been pleased with the equipment this year. My Crux has been great. The Boyd wheels have exceeded expectations, and the specialized tires have worked out pretty good so far too. I finally got a hold of some Challenge Limus tires too, so hopefully we will get some slop in the coming month to really test those out.