Hermann CX

The crowd was loud and awesome. Photo courtesy of Dan Singer Photography http://www.flickr.com/photos/52149095@N00

Somehow it is already last September, I've only got one wheelset glued up, and I've already been to 3 CX races. Crazy! I'd better get caught up.

As race fans may recall, last year at this time I was still drying out from the Hermann race & camping experience I won't forget any time soon. This year, I decided not to learn from the past and planned another camping trip, this time accompanied by Janelle and new teammate Travis Donn. (I'm wearing some new colors this fall)

We got into town early Saturday afternoon and set up camp right by the creek. The forecast called for 20-40% chance of rain for the weekend, but nothing crazy. The course was actually a little muddy, but hooked up really well. Many of the masters racers ran file treads and said they were a good choice.

The Ethos crew for the Elite race included Travis, JP, Cam and I and besides battling for our own places, there was also a team competition over the two days that we were hoping to compete for. It was going to be a battle, taking the top 2 riders from each day and adding their omnium points from both days. There were several teams in the mix, but we knew the Big Shark duo of Josh Johnson and Jon Schottler were the guys to beat.

By being the current Kansas CX Champion, I got a first row call up with Travis, Cam and JP in the 2nd and 3rd rows. My plan was to try and get a good start and get into the front group, but not push the pace, hoping that the others could move into good positions on the opening laps.

I took the holeshot, then a Rokkit guy took over. After the first lap I was sitting pretty good in the group and was feeling fairly good. I was having a little trouble on the second half of the course that was very twisty, but felt like things were going pretty well. On lap two, things went a little sideways as I somehow took a poor line through the sand and ended up rolling around in it for a little while, losing probably 4-6 spots in the process. I then had to play the chasing game to get back to terms with the race. After finally getting close to the lead group of 5, Schottler launched a huge attack out of the group and was gone. A few guys tried to go with him, and the back two guys got popped off the back. I had to wait to get around them and the damage was done. Josh came up to me right about then and just kept going, I'm not sure what happened there. He ended up riding into 2nd only to have a flat a long way out from the pits and having to ride it back in. The course was very fun but was also challenging with a long stair section, two sand pits, mini stairs, then barriers that were spaced really far apart, so lots of running. Then after those sections lots of turns before the S/F line.

Hermann CX Course

In the end I was 4th, Travis was 9th, and JP finished up 16th. Not quite what we were hoping for as far as results, but the rumor was that Schottler was not coming back for the sunday race, so we were still in the hunt for the team title.

Sleep didn't come easily as our camping neighbors were having serious family drama discussion late into the night, then our other neighbors came back loud and a bit tipsy sounding. It also rained lightly throughout the night, but didn't storm in the midwest way.

Sunday morning the course was a little more sloppy then the night before. No changes to the course, but the sand had firmed up a bit from the rain, and some of the corners were just a touch slick. We hung out, had breakfast, rolled around and finally got geared up to race.

Surprise, Schottler came back to race again. Too much money on the line to skip the race. I got another good start, and so did Travis. After the first lap, there was again a lead group of 5. I went to the front and put in some little digs to try and dislodge people. I was definitely trying to be aggressive and go for the win, but I also saw that Travis was hanging just behind our group, so I tried to manage our pace a bit to let him back in.

About half way through, I noticed my legs were not right. I was started to feel twinges - Usually this means cramps, but I don't usually have issues with cramps in cross. So I just kept things rolling, then Devin Clark attacked. I tried to follow, but I soon realized that was not happening. Shortly after that Schottler came around as well as an Illinois guy who had raced really well Sat too. I tried to go with them too and started to cramp fully. So I had to shut down and go into management mode for the last 3 laps. Travis caught up to me and was going to roll along with me, but I was going so badly that I told him to go ahead. We ended up 5th and 6th, with Cam also having a good race and getting 9th.

The weekend was a great way to start the season. Really looking forward to racing with the Ethos crew the rest of the season, should be a blast. I definitely have some things to work out for the rest of the year, but I think my fitness and handling are better than where I was last year at this time.