Hop N’ Hurl

Today the race was same ‘cross time, same ‘cross place…only backwards with a few modifications.

I was feeling pretty confident going into the race with my results from the previous day. I had a good idea of whose wheel I should try grab and stay on. Most of the guys that had raced the day before were back again for more pain and suffering.

After doing a few warm-up laps and chatting with a bunch of people I got to the proper start line this time but was once again a little too late. I seeded myself in the middle of the pack and then all the guys told me to move myself up to the front, which felt really awesome. After joking around a little bit as staging had started a little early the commissaire announced that there would be call-ups for the top 5 riders based on the previous day’s results. Sweet…I got my first call-up!

The race started and Mark Jung went out for the hole shot on the road part. Right away I grabbed onto his wheel and decided I would sit on him for the first laps as he did really well the previous day and together we might be able to gap the field. Finishing up the lap I was going into the right nad turn on the road when my back tire slid out on a bit of gravel. I was just barely able to keep the bike upright but had to remind myself to corner a little wider and slower due to the gravel on subsequent laps.

After a lap it looked like we had a good group of 5 and developing a good gap on the rest of the field. Second lap in Brian Loewen went on the attack. Mark and I decided to let him go as it was still early in the race. Then Chris Hubrick and a Pedalhead rider went on the attack.

2 laps to go I pulled ahead of Mark and was trying as hard as I could to gap him but he stayed on my wheel and would never let me get to far ahead. During the last lap, Mark attacked and flew off his bike into the sand pit. I was behind a lapped rider so I wasn’t able to respond. I pushed hard to try and catch up to Mark but wasn’t able to get the lead. Halfway through the last lap we had Chris in our sights and we were trying to catch him but it seemed neither of us could close the gap.

Mark sprinted out onto the final straight and I tried to out sprint him on the road but slowed down through the sharp turn on the road as I didn’t want to slide out and crash.

Result: 5th

Today’s race was really good. Our group of the top 6 riders had a wicked battle the entire race with lots of position changes and plenty of attacks and counter-attacks. It felt awesome to have another clean race and finish up in the lead group again.

Photo Credits: Mark Kay