Deadgoat Blow Street Super Cross

Goal for the race: Finish in the top half

Today’s race looked like it was going to be a good time: High of +15C, most of the snow gone and an awesome looking course.

I got to the site to help setup a little later the everyone else due to the fact I arrived home at 10pm the night before...by the time I arrived most of the course had already been done.

After setup finished, I got changed, did a couple warm-up laps and lined up for the race. The field was another great turnout, 33 in all. The race started with a long pavement straight away which put us into a single file peloton right away. The next part was pretty twisty so the straight was a battle for position going into the technical section. The first tight section we already had a couple crashes as we were all going pretty fast on some pretty sketchy terrain. My goal for the race was to try and stick to my teammates, Ken’s, wheel. Being that he is a stronger rider then I am, he could help me push a higher pace that I normally would have. Going into second lap , I still had him in my sights but was falling back a few position. I was on the wheel of a rider who was riding kinda sketchy so at the next straight I decided to go for a pass so I could get him before the upcoming left hand turn…all of a sudden…he makes a sharp right turn right into my front wheel which needless to say, takes me out, hard.


As I recovered from the crash about 4-5 riders that I was leading passed me. Determined I got back on my bikes and went out to try and get my position back. It took me about 2 laps but I was able to catch up to the rider that took me out and gap him on the straight away. As I passed him going into 4rd lap the rider apologized for taking me out…and although it’s part of racing and stuff happens, it was really a classy thing to do, so I told him thanks and that it was no problem. I had lost Ken’s wheel but I managed to battle back for my position. Later on in the lap I took a turn too hot in the mud, slipped out and crashed again. I picked up my bike and kept riding but noticed my handle bar was bent and my brake levers were caked in mud…but I was going to have to deal with this…there’s no time to stop in ‘cross and who needs brakes anyways?


As the race went on I found myself riding with my teammate Craig for the most part. Craig is an awesome mountain biker and this was his first ‘cross race so it was great that we were able to stay together. We both worked hard and bridged up to a group of riders who had smoked me at the Oval ‘cross race so I wanted to try and stay with them for a bit. Every time I would pass by Tim, he would yell “Attack Kyle!” and as I tried to attack, the group of guys in front would just hammer to try and gap me.

On the last lap I finally managed to pass a couple riders and then I was suddenly right behind my nemesis. My nemesis for the race was the rider who beat me in the Oval race by deciding to ride through the sand on his last lap and beating me by a few seconds to the finish. On the last stretch I was constantly trying to cut the hairpins sharp to try and beat him but he kept blocking me at every attempt. He got away from me in the last 100 meters but I kept going hard anyways. As I eyed the finish line, another rider was right behind me…I sprinted hard for the finish line and just managed to beat him…by 3 inches.

Result: 16/33

What a finish, just barely achieved my goal. That was one of the closest finishes I’ve had and probably one of the most exciting. After we crossed the finish line, there were handshakes all around…it was an awesome battle at the end. Although I took a couple bails, the race was still stupid amounts of fun. I only finished about a minute back from Ken so I felt pretty good about that. A teammate came up and said he was really impressed that even after my crashes; I got up and battled for my position…so that put me in a really good mood.