This weekend's cyclo-cross competition brought us to Veterans Park in Ann Arbor. This weekend featured Michigan's second doubleheader of the season, on a very physically demanding course. The course featured a nice sized hill that was incorporated into each lap several times, that really took its toll on its participants as the race wore on.
Saturday was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the mid 50's, very nice cyclo-cross weather. The days winner, Joe Brown took off like a shot right from the start. I eased into the pace getting to the first hill in 5th, but I noticed Joe was still putting the hammer down.... so I had get busy in my chase mode. Well my chase mode wasn't closing on him.... Joe just kept putting more and more time into me, but the good news was my chase was leaving the rest of the racers behind. After finishing the second lap I knew I wasn't going to catch him, so I just rode hard enough to protect my 2nd place. I ended up finishing a very satisfying 2nd, with enough time in hand that I could back off my pace with 1 1/2 laps remaining. I knew I would need to save something for Sunday's race, as I knew it would be a much harder day.
Sunday was a different day for sure. This day was going to be nothing like Saturday, it was cloudy, chilly, the course ran backwards from the day before, an additional lap was added.... and all the big guns were here. Oh boy! The race took off like a speeding bullet, and I decided wisely to follow the fastest wheels.... and I did for a while. We had a nice group of six for the first lap, the farthest distance into a race this year a group this size stayed together. Keith Riege was setting a pretty brutal pace up front, but it was doable initially... but as the race wore on, it was just too fast for me. By the middle of the second lap I was riding behind David Linden, we were 5th and 6th. As we approached the biggest climb on the course, I was pretty confident I could hurt him on the climb and ride away. I was right, and from that point on I rode away from him and the remainder of the chasers. For the rest of the race, I was once again riding to protect my placing. I was losing a little time to the four in front of me, while gaining time on those racing behind. In the end Andy Klumb from Ohio won our race (he raced Pro/Elite the day before), and I rode in with a very solid 5th place.
All in all, it was a good weekend. My fitness is pretty good right now, but it's far from peak. It's such a long season that starts in April and ends in December, and with Leadville in August being my main objective.... I'm pretty much riding on that fitness. Now with the days shorter and colder, it'll be hard to improve on my conditioning.... but if I can maintain this fitness for the rest of the season and maybe if everyone is at their peak form... I might be able to pull off some better results as the season continues on. We'll see, a big if for sure. Two more races (one is the State Championships) left in Michigan for the point series, and then the National Championships in Kansas City on December 14th. So basically 6 weeks left in this long race season, then it's some much desired couch time for a few weeks before I start preparing for 2008.
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