Big Valley Day 1: CX Race

First and foremost, thanks to 331 racing for putting on another awesome year at Manitoc, and thanks to Team Lake Effect and all of our gracious volunteers for putting on a well-ran cross race.

After much anticipation, cross season was upon us. I had spent a day earlier in the week laying out the course, so I knew what to expect: some twisty, rooted singletrack, and some nice wide open grass. A U-Turn sand pit mixed stuff up a little bit. It was a tough course: if you let your guard down for a second you'd pinch flat, or do as I did, wipe out on gravel.



I lined up next to Team Jamis mountain biker Blake Harlan whose bags were lost in transit and was rocking some stylish baggies and a polo.

The gun went off, Blake got the holeshot, and I was right on his wheel. We twisted and turned a little until we got to the first bit of singletrack. It was then and there that Steve Twining made his move, and that was pretty much the last I saw of him all day.

Steve was in the lead, Blake second, and me third. The rooted section was very adventageous for a mountain bike, so I hoped that I could keep them in sight, then make up some time on the grass sections. Matt Weeks was bridging up to me, and when he got there, it was time to do some work together.

That would have been fine and well, until he pinch flatted at the very top of the singletrack section. Time to go it alone. I proceeded to bury myself to catch Blake, and during lap 3, I was able to. Sweeet.



What wasn't sweet was about 10 seconds after passing him, I got a grape vine type twig wrapped up in my cassette, and had to stop to take it out. All that hard work for nothing :-(

I then continued to try to play catch up, burying myself to catch Blake again, and keep Cameron Jackson, who was behind me at a comfortable gap. The laps pretty much went the same. Try to lose as little time as possible in the single track, and then make it up on the grass. Twining was kicking ass, so was Blake, so I figured I'd hold on for third.

Must have been my lucky day, as Blake cracked in probably the most huge way that anyone has ever cracked. I felt bad for him when we caught up after the race. He said he was hurting. So there you have it. I was able to pass him with maybe 2 to go, and opened up a more comfortable gap on Cameron. Aside from eating shit super hard in the gravel, the rest of the race went off without a hitch.

Twining rolled through in first, me in second, Cameron third, Weeks fourth (after being in dead last because of his flat).

Good job to everyone who raced, Lake Effect had a strong showing, with 4 guys in the top 10 of the A's, Julie kicking butt in the women's B's and A's, and a good chunk of B racers killing it.