WCA Cyclocross #2 & 3
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(pictures courtesy of Madcross & Niki Frazier)
Saturday started the racing action at the Badger Prairie CX . College unfortunately reported in sick so I was off to the races by myself. Luckily I had my friends from the Wildside Velo Club in attendance along with new CFF client, Grant Stevens. Started the day cheering for friends in the Cat 4 race. Grant finish 7th out of close to 60 competitors; great considering he has only raced CX a few times! I toed the line in the Cat 1/2 since the money looked better than the 40 Cat 1/2/3, Well, 21 others were also motivated by the cash payout. I started in the back knowing that my being 41, and racing against the best of the young guys, might necessitate a slow start. The strategy worked well since I was able to pass one rider at a time, two at once when Jordan Roessingh and Chad Hartley crashed together. I think that my best position was 8th (payout was to 7th) but Chad came back along with Dave Peters to put me back to 10th for the day. It was fun racing against this younger group.
Sunday's race was at my favorite CX course, Cam Rock. This time I wanted back in with the 40 1/2/3 race because it seemed that my lessons learned the prior day would help me race to the front. Started about 4th (out of 20) keeping an eye on the 3 in front. We raced around the fast course with small gaps forming but always closing back up by the efforts of Greg Ferguson & Paul Roltgen. Shawn Meinke kept the pace high to stay up front each lap. Along comes Bob Downs from the 50+ race to join our group while Paul fell off. The great thing about Bob coming up was that he wanted to motor right through our group to the front, a perfect wheel for me to grab. So Bob and I put on a few hard laps producing a decent gap from my competition. Bob has so much power (amazing for 50+) making him a great rabbit. He did hit the ground hard twice but each time had him pop up and pass me back about 1/2 lap later. Anyhow, our stop and go during these crashes allowed Greg to almost bridge back up. The last 1/2 lap was a full gas/cross eyed effort to stick with the charging Bob Downs. I gladly let him cross the line ahead of me since he was in a different group (and did most of the work), and sealed my first CX victory of 2009!
Nice job Jeff. Good to watch you take the win.
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Great riding, Jeff.
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