This past weekend I had a break off from collegiate MTB so I headed over to Fort Collins Friday afternoon for two cross races. Saturday was at Xilinx, and Sunday was in Fort Collins. I was looking forward to get my cross fix in for the week.
I arrived to Saturdays course pretty early because I had some friends racing in the fours and threes. So i got to see the course and the lines people took before I raced. My race started very good, very fast. I was fifth going into the first corner and feeling really good. It was a long course so I knew that we would not be doing a lot of laps so I had to stay up front. Then on lap two my chain feel off during a barrier section. That cost me some time and a lot of places. I started getting into a good rhythm after that, but once i got rolling my chain feel off again, and lost some more time and more places. Just had some bad luck. Ended up 27th, not very happy with my result so I was ready for Sundays race to redeem myself.
Sunday was another long day. got there early once again to cheer on some of my friends. The course looked very fast and very bumpy. So our race started fast once again. I tried not blowing myself up too bad in the start so I was about mid pack into the first corner. Then a couple of more turns my chain fell off again.
I got passed by the whole field and lost some time. The next time through the pit I changed bikes. I didn't want my chain to fall off again so that's why I changed bikes. Then one of my friends said he fixed the chain guard and my bike was ready to go.So the next time through the pit I changed back to my normal bike. Loosing a lot of time from changing bikes and fixing my chain I had a lot of chasing to do to get back to the front. Then again my chain feel off. I fixed it but decided not to change bikes and hope for the best that the chain would not fall off again. I was so far back at this time that I was mentally not there for a few laps. Then I got rolling again once I started picking off people. On the last lap I caught 3rd-6th place and gave it my all to pass all of them. It was a slug fest until the finish. I kept passing 3rd place then someone would pass me. Then on the last barriers before the finished i surged into 3rd place and sprinted as hard as i could. I ended up 3rd on the day, not bad at all considering what happened. I gave it my all and threw up once i crossed the finish line. Now that's going all out. That is my best result so far in the pro field and I am hoping to improve on that. The moral of the story is never give up until the finish line.
I am in school for a couple more days then i am off to collegiate MTB nationals in North Carolina. Then once that is over I will be sole focused on Cross and can't wait until the Boulder Cup.
Photos by Mat Peters
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