Frisco CX #2
11th SM3: Brad Sims
14th SM4: Dave Vogel
27th SM3: JD Whitney
Frisco CX #1
7th 45+ Open: Tim James
16th SM4: Jon Maule
Jon Maule’s Day 1 report: I raced with the 4′s on Saturday. It was a blue sky and bone dry day with a decent breeze. I didn’t get to see Tim race but his girlfriend was there! I did get two scout laps in and I thought this was going to be a good course for me if I could keep my HR in control at elevation. I ran a griffo up front @ 30# and a file tread @ 34# and that was great as long as I didn’t second guess my line and 42 w/ 11-28.
I’m not sure if they mixed up the course between Saturday and Sunday but Saturday started off with a longer climb (about a minute?) before taking a sharp left onto a double-track descent of loose dirt and bark before leveling out into a chicane more loose dirt (and bark). Lots of dry loose dirt and bark. There were some nice tight turns to keep the speed down and a sand/gravel area around the baseball field that really sucked the speed out of my laps and required enough power to keep the HR up higher than I wanted. This was followed up shortly thereafter by a nice loose and bumpy downhill that required a hard right just after bottoming out. followed by a nice loose run up (although I did see some from the men’s open field ride it???) and then back through to the finish. I guess I’d say this was more of a “power” course that favored people who were confident making high speed turns in loose stuff. I tried to pin it without killing myself at the start and was somewhere in the top 10-15 at the beginning of the descent. I was thinking I’d give it a reasonable effort to hold my spot, recover and try to kill it the last two laps. Unfortunately the leaders were too far up and I really just ended up putting more time into the people behind me. I ended up 16th of 36.
Brad Sims Day 2 report: JD and I raced the 3′s group in the late afternoon on Sunday. We arrived there plenty early and got a solid warm-up in together, it was great having a teammate to do laps with and discuss the course. It was a perfect course for me, started with a long uphill stretch and included lots of power sections. JD and I had a back row start out of about 35 guys since they did the call-up based on the previous days results. Not wanting to be behind all the ruckus for the decent I flogged it up the right side and hit the top about 10th wheel. Just as we started to work through a twisty bark/stick covered section I heard a huge crunch and watched a stick explode in front wheel taking out a spoke at the same time. The wheel didn’t look too out of true so I kept hammering. I continued working my way up and I was feeling better than I ever have in a cross race but that front wheel was getting worse. As I went through the pits on the first lap I yelled at Dave that I needed a front wheel. During the first half of the second lap I had worked up to 4th and was quickly moving in on the leaders. I rolled into the pit and Dave was there ready with the wheel. I totally should have just let Dave do the change but I tried to help but my zone 5 panicked brain just got in the way and made it take longer. One at a time riders were going by and then a huge group of 8-10 riders went by just before I headed back out. After a few barriers there was a nice long sand pit where I took back most of that group. My Ox mass hanging way back over that rear wheel with a good application of power was a huge advantage in the sand. Still feeling good but a bit panicked I went really hard and worked my way back up to with in sight of the leaders. Then I tried to pass the 5th place guy in a tight uphill left hand turn and I pulled off my rear tire, turd sandwich. Luckily the pit was really close so I ran down to it and once again Dave was there to help and I was there to get in the way. All my work just did evaporated as all those guys came by again. I jumped back on and went back to work. Amazingly my legs were still feeling good and I was powered by some frustration anger. I started passes the same guys for the 3rd time and worked my way back to 11th.
