2 Weekends, 1 Post

Although I write about the last two weekends together, that is all they share in common. I mean results were polar opposite, I felt completely different, and that was all because my preparation was completely different.

Wizard Cross was held at a local park in the Madison area. The course was brutal. There was a lot of tough climbing and nowhere to hide. I could sum up the course in the following sentence. Go fast, go fast up hill, go fast downhill, repeat until you puke. I think everyone agreed that it was a spirit breaker with so much climbing. However, I certainly disagree with those who didn’t like it. It was a challenging course. And I don’t really care why it’s challenging, I just like challenging courses. But this isn’t really relevant because I was really hung over. I don’t generally like to admit that I drink once in a while, I know I shouldn’t, but I’m in college, it happens. On the flip side I had a lot of fun the night before, but the race was a suffer fest from the gun to the line. But I did take some satisfaction in that I didn’t get lapped. Ended up 9^th in a tough field, which all things considered was pretty good. And I didn’t puke, so that’s good too.

But then the polar opposite happened this past weekend at the Midwest regional race here in Madison. I took it easy Friday night. Had a few beers with the boys and hit the sack early. Woke up and spent the morning watching CX, and preparing for the race. Got there and got ready. I never even thought about how the legs were doing. And on days like that you know they’ll be there for you when you drop the hammer. Suffered pretty hard on laps 1 and 2 but kept within myself and started to work catching the lead group which I had been shelled from. It was looking like a solid 7^th place finish for me until a rider tripped on the stairs and lost 10 seconds allowing me to pass. Then Dave Staab crashed in a tough corner. 5^th place was mine! It was a huge battle to keep the chasers off my wheel, but in the end I held the gap. So it was a nice result and a fat chunk of change.

Then today wasn’t quite as good, which was unfortunate because the legs were totally there to repeat a top 5. I had one of those starts where you just can’t help smiling on the inside. I hit my pedal perfect at the start and had the right gear. I got the acceleration and hit the dirt in 2^nd. But from there it went sour. I seriously didn’t know how to react to such a good start and started freaking out. I think I crashed 4 times on the first 2 laps. It wasn’t until a buddy told me to get it together as he passed me that I took a breath and got back on it. But by this time I was well outside the top 10, we’ll say 12^th-15^th. I pushed a hard but consistent tempo and played the tactics and made passes at good times. After an entire race of clawing back I ended up in 8^th place. Just out of the money. But I had no chance of getting 7^th place so I can’t complain there. Finished the day off with an awesome dinner for two and getting a full nights sleep. Which is good because finals are next week(s).

Another thing I want to mention is the increase in fans! People actually know my name now, and they yell it during the races! The support and enthusiasm is what make racing just that much more fun. Racers always have fun when the crowd enjoys watching. So huge thanks to those on the sidelines cheering.

The next few weeks will be spent training and getting in some good form to have a good showing at Nationals. Pretty excited to race after racing the course, it was superb, and a huge shock from what I thought it might be like. But I’m hoping to have a good showing in the collegiate race and then in the U23 contest.