Now that's what I call a weekend!!!

With all the Chicago Marathon hoopla going on, I decided to create a Cyclocross marathon for myself. There was a 3 day UCI CX event (Fri, Sat, Sun) going on in the Cincinatti area that I decided to do. There was also a ChiCross race on Sunday, so I decided to come back early and do both the Cat3 and Cat1,2,3 races in Chicago on Sunday.

Results Recap:
KY Cat3 Day 1 45min - 18th (flat tire, switched to mountain bike)
OH Cat3 Day 2 45min - 7th
Chicross Cat 3 45 min - 5th
Chicross Cat 1,2,3 60 min - 10th

KY cross race 1
40ish line up for the 45 minutes Cat3 race in 80+ degree heat.
I'm second row and work to top 5 in the leadout before hitting the dirt. Not picking good lines, I slip to top 10 and holding. Super rutted and bumpy course and a couple nosedive ditch crossings (imagine riding down one side of a V and then up the other, impossible not to slam your wheel into the dirt) Blow my front tire half way through the race and need to run a 1/4 lap to the pit to grab my Orbea (thanks for fixing the brakes Jeff!! They work 100% better!) I'm able to catch about 5 guys who passed me during my mechanical issues and finish 18th on the day.

KY cross race 2
Another sunny, dry, 80+ degree day in OH
I'm second row again but have a worse start and fall to mid to low teens. This course was much more interesting, fun and looooong at almost 8 minutes per lap. I'm riding steady, reeling in riders ahead of me and shedding them. I finally settle into a group with two others who are also riding strong. I'm able to drop one rider in an offcamber Z turn section, but now fighting for position with the remaining rider. One the last lap we are even heading into and exiting the sand pit but I smoke the run and get a gap. Turning down the final straightaway I'm hammering a big gear to try to put it away but I couldn't raise my cadence and saw him closing the gap. I threw it at the line and held my spot for 7th on the day and another 45 minutes in the books.

Nicole and I pack up, say goodbye to her friends late in the day and start back for Chicago, not hitting the pillow until 1:00am

Chicross Cat3
Jeez, can we get some relief from the sun?!?! Another annoyingly beautiful day (I'll regret these words in February). This is probably one of the toughest courses I've seen created for the ChiCrossCup. There is a toboggan hill that we had to ride up and then shoot down into a 180 right turn just to suffer up the hill again. The course is pretty straight forward with some long power sections. The RDs do a call up for the Cat3 top ten men and then everyone else falls in behind. I'm second row but get another bad start and drop to the low teens heading into our first attempt at the hill. I find a good rythym and start reeling people in. I was able to apply a few lessons that I learned while watching the pros yesterday and rode a fairly clean race. I was able to work my way up to 5th and kept cutting the time gap to the leaders, but my start seriously handicapped me. I coast into the finish at 5th place and get ready for one last race.

Chicross Cat1,2,3
This is a horrible idea. I just tell myself it's training, but another hour climbing that Tobaggon hill is going to be miserable. I've accepted that my starts suck but no clue how my legs will react. I enter the first climb near the back of a pack of 30 riders. Many of them doing their first race of the day. I know the course well by now and I'm taking fast lines. That doesn't help the fact that I'm nearly cracked trying to stay on Brad Zoller's wheel (The Cat3 race winner). We try to help each other and work on reeling in a group of four about 15 seconds ahead of us. I lost Brad after the toboggan hill about 20minutes in and now I have to catch the group by solo. I shocked myself by catching them about 2 laps later and was encouraged by their comfortable pace. I sat in to recover for about half a lap and then attacked on a pavement section. I looked back and found no one, I've created a 10 second cushion. I hang on for the next 20 minutes and happily complete my final lap. I couldn't believe that I had worked my way into 10th place. Out of the money, but very encouraging for my 2nd race of the day and 4th on the weekend.

No one will mistake me for Barry Wicks or Ryan Trebon (and not just because I'm under 6'6"), but I feel good about my form at this point of the season.