HPT Grand Prix and De Stad Cup

My new teammate Travis and I headed to Topeka on the evening of the 13th, the temps were dropping and the mud was getting stickier. It had rained a couple days before and the mud at the Topeka race track was not clean mud, it was the kind of stick to everything mud that makes racing miserable. The temp was also 39 so it was pretty cold considering it was 65 the day before. To make a long story short, I quit after 3 or 4 laps, I don't remember because I was running most of them with a 40lb mud covered anchor on my shoulder too mad at the mud to figure out that if I rode through the water on the outside of the track it would shed the mud. I also slipped and got my foot stuck in the wooden stairs on one of the run up sections, it was awesome. Travis killed it and rode through the cold and mud to finish 4th and take some cash home.

The next day I decided to race at St. Marys in Leavenworth after cleaning my bike Sunday morning for an hour. I always like the course up there and the Cow Town Guys set up a killer little course this year though I was a little sore from being cold the night before and the legs didn't have any kick, I felt like I would do ok. There was a stacked field and my goal was to finish in the top half of the field of 12. We started on the uphill cobble climb and I went into the grass in 5th or 6th. Travis, Luke L(KCCX Verge) and myself ended up in a "chase group" after Andrew, Jeff W. and Brian Jensen went off the front. Travis and myself put in some good efforts and after a couple laps dropped Luke L. Travis and I were riding well and with 1 to go on the big wall run up Travis fell at the top and I rode the rest of the lap by myself to finish 4th. Travis ended up 5th, not bad for some mountain bikers.

Joules Cross

I took last weekend off to party for Halloween and get in some good training. This weekend came around and Lawrence, KS Joules Cross was the place to be. The Open race had 18-20 starters, big fields and a bunch of roadies made me ready to take a beating. The course was cool, but very roadie friendly, basically a mowed path in a field with a couple turns and barriers. Extremely roadie friendly, oh well I can only try to keep up. I had good motivation, most my family was there as well as my little nephew to watch his first bike race, but all the motivation in the world couldn't help my cramps. Warming up I felt good but I had a bad start again, the 200 yard sprint to start didn't help. I went into the first turn 3rd from last and started the crawl back towards the front. After the first lap I had passed a couple people and was back to about 13th. Another couple laps down and I'm up to 10th with 9th and 8th in my sights. I got past both to 9th place Nick with 4 laps to go, then boom, my calves started cramping up on the dirt run-up. I started going slower and NIck caught back up to me with 3 to go and I was able to keep on his wheel till the last lap where again on the run-up, which we were riding, my calves cramped up again and I had to dismount. Nick made a get away and all I could do was watch him ride away. I finished in 9th place, not bad for a roadie course. Got some leftover Chipotle and a beer from the race promoters then headed into Lawrence for some more food and beers with my family.