Wednesday afternoon aroudn 4, I made the 6 mile ride out to the race. I was staying 6 miles from interbike, so all in all, I pulled 24 miles for the day along with racing. It was a gradual uphill the whole way and the hot, dry desert air made it seem even longer.
cross vegas
After I checked in, I left my bag in pit. I didn't have any pit wheels or anything, but I still needed a safe place for my stuff. The course felt hard due to the spongy grass. I began to regret my "devil may care / run what ya brung" attitude towards the race which led me to bringing a 39x16 singlespeed cross bike to Vegas.
jill took this picture of me with her phone.
We started @ 6:30 and the pro's didn't start til 8 so not so many people were there. But, my race included the clif bar guy and former national champ Mark Mccormack. The other familiar faces were a guy from DC from the League of American Bicyclists, A guy that I watched the race with last year who was representing Krieg saddle bags (but not Sam Krieg, he's crazy fast and races Elite), and Sheila Moon (who only recognizable because she was wearing an extremely flashy kit).
The course starts with some turns and an off camber hill then more turns until you hit the run up. The run up was shorter than it seemed as a spectator last year. You then get to rest on a short downhill and then ride up into an off camber. Turning into an off camber at the top of a hill felt mean and unfair. a left turn and you hit the concrete where a lot of people wipe out. A short section with little grass gave me the opportunity to make some time up on some people but then it led into a BRUTAL uphill onto a sidewalk. The sidewalk allowed for funny commentary like: You can look over by the Carl’s Junior (burger place) and see that Trebon is in the lead. back into some flats and then you start again.
I fell behind pretty quick and got passed by the only familiar faces there (Jeff from LAB, The guy from Krieg, and Sheila Moon).
I passed Sheila Moon fairly quickly, The Krieg guy stays ahead of me for a while, but I eventually catch him. he’s pretty darn fast. On the last lap, I catch up to jeff and then finish out catching some woman (couldn't make out the kit).
the results are posted. I'm in the 90's. I think there are a couple errors because the other Krieg guy didn't seem to show up in the results and I think the person to cross the line just after me was a woman. But it's cross and after 2 years I've come to accept that the results @ the bottom will never be totally accurate.
pro races:
These were more interesting, because as time goes on, I'm getting to know the names , faces and habits of more and more pro-cross racers and this makes it a lot more interesting. Thanks Cyclofile!
women’s. Katie Compton and Katerina Nash were ahead of the pack the whole time. Gould in the back for 3rd. It was exciting, but kinda predictable.
men's
Trebon was out front with Johnson and some others for most of it. Geoff Kabush made some awesome attacks and it would have ruled to see him pull one off for the win.
That one guy who won the Thrift Drug Classic a few times was also in it. People were really excited about this. He did pretty well. If he made top ten, I would have been annoyed (but I can't really say why). My favorite part was when they asked him afterwards if he was going to follow through with his plans to go to Gloucester and some other bigger CX races he replied:
"I might have to re-evaluate that."
I was going to catch the bus home, but I saw the line and it was huge. Luckily the 6 mile uphill ride home was a 6 mile downhill followed by a 6 mile flat to the hotel. Not so bad really.
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