criss-cross

Steilacoom seams like it always has sun and blue skies… I don’t think I have raced there in bad weather since the UCI race in 2002.. (wow that was a while ago) and that was before the advent of the Knapp run-up… back, then we actually even went down it once in a while…

The Steilacoom race went ok, after a few incidents in the first corner, where Matt Hill went down and the two riders in front of leaning on each other,.. the race started for real… there is plenty time and opportunity to gain/lose spots on this course, no need to go crazy 30 sec into the first lap. I was happy to see the inclusion of the long gravel path up the hill, I just which we could have continued all the way up and not go around the ruin. and back down to the run-up. The run-up sucks… but it sucks for everyone, and it actually helped me ,as I frequently gained ground going up…
My form and technique is starting to come around, maybe one day I can hang with all these mountain bikers.


Donida Farms was another great cross day… the sun was out when I left home, but I got a bit worried as the rain was coming down pretty good in Kirkland and Bellevue. It was a good course, actually seamed like it would be harder during the warm-up, but it flowed pretty good.. Nikos and I lined up, I was lucky to be in the second start row, right behind Matt Hill.. It wasn’t the smoothest start, and once again I had a bit of trouble getting my left cleat engaged…just the panic I guess. At least I missed the crash that happened right behind me, that delayed Nikos.
I felt better then any cross race so far this season, I was moving up constantly closing gaps to the groups ahead. I had too mishaps that slowed me down. The first incident happened about halfway though and although it didn’t take more then 10-20 sec to resolve, but I instantly lost 3spots. Our bike shorts this year for some reason include a draw string…(why I don’t know)…and somehow it came “untucked” and stuck on my seat rails, “what the!!!”… I had to slow down and slightly and rip it off, I didn’t want to try and dismount to find my self stuck to the bike.. It took me an entire lap to make it back up to where I was…damm, wasted energy.. could have been worse..

Nikos looking fast

The second incident was a bit more serious. I ran pretty low pressure to try and smooth some of the bumps out, and increase traction. Early on I would feel my tire briefly kind of roll of the rim for a second, during a few sharp corners, before it popped back on.. I decided to keep going and hope for the best. .However with a bit more then 1 ½ laps to go, turning sharplyin the grass , it rolled off completely and brought me to a skidding halt. Lucky for me the pits were close, and even better I actually have a pair of wheels in there. After a bit of panic and somewhat slow wheel change I got back on…now with a mission to catch back up to all the riders who had passed me during the wheel change…
The last lap was probably one of my fastest, as I managed to claw my self back up to 10th… didn’t quit manage to catch everybody… but considering, I was pretty happy with 10th….
Could have been a lot worse… Nikos finished 15th.. we are all improving.. maybe next week…