Utah Cyclcocross #2 2010 - rough day

It was debacle day at Weber for us. Conditions were perfect - tacky, fast dirt. Nice cool temps - just a great day to go race bikes. I went off with the C's - legs felt good and and I'm getting excited to be on the bike again, something that was lacking this summer. Went with the front group on lap one and was positioned well when I made a sloppy remount after the double log barrier and burped my rear tire. Limped it in the rest of the lap to the wheel pit and swapped it out for one of the Stans neutral wheels that are a new feature, and might I mention a really great feature, at the UTCX series this year. It took me about 60 seconds to swap out the wheel, which I think is probably less than desirable and maybe something I should practice. What's a reasonable/acceptable swap time for a wheel - half that?

Going to keep it to one photo from my race - this log is one of the better spectator features in the series, plenty of crashes here - Saw one bad one here in the Mens A race - a guy on a Scott bike landed just a little sideways, taco'd his wheel, which led to what looked like a taco'd collarbone situation - worst crash I've seen at a cross race.

The Stan's wheel held air a whole lot better than my Mavic wheel did, it took the brunt of a few more sloppy remounts with no burping issues. There were a few good remounts as well, felt fast in most of the transitions today, but landing on the bike real heavy on occasion - need to get it to silky smooth. Rode hard trying to make up some ground..... until my chain snapped under some load going up one of the hills, that tickles. There's not a neutral pit to change out snapped chains... I was done. Here's the thing about cross though - despite the debacle, I'd enjoyed the morning's race probably more than I've enjoyed a bike ride since mid July - it's bringing the itch back, bigtime.

Annie lined up once more with the C's to see if she could repeat and validate last weeks win. I was fairly certain she would. It was a race for 1 lap, shortly thereafter she moved into the lead and proceeded to put a gap on her field that was measured by minutes and gobbled up plenty of B racers. It continued to increase until the last lap, when I lost track of her, couldn't see her riding where I thought she should be when I thought she should be there. So I start looking a little more intently, and while doing so, she comes trotting up outside the tape - with a flat rear tire - she thought her day was over. I told her to get back on course and run it in, she turns around, runs backwards along the course for about 100 yards to where she'd left it with her flat, get's back inside the tape, and starts running with her bike - first on her shoulder, then on the ground. She ran, remaining in the lead, until the last few hundred yards of the course at which point 2nd caught and passed her. She ran her bike across the finish for 2nd, but it was a better ride than she put in at last weeks win. She'll be lining up with the B's next race, and I think she'll do just fine there.

The women seem to be in accordance with where to stick Sly's dollar bills, the guys tuck them in their thighs, and I guess the girls could too - but don't - there was lot's of racer girl cleavage full of dollar bills at the end of the womens races.

What's better than watching the crashes at the little log? Watching Bart jumping the big logs - always a highlight at the Weber Fairgrounds track...