Jump the Cheeseburger

I had a pretty good week leading up to this past weekend's races, Tuesday was the hilly course and it was pretty sweet hammering with dark clouds moving around and lightning a few miles away, looked like the big shitstorm was going to be unleashed, big disappointment. Wednesday was nothing, Thursday I rushed to get my cross bike together to make it to Chown's cross practice, I learned quite a bit in an hour or so, had a nice crash trying to take a sweeping bend too fast but it's all about learning. Friday was an easy spin on the cross bike after I attempted to tune-up the drivetrain, I've got to say, I didn't do too bad at all.

That brings us to 2 days ago, the Cowbell race called Jump the Cheeseburger for this year. Great event put on by Nathan Chown and a group of volunteers. I actually got to this race 3 or so hours early, I watched what I could of the S4/M3 race then got some spando on to ride the course, got in 3 laps before the next start, cheered on the M2s and women then got some more food and coffee before heading off looking for some singletrack. I found a couple trails but they were super short but still pretty fun. Got in another 2-3 laps before lining up.

I got clipped in pretty quick for the start and was sitting 4th going into the first corner, I thought I'd loose plenty of places quickly but then next time around I was sitting comfortably in 6th or so. I was focusing on riding the corners smooth and accelerating hard out of them, I wasn't burning any matches to pass people, just kept it smooth and waited for them to make mistakes. It worked out pretty good, gained and lost a few spots, I was doing real good at one point closing in on 5th then I started to get thirsty, really really thirsty. I was debating asking Rob Watt to throw me my bottle that was under his chair but I figured I would stick it out since we're not supposed to get a feed unless it's above a certain temperature so I gotta get used to racing thirsty for an hour or try something different before the race to stay hydrated.

Anyways, dropped down to 7th just behind Isaac Smith (big thanks to him for a bunch of St.CCC clothing) he rode away from me but I reeled him back in on one of the flat drag race sections just before the finish. I made a big mistake giving him the inside line on the last sweeping bend, he took it and got around me. That's alright, I probably would have lost the sprint anyways because when I tried to stand and hammer the chain was jumping in the back. OK, so I guess my tune-up still needs a little tune-up.

Big thanks to Chown for putting on such a sick event and for the cool prizes. Huge props to Robby Watt for his W, Wes for totally crushing the M2 field and Sara for coming 2nd in her first cx race ever. Rumour has it Chown won the sprint at the end but didn't take geometry in high school and painted the line crooked.

My cross bike needs a bit of work, function and position wise, before the next cross race which is about a month from now. After tomorow, I'm going to start taking apart my road bike, slowly of course, to clean everything and recable it. Last Tuesday nighter of the year, I'm hoping for a bunch sprint.