Small Races

I have to be honest, small cross races still sort of weird me out.  I don't know what it is, but the fact that I was completely alone in both directions for about 15 min of the race on Sunday (that's a full third of the race) gave me a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I'm used the solitude in a 100 mile mountain bike race; I've spent many hours turning pedals through the woods without another soul in sight except for the rocks under my tires and the trees around me.  The silence there stills me and focuses my riding.  Even the thought right now, while sitting comfortable at my dining room table, of being alone in a cross race gives me chills.  I feel utterly alone, never mind the few screaming fans around me.  It's then that how slow I'm going really sinks in...

I've only ridden a few times since the Boulder UCI weekend, mostly due to work.  I'll definitely have more work travel in the future, but for the most part, the new job is pretty relaxed.  If you've watched my Strava you'll see that I've gotten out to some new MTB locations with one of my new coworkers.  He's a strong rider, and a MUCH better downhiller than I am (his 7 in travel bike doesn't hurt).  I'm really looking forward to learning a new riding style from him.

The Schoolyard Cross (Saturday) and the Feedback Cup (Sunday) were the small races in question this weekend.  Schoolyard was supposed to be at Research Park, but was changed to the Boulder Res a few days before the race.  I am not a fan of the Boulder Res, primarily because of the goatheads and secondarily because it's just a bunch of 180 turns in a loose, sandy field.  Zero flow.  Pedal, pedal, coast, turn, pedal, pedal, coast, turn, etc.  It's not even worth sprinting out of them like you usually would, because there's always another turn ten or less meters later.  I do like the telephone poles to hop (they ran them a little differently this time), and in general I like the beach sections.  I will say that this race made much better use of the beach than the Cross Classic did.  Including two man made piles of sand at the end that you had to run.  I managed to ride to the corner before them on my third try, but it was much, much slower, so I ran it for the rest of the race.  I probably lost a ton of time that way, but after almost making it and endoing at the corner on the first lap I had to prove to myself and the loud fans sitting there that I could do it.  I had on/off periods during the race (on whenever I had someone to race, off whenever I didn't), but overall I had much more fun than the last time I raced at the Res.  Mrs. Geology's pictures below:

Dug out the ol' Stormtrooper skinsuit because it's rad.

Hopped some logs.

Rode by a nice lake.

The guy announcing was giving me a whole lot of love for being in last and rocking a white skinsuit.

Feedback Cup was a whole different story.  This was at the same venue (in Golden) that the Back to Basics Wednesday night races are held at.  Same course as well.  I like the course.  There are sections that are just sandy turns in a field, but there's a cool downhill/uphill flowy off camber section that I feel good and can just flow through.  There was a really cool section with a quick downhill, a corner, and  a steep up (a run if in traffic) that I felt good on, as well as a really fun steep up followed by a steep down (almost a jump, but a little too steep) with a fast downhill entrance that I would gain a few seconds on each lap.  Unfortunately, my legs weren't up to the task to what my bike driving skills could do; I was spit out of the back of the 3's, then spit out the back of the 35+ 3's.  Definitely not my best race ever, and by the end I barely had the power to soft pedal around the course.  It was a beautiful day, though, and I was really happy to be out riding my bike.  Pictures again:

I pulled this guy around for a while...

But eventually he rode away from me.

It was surprising how many people ran this little up.

I thought I would be traveling next week, but it looks like I'll be home, and traveling the week after.  I'm hoping to get in some cool mountain biking this weekend.  There are cross races to do, including a Cyclo-X series race, but I'm feeling doing some cool MTB rides, so I think I'll do that instead.  Gotta keep it fun...