Monday, April 5, 2010

Sorry I have been off the wagon...

I have been hard time slackin' off! At least in blogging but not school! I figured I would post my race report from my first weekend of racing here in Colorado.

CU/UNC Crit

Starting things off, Ryan and I drove into Boulder early to get a ride in which turned out to be a complete change from Durango. We went with no gloves or leg warmers and felt fine the whole ride! Exciting stuff, right? Then, we waited for the truck and rental car for five hours after the Suburban malfunctioned, later to be replaced by the creeper van. All in all I am thinking what a great start to this weekend.

The Mens Cs were off first with our two C riders for the weekend, Chris Parker and Justin Putnam, representing FLC. The group was being sketchy as usual for a C race and our two riders had some bad luck in the 2nd half of the race, but definitely learning a lot and coming out with great experience as well as being so stoked to be racing! The next day they were able to work together at the technical UNC course and nab two top 15s in a hard charging, blown apart race. I have never seen anyone else be so amped for racing as these two.

The Bs only included 2 FLC riders, Robbie Jones and me (Sam Simmons). Saturday started off fast with attacks going left and right from CU and CSU who took up about half the field. With 3 laps to go, kids started bumping and caused a wreck that took out Robbie and provided a CSU rider (Matthew Miyamoto) to get a gap which I almost foiled in the closing feet of the race but came up short to slot into the second position. UNC fit my breakaway abilities better, being very technical and favoring smaller groups. I took off from the gun and later was joined by a CU rider and UNC rider (Ben Norris). We kept the gap open, but with one lap to go the CU rider attacked and took one corner too hot sliding out and causing Ben and me to go down. I did a front flip off the side of the course and smacked the curb with my arm, but using my cyclocross skills and determination I got up and on and won the race. Robbie got around tenth because the cold was hurting his circulation even more.

Missy was our lone woman for the weekend tearing up the As. She was a minority in a CU ran field. An attack from a CU rider and the blocking from her teammates let her sneak up the road and get about half a lap on the field. Missy brought it in for 3rd after burning a lot of matches charging on her own to bring back the CU rider. UNC was the same situation for her, a small field of probably 8 riders and 15 of them were CU. Last lap mayhem sent her sliding out but not down for the count, she got up and chased the CU girl from Saturday again and came so close but ended up nabbing second.

The only A men were Ryan Cleveland and Dana Alia, but they represented well and raced smart. Saturday and Sunday they bridged gaps, got in breaks, saved matches for the finish and did their best to mix it up with a pro filled As group. Unfortunately they were outnumbered, but the teams like CU who took up twelve fifths of the field did not get the win but the German Richard Geng took the win both days.

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