Sunday, December 06, 2009

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Recon

From a source unnamed:

"Think of a world cup course. Not very technical and pretty flat for springfield oaks. Wooded section & Flyover is in play about 500 meters from the finish line. One set of planks with a couple stretches of pavement (finish and mid course). Some good off camber stuff. Overall impression is it should keep the racing tigh, think lower huron'ish tactics. Ground is frozen and bumpy."

Busy

Sorry no updates from Holland's Kiss Cross final last Sunday, but things were busy. After the rains all that week the course was soft, and the rain on Sunday morning would prove to be too much for the course to handle. Constant drizzle through the C race made for a lot of slop, but the rain diminished right as the B's/Masters took off. Mike Seaman plowed to a 4th place in the drying slop. His 42t front ring was too much towards the end in the mud that was quickly turning from wet, sloppy mud to sticky, thick mud and grass.

By the time the A's took off there was no rain in sight, which is never a good thing after the course was in the shape it was in. The spiral of death was brutal, not only because of the mud but because you could constantly see everyone else in the race and how far you were ahead of or behind them. With the mud drying out the bike got heavier and heavier every lap. Shouldering the bike up the "option A or B" staircase run-up was brutal but a saving grace compared with the football field death march.
In the end, after a very good start I faded back to 7th. Far from a stellar effort but the Saginaw ride two days before KK was probably not the smartest if I was planning on doing well. Thanks to the Macatawa CC for hosting the party afterwards at New Holland Brewing Company. That was a fun way to cap off a hard day of racing.

Tomorrow is the state championships and there are a few battles that will be great to watch. The B race will be a battle and you never know who else will show up to contest the top five. Danny G dropped a killer 2nd place in Holland and showed some super form last week. The elite race should be a great fight for the top four or five places as well. Hopefully I'll be close enough to the front of the masters race to see the battles up there. To me that will be the best race to watch as there are probably five guys who could take it.

Time will tell, as in less than 24 hours all of these questions will be sorted out.

Man, I love 'cross.