Chris Cross

I have to say that Sunday morning came quite early after racing Saturday night in Topeka. I think everybody at the house thought the same thing, it's a long transfer between stages. Left Topeka around 10pm, arrive home in KC around 11pm, eat dinner and get to bed around 1am. Up at 7am Sunday and started making Belgian Waffles for the crew to get ready for Chris Cross. We decided to get there a bit early to check out the course and do some pre-riding. I'm glad we did as this course in notorious for having gravel in the turns.


The race starts with a paved section that leads into a quick 180 into the woods. I didn't get the best start but made a bunch of spots up by out braking some guys into the hairpin. I think I was in the top 5 going through the woods and tried to hang onto the Shadd and Joe express. Halfway through the first lap Shadd got a gap and soon after Joe jumped away and tried to catch Shadd. Mark and I chased and were holding the gap close until Shadd noticed that Joe was alone. It wasn't long before the TREK boys were together and it was 2 against 2 with Brian Jensen alone not far behind.

Mark and I worked together for a few laps and here we are rolling through the ditch. After a few laps Mark fell off the pace and I managed to put in a fast lap with about 4 laps to go and put some time on Brian. Disaster struck as I lost the front wheel in a gravel filled turn starting 3 laps to go. After I collected my glasses and straighten my bars I got going but Brian soon caught me. On the last lap I managed to use some MTB skills in the gravel/woods section and get a little gap on Brian. I knew he would make up time on me on the road sections so I was determined to make it stick .

This is where it gets crazy, Shadd has a mechanical issue and is just rolling down the hill. Joe is waiting and all the time I'm catching them. I come past the wheel pit and Smitty's yelling at me that Shadd has a mechanical. I look up the road to see them really close. Shadd did manage to get his bike up and running in plenty of time to roll to 1st place with Joe in 2nd. I was running for my life to stay away from Brian and he got close, but I stayed away for 3rd.

So another cross in the weekend in the books, great courses, well run events. Everybody who ventured down from Nebraska had a great time and plan on coming back for more. As for me, I've got to remember that you can't win races lying on the ground. Then again, if you don't fall once in a while you aren't trying hard enough. I think I'll try for something in the middle.