Jingle Cross: Day 2

2ND group in the Elite race about half way in.


Pretty nice day today in Iowa City. Started out pretty cold but was sunny and nice for most of the day. The 35+/45+ was the 2ND race so course conditions were pretty sketchy with frozen ruts with a little bit of slime on top. Pretty slippery but overall not too bad. Today also featured the addition of a few long straightaways and the long run up Mt Krumpet.














Chris Jones taking a bike in the pit. He suffered a rolled tire that caused a crash. Seems like I saw more than a few rolled tires this weekend. My guess is that it's cause is more the course than the glue job. It seems like the ruts from last years mud fest races didn't disappear over the winter/summer. It looks like riders are going through corners, catch a rut, and off pops the tire. The KCCX crew has been pretty lucky we had 1 tire come loose but didn't roll off the rim.

Party at the KCCX compound. While waiting for the Elite race to start the word got out that there was beer in the trailer. Soon there were people hanging out and coming and going. Nice to catch up with the Wallace family for a bit. Chris was in the area and decided to race the 2/3 race. He was riding for fun and it was just his 4th race since last years worlds. He was riding well until his pedal broke and his day was over. Bummer but is was good just to see him on the bike again.

Mt Krumpet was just getting rolling when I took this picture. By time the Elite men's race started the crowd was much bigger than pictured. From the pit we could hear the crowd noise and soon riders started coming past the pit throwing dollar bills at their mechanics. At one point one of the Cal Giant riders came through and said he pulled his dollar out a girls g-string. Rumors of dollars coming from other parts of clothing were heard as well.

Joe got some presents from Oakley today to take to Europe. A super sweet backpack, Hats, and a pair of limited edition glasses. Lucky!

As for the races. In the 35+/45+ race we had Bill, Matt, and I. Bill got a good start and unfortunately Matt did not. Both of them rode well and Bill ended up 7th and Matt fought his way from last to 9th by the end of the race. In the 45+ I got a good start and led into the barriers that came soon after the start. It was a good thing I was leading because there was only a 20 second separation between the 2 categories and we caught the back of the 35+ pack by the barriers. My first lap was more of a battle with the 35+ riders than the ones in my race. After 2 laps I had finally worked my way far enough through the 35+ race to have more of a clear course. This worked well as I could keep track of the 2nd place 45+ rider and just ride steady the rest of the race for the win. Today I was a little worried about the running required on today's course as well as my general fitness. With all of the injuries my training has been very limited and after last nights ride I was a little tired today.

So day 3 is tomorrow. The course changes again with less running and more on the bike climbing. That should be more of an advantage to me so I'm hoping to have a better day tomorrow.