Jingle Cross

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I'm sitting here this morning with Mathgeek and Curly watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on tv. I've been trying to get a post done for Jingle Cross since last weekend but it was just not happening until today. With only 3 days at home between the USGP in Louisville and Jingle Cross nothing got done around the house. This week I paid the price for traveling so much and had to focus on family life. Good thing my coach had planned a mid season rest week.

What can I say about Jingle Cross that hasn't been said. 3 days of racing on craziest courses we do all year. The main feature is Mt. Krumpet, we go up it 2 different ways and of course, what goes up must come down. Then there is the part that I like, the technical turns through the barns. Overall the course is pretty balanced. The big difference this year was that for the 1st time the temperature was warm and there was no rain, snow, or mud.

Friday Day 1:

We got to the venue in plenty of time to set up our tents and pre-ride the course before race time. My race was one of the early races so darkness was not an issue. After a pretty easy training week I was a little worried I would be flat and that ended up being the case. After a good start it ended up with 3 of us in a battle for the win. I definitely had a advantage on the decent, my Garmin said I hit 28mph coming down. Unfortunately it could'nt overcome how slow I was running up the hill and I ended up 3rd.

Helen Wyman going up the ascent of Mt. Krumpet. We had to go up this both Friday and Sunday.

 

Saturday Day 2:

 

I'm still working on my new warm up routine and on this day it felt perfect. Got to the line and my legs felt great. I jumped into the lead from the start and got the King of the Mountain Prize for leading over the top of Mt. Krumpet on the first lap. Today we rode up the climb so I felt like I was on a good day. This is where the race went bad. The 35+ race started 1 minute before us and we were all ready going through the back end of the field. We hit the swiitchback downhill and some of the 35+ guys started crashing. I chose to go low and it was a huge mistake. One of the guys flipped over his bike and hit me on the way down. I went sailing over the bars catching my knee between the frame and the front wheel twisting my knee. On the way down I hit wooden post with my thigh, snapping it off at the ground. I wanted to get up, tried, but couldnt stand. Eventually my leg settled down unough to limp back to medical. The guys from the hospital cleaned up my wound and packed my knee in ice. I could only hope it settled down before Day 3.

 

Sunday Day 3:

 

After a night of ice and stretching I woke up feeling pretty good. Minimal swelling in the knee and leg. My warm up went well and I was ready to race. After another good start I got into the lead and began to strech it out to 15 seconds. Once again we had to run up Mt. Krumpet but this time we had to jump on the bike and ride the rest of the way to the top. After that there was the decent to the bottom. Unfortunately, the on the bike climbing and decent could not overcome my run/walk pace up the climb. Half way through the last lap I got caught and even though I felt like I could of put some time on the other rider through the technical section before the sprint, I really had no interest in battle that would ensue to do it. One hard crash was enough and it was going to take some agressive riding to make the pass. So it came down to a sprint and I just didn't have enough gas to get around him at the line.

 

Overall it was a good weekend. 3rd Friday, 2nd Sunday, and in contention for the win  both days. I feel like I had my best chance to win on saturday but that's racing. The weekend was a success for the whole TREK CXC gang as everybody had great rides.



 

 

Andrew had a few issues Friday night.

 

 

 

The winner of our 45+ race didnt show for the podium so Mike and I shared the top step. This guy is one of my favorite guys to race against. Great rider that impresses me everytime I see him. His son fast and heading to EuroCross camp soon. How he handles training and working with his son, and everything else insires me to do more with my boys.

 

Matt Shriver getting the holeshot in Sundays race.

Matt on the Log Roll. 6 wooden post less that a wheel lenght apart.

Mark racing the Elite race. We had to make sure he didn't score a UCI point or we was out for Masters Worlds. By far the most stressfull part of the weekend.

I saw this picture from a race in europe. They get them started young there.

 

Looks like it's back to training after todays Thanksgiving extravaganza. Time to start getting ready for the Final USGP weekend in Bend, OR.