Louisville USGP

Last weekend was the 5th and 6th race of the TREK USGP of Cyclocross series in Louisville KY. The regional part of the TREK CXC crew picked Joe and I up at the Independence store on Thursday and we headed off to Louisville. Friday we finished off the drive and got to the venue in plenty of time to set up our area and then pre-ride the course.

The course itself was much tougher than past races at this venue with more technical areas and long sand sections. Overall it was a pretty good course for me with a balance between the technical part on the hills and the long grassy straightaways. The real issue was going to be the long sand section and the 4 forced dismounts every lap.These are not your normal dismounts either. Just one set of barriers on the flat and then 1 set of railroad ties on a hillside and 1 set of rock barriers on the other. Then there are the stairs of the Green Monster flyover to contend with.

Saturdays race came and I made some changes to my warm up procedure before the race to see if it made a difference. With a 6th place I really cant tell if it helped or not. Sunday it was more of the same. I did get a good start and right away my teammate Mark got away with another rider and I was with another rider 5 seconds back. Half way through the 2nd lap I messed up in the long sand pit and lost a few seconds on the other rider, We got to the next road section and as the other rider went through the wind blew the metal fencing across the road blocking the course. At that point I had to sit there and wait for some spectators to run over and open up the course. By that time some chasing riders caught up to me and we were a group of riders fighting for 4th through 8th. The battle lasted the rest of the race and I was planning on attacking on the last lap. When we got to the place I wanted to attack I jumped, got a gap, and crashed on the up hill barrier section. With a half a lap to go the race was over and I ended up 8th.

Kind of a bummer. The results were not what I wanted but it was still a fun weekend. Hanging out with the TREK CXC crew is a good time and the weather was great.

Sundays chase group. fun to race with Tim and Mike again.

Jay, Mark, and Mark warming up. Mark had kind of a rough weekend but retained the Leaders jersey going into the final round.

It's true that Ryan Trebon is really tall but this picture makes his bike look like a kids bike.

Emily Batty came from Canada to race for TREK.

Matt Shriver on the Green Monster. Those steps are huge.

 

The TREK CXC compound. We had a great spot next to the flyover and really close to the pit.

 

Not much time to rest this week, store inventory on Wednesday and then Friday its off to the 3 days of Jingle Cross.