cross is here!

saturday's race report. CU Research Park in Boulder. For a promoter, a logistically easy place to put on a race. for a racer, not the most fun course. there were some nice techy singletrack turns, but I just wasn't nailing them at all. as i told faia after his race, a couple of the turns had poor lines and were harder than they looked. being a solid mountain biker I didn't worry much pre-riding, but in the race I never felt as good as I thought I would in some of the turns. no prob, first race on the Jake was good. at the start I slipped a pedal and was soon back around 10th at the first paved turn. soon after a Kris Lathrop hits the deck as we hop on the gravel. yuck, I could see his hand sliding in the gravel at 20mph. i settled comfortably into 5th or 6th, then after 2 loose steep run-ups, I was in 3rd. I could see Opperman off the front, but knew he wasn't strong enough to ride in solo for 35min. after a couple of nice laps in 3rd, I finally clipped in quickly after a barrier/run-up, then overshot a steep, right-handed turn. blowing off course I tried to correct back with a tight turn to the right, but my front tire washed out and I was down. 4th-8th came by in about 4 secs, as I ran back 10 feet to grab my bike. back on I rode well, but a touch slower, untitl the last lap. passed one person and rode in for 11th. considering it was my first race of the year, and first race on the new bike, I came away pretty happy with the day's effort. next time I will start harder, if the course necessitates, ride smarter, and be in the top 5. next race weekend is the double in summit. hoping for decent weather.