I raced this past weekend at the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross in Louisville, KY. I was so excited about this race, not only because it was my first cross race with more than 20 people entered in my race, but also because I was getting to stay with my college housemate Ben Chisman and his family, who live just outside Louisville. Also, my other college housemate, Dom Fuhrmann and his family plus my father-in-law Don Pratt and his foster kids were going to come out in support of me.
The course started on the road and after 200m or so, took a left turn onto the grass. It was all on the grass and had a good amount of twists and turns but still some good sections for passing. It also had; 1 set of barriers, 5 sand traps and 1 Green Monster. They only changed the course slightly for Sunday and it had little effect on the flow of the course.
Saturday, I started on the 5th row in position #46. I had a sub-par start but quickly started to work my way up on the 1st and 2nd lap. My race was 40 mins and I needed all of them. I crashed approx. 5 times, of which only 1 or 2 were by fault of my own. The other crashes were caused by traffic getting in my way through some of the technical sections. I finished 15th out of approx. 70 riders and I was very pleased, considering where I started.
On Sunday, I was under the logical impression, and a apparently misinformed race official, that I would start on the 2nd row and position #15 due to my finish the day before. I'm not the best starter, so I felt like this would be of benefit to my race and I would defiantly finish in at least the top 10. Well, having been born under a bad sign, this did not happen. They again started me on the 5th row and in 46th position. I didn't know they were starting us in the same spot until we were at the start for the call ups. This really bothered me and got in my head. To make it even harder, right after the start we turned onto the grass and I dropped my chain. I immediately went to the very back of the race, dead last! Well, I gained my composure and started working my way up. I only crashed once when a rider went down right in front of me in one of the sand traps. I felt really strong the whole time and did my best to move up as much as possible. I finished 16th.
There were so many people cheering for me by name that I thought that there must have been another guy on the course named Hank who was close to me. It was awesome! Next year I'll race the Elite race and really get my butt kicked, but I'll defiantly have a big support crew!
Here's a video, that is not from me but at about 2:30 you'll see me in the red jersey and hear Don yelling for me. Thanks Don.
No comments:
Post a Comment