Boulevard Cup Race Report

Another gorgeous day for 'cross at a great venue. The course design proved to be challenging and my legs were feeling a bit heavy from Saturday's effort in the 1/2/3 race. Nationals is only about 6 weeks away and racers from around the region came to check it out. The start is an uphill grind that dives off into a slight down hill field, around a pond then back up the hill and across the road into the main area of the race. The course snakes its way around the field through off camber and other tight technical sections. Weather could prove to make this a very difficult course. Long sweeping off-camber turns that were fast on Sunday could turn to slippery sliding turns where you just try to keep the rubber side down. At the end of each lap riders face an uphill dismount that will be laden with 40 ft of stairs, a 180 at the top and back down the hill followed by another 180, then back up another set of stairs. After the remount at the top of 2nd set we rode about 50 feet then another TIGHT 180 onto an off-camber section. This area will prove to be decisive. Lastly back onto the road for the uphill grind to the finish.

I had a decent race, but got separated from the front group in the first lap and couldn't get back on, so I held on to my spot and battled with another guy for awhile until he was out of gas. One young buck on the front, actually rode in Paris-Roubaix this year as part of the US Junior National Team, went out in a spectacular explosion. I've raced with him a bunch last year and once I saw him ahead of me, it was pedal to the metal and I made up another spot through the fast downhill corner. Check out the great video that local Keith Walberg shot for Gizmo Productions.... good stuff and a firsthand look at the Nationals course.