After taking my lumps at Nationals I had to get back on the horse and keep Belgium in my sights. Watching what I ate (not so much) and training during those cold snowy days of Christmas has paid dividends. Last week I raced with the Elites (1/2/3) at the Epic Holiday cross race and the conditions were pretty harsh. It was cold and icy snow on the ground mixed with sandy mud. I put in a good showing and hung in for a 4th place finish.
This week however was the final race in the De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas race series, and I was leading the points race. As much as I wanted to do 2 races, my race was the last of the day and didn't want to risk my chance at winning the series. Our Localcycling.com team puts on this race, so we were out the day before doing course setup and it was going to be a muddy muddy race. Especially being the last race of the day, that course was going to be chewed up by the time I hit it. The start was fairly fast up 500m of pavement and I took 2nd wheel into the first turn. I followed the leader through the first few sections, then made my move and turned it on. After that I pulled away from the field and had 15 seconds by the end of the first lap. A key point on the first lap was riding a large dirt mount that most would run (Thanks David for the heads up). See example of Studnicki doing it in this clip on his blog.
There were some deep mud sections that I did run when my momentum slowed but other than that it was pedal to the metal the entire time and by the end I had at least 1:30 on 2nd place. That was the final race tune-up for Mol, so feel great and ended up winning the series as well. My legs were so sore on Monday, moreso than any other time this year. That's a good thing from my perspective knowing I went really hard and the thick mud will be good practice for the sand in Mol. The crowd was great and cheering me on so much I just kept pushing. Boulevard beer provided some nice libations for the crowd, 6th Glass Quadruple Ale, so they were in good spirits by the last race of the day.
Mitch Before a Flat took him out
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