Boulevard Cup Take 3

Yes Take 3 as in 3rd time doing this race. Each time I've done the race, it has been held in Wyandotte County park (home of Cross Nationals 2007) but at a slightly different location within the park. This time it was further back in the park than prior races and on flatter ground. Rolling into the park, there were tons of cars, EZ ups, and people everywhere so looked like a much bigger crowd than the day before. KCBike.com puts on the race and I have lots of good friends still on the two cycling teams, Boulevard Brewing and SKC, so always good to get out and support them and they usually have a bunch of beer!

The Masters were racing, with Scott leading, as I walked up onto the course. Hejduk was chasing, but it looked like Scott had a good handle on things in the closing minutes of the race. He went alone to the line sprinting down the road on those white file treads. I didn't get to see much of the race, but from his report and others, it was 360 runnin' a train on Scott, but they couldn't get organized enough to make it stick. 6 on 1 should be easy pickins', but he hung tough, let them put in a bunch of attacks, tire themselves out, and then roll away... I like it.

I got to see one of my wife's good friends do her first cross race and looked like she was enjoying every moment of it. Caught a few minutes of the 3/4 race, but had to get my own self together for the elite race. I could tell the wind was picking up, but the temps were still very moderate, so heat wasn't going to be much of a factor. The course was tightly mowed and ultra fast, except for a couple places with headwind and mud. 22 starters lined up and I'm totally unprepared when I hear 'Racers Ready; Tweet!' Fumbling as I try to get in my pedals as the race moves up the road. Finally clipped in and get it going and almost DFL as I make it off the pavement onto the grass. Now I'm in chase mode and drilling it as best I can on the first two laps. People are coming back and I'm feeling pretty good around the course, except one spot. On the backside of the course after the double barriers, there was a mudhole followed by a slight uphill drag which was killing me every time. I truly struggled up that thing the whole race. This became apparent to the patient guy sitting on my wheel 75% of the race. Three of us established a "group" that wasn't really working togther but riding together and trying to drop each other. It was Shad Shriner, Andrew Coe and myself. Well Andrew (a Seattle transplant) must have noticed my struggle up that backside pull and attacked hard with 3 to go. He left me and rode away from Shad as well. I settled into my solo time trial mode again and watched those trying to claw their way up to me and finished it out. 9th place on the day, nothing spectacular. There were a couple guys down from Nebraska there put on quite a show bunny hopping the barriers in a crowd packed section of the course. Good day all in all. Thanks to all who put on the race, maybe next time I'll get some of the Boulevard beer.