cx pictures

Manions day 2

So it was really up in the air weather I was going to make it out or not. I had a morning project of drilling holes through a steal plate up on a ladder, as the hours passed and my arms where failing me I kept thinking man my upper body is toast how am I going to race. Well the project ended right at noon which gave me a couple hours before race time. No lunch no time I hot footed it home to jump in my car and head to the race. I arrived a little after 1:00 just in time to register and get a bit of a warm up, the legs where sluggish and the upper body roached but to the starting line we headed. The course today flowed better than the day before so things where going to be interesting with all the loose corners. The whistle and we are off as I stand and power away out my foot comes unclipped, not good and as I clip it in the other one pops out and my chain drops. I'm thinking are you kidding me really 20' off the starting line. To the back I go and watch the field ride off. I did get the chain on and mount up, nothing like starting 30 seconds back on the whole field. I started laying down some power and pulled my way back up to the tail end group and quickly made my way through the back half. By the end of the lap I think I was sitting maybe 8th or so and continued my mission of picking riders off. It takes a ton more energy to move around picking less than optimum lines in order to pass riders especially when you are going a ton fast. Eventually I made my way to 4th place and sitting on 3rd wheel with 2nd in my sites. With a mechanical 2nd through 4th are now wheel to wheel with 7 laps to go. Eventually Brian Jenson and myself dropped his teammate. I was sitting on Jenson's wheel for a couple laps and I could see he was a little stronger on the straights but I was cornering much stronger. So my plan was to make a move before the next set of twisties and get a gap to keep him off me before the next straight. The plan worked perfectly, I made the move and created the gap. On the straight he did reel me back in but I new there was some more turns on the horizon. I took the first one a little to hot gambling the rubber would stick, next I know I'm ejected and picking myself off the ground. I'm back on and my bars are twisted with not enough time to cover the lost groud I had to settle in to 3rd. Andrew road way with win, while Jenson took 2nd.

Manion Cx

So another double hitter weekend of Cross racing and the engine is coming around. With a lighter field this weekend and a tight and twistie off camber course I had high hopes of doing well. A hand full of fast guys including Andrew Coe and John Shottler lined up at the starting line. With not much deal the whistle blew and I took the hole shot. The 5 second lead off the gun was shorted lived with John weeding his way through the field and on to my heals as the first lap ended. As we came through the barn the coursed handed been marked correctly and i took off the wrong direction, shottler realized i was locking the brakes up and he made the right turned just in time and that was the last I saw him that guy is super strong. Andrew was charging strong and came by next. I settled in 3rd and couldn't pull him back in but did keep quite a gap on the rest of the field. This course defintely favorited some handling skills and a ton of start and stop power.

Herman CX

So the cross season is underway and I actually started the season a little earlier than I typically do. Not sure why it just worked out that way. I've got few more mountain bike races this season and I figured I lack putting myself in the torcher chamber on the mountain bike so mixing some cx races in would help it out. Herman cx is a two day event first night under the lights followed by Sunday afternoon. I never know what to expect in the early season but rest assure no matter how fit you are it's going to hurt. Being a mountain biker as my primary disipline the dirt crits are tough. The race started fast like all cx races not 50 ft off the starting line I was in a little bump and grind and watch the field fly by, I knew this wasn't good, I have enough trouble staying with the fast guys out there more importantly trying to catch them... ya right. After digging past 30 guys through out the first couple laps I settled for 9th in the open race. Day two started with a little breakfast and coffee followed by breaking down the campsite. I really enjoyed just chilling all morning moving around at a leasurely pace. So after a little warm up with Andrew Coe we headed to the starting line. Good news to my ears was a called up for me sense I was in the top 10 the night before. I'm a pretty fast starter so the front row suits me well. The course ran the same direction as the night before which is a little different than the standard one direction one day and flip it the next. So the bell and the sprint starts down the pavement I settled in wirlth the lead group around 5th as we twisted around the course I moved up to 4th for a bit but fell off the top 3 guys they where just moving faster than I could. So lap after lap I got to pull myself down the pavement, no fun. I did get caught by one guy and settle in at 5th after one of my teammates cramped up.