Villin Cross in the ATX

I'm talking about a weekend of cross racing here in Austin. The Saturday race was in Pflugerville and Sunday was in Webberville. These two races boasted great courses with lots of speed, technical turns, and tactical racing. This was a great weekend of racing!

Saturday got off to a bad start for me. I was in the lead a 1/2 lap into the race when I lost my front end and busted my chin and knee on my right side. Got up and sprinted back to the front. Being to aggressive I lost my rear wheel in a turn and scratched up my left side. Damn, 2 wrecks in the first lap. I then settled down to attack a half lap later. My roommate Andrew Dalheim on my wheel we separated from the field. We had 20 seconds on a group of 4 chasing. I then lost my chain over the log barrier. Man! Come...On! I pulled, tugged, got it. Andrew had about 20 seconds on me, but he wasn't really attacking playing a good sport. I got caught by the chase group while changing bikes. Attack! I worked hard to bridge to Andrew, then he wrecks. He gets up and we go on to a sprint finish. I won, Andrew 2nd, teammate Stew Stafford 3rd, Matt Googe 4th, Will Ross 5th.

Sunday started off better as I won the first lap prime for a 30 minute message. I felt pretty good even though I could barely hold my left hood, as I jammed my thumb also on Saturday. So, I just tried to use my tops as much as possible. Again, Roommate Andrew on my wheel this time trading pulls on this open course to open a nice gap over a big group of 5. I would pull through the technical side ( set of barriers, run-up, and two sand pits) then he would pull the (road, bottom and top field sections) we had a comfortable gap over the chasers. We would throw an occasional attack to keep it interesting. 2 to go, Andrew hesitates to pull, then attacks. I pull him back. Ding, Ding! 1 to go! I could tell Andrew was eager to attack as he was tight on my wheel. As we hit the second sand pit with a deep groove he got to close and crossed it up in the sand. I waited for him as I did not want to win that way. He caught his breath and we headed into top half of the course. Into the final 1/4 mile I jumped into the front and pinned it holding it to the line to win by a couple bike lengths.

This was great preparation for Nationals, and for now I have house bragging rights!
Off to the Dirt Derby tonight for the Series 1 Final.

Till Next Week, I'm sure I will have a good story. Starting 164th at a cold, Ice covered, Kansas!
Photos from Glennon Simmoms!