The second and third stops of the AZCross.com series was at Cactus Park in Phoenix. We were somewhere near Cave Creek I think… Once again the race promoters did an awesome job pulling off a top-notch event. These guys are setting the new standard for Arizona race promotion and others could tune in for a fine example. Example: I preregistered online for the two events, saving $5 per day. I was pleasantly surprised that this also saved me hassle. All of the waivers had been filled in with the information that I provided with my preregistration – all I had to do was sign the waiver. Don and the WORS crew are the only others to provide such top notch race service.
Saturday:
The course was challenging with three dismount sections and a long run up. The start was fast and I followed Ryan as he did some hard efforts. In the process we got a small gap on the field. I played the waiting game and pulled only on a few occasions. The gap continued to open as we were halfway through. I felt pretty good and was more or less waiting to make a move. Well, I got to save that move as Ryan flatted and I simply kept the tempo going for the final five laps around the course. Coming in for the win was pretty cool – making two for two on the new BMC. Justin was huge help out there providing me with some refreshing bottle feeds in the 80 degree heat.
Sunday:
A completely new course awaited us and this one was equally exciting, though it lacked some of the harder features that Saturday included. Gone was the tough climb out of the wash and the run up had been replaced with shorter version. This course was faster and kept us together riding in groups more. Early on it was Ryan and I riding with at least three Schampa guys. By mid race it was thinned down to just three – JR Grabinger, Ryan, and myself. Again Ryan was doing most of the pace making and JR was doing the best job of not working. I had the misfortune to shoot something up through my front wheel while riding across the wash and in the process the little spring clip of my front brake came off its post. This left me fumbling to fix my dragging brake while still trying to race. I wasn’t fixing the brake and I wasn’t hanging on too well so I stopped at a corner to fix the brake. It took just ten seconds but I had a lot of chasing to do if I had any chance of going for another win. The two had a sizable gap, but after 1.5 laps I had it all but closed down. JR looked back when I was about 3 seconds off and attacked pretty hard. I caught on to Ryan and immediately went around him in pursuit of JR. This gave Ryan a free ride on my wheel and after another entire lap of 100% effort I was popping a bit and the gap to JR wasn’t coming back. Ryan jumped around me and I was pretty spent after all the chasing, unable to hang on. I finished the day up in third. Perhaps with some different tactics I would have been 2nd, but I really wanted to race with JR as he was clearly riding strong. Bad luck happens on occasion, so I was still happy all things considered.
The double weekend made for a great racing and a good time. I’m really loving the cyclocross stuff this year. A big thanks to Tim for great accommodations Saturday night and for the authentic Mexican cuisine post-victory. Thanks to BMC for the super-fast Cross Machine and to N-Gear for making such a cool Jump Stop device that keeps my chain on the 42t and looks so nifty in the process.
Over and out, -TJ