Racing in concrete

Saturday was Spin's 'Cross Your Heart' cyclocross race. The weather before the race was pretty bad. It was pouring down rain the night before, then it didn't stop raining until the morning of the race. There was a lot of people already in the parking lot when we arrived.

Uncle Scott raced the B race and stayed in the top 10 the whole race. He looked great the whole time and I can see him soon bumping up in the A race next year. He ended up finishing 8th out of a lot of racers. Awesome job Uncle Scott. Robert raced very well also. He was in a group of four and was in third place for a while. The group he was in ended up passing some lapped riders and Robert said he got caught behind a racer and lost it. He ended up finishing 7th and had a great race.

The A race was stacked like usual. After the gun went off, I moved my way from the second row and moved up pretty quickly in the top spots. The huge sled riding hill was towards the beginning which broke up the field pretty fast. I thought I raced well throughout the whole course. Every section was similar to wet, thick concrete. It just sucked the legs right out of you and plus add on the HUGE sled riding hill and your legs are gone. So it was a very hard race. I ended up finishing 7th place. I had a great ride battling it out with Jason Halloran, and at the end, finishing up with Rudy. Dad raced great also today. He battled it out with Bob Martin basically the whole race. So he said it was a hard, and his legs felt good going into the race. The whole team did great great today, with four placing in the top 10. Matt finished 2nd, Shawn finished 3rd, Rudy finished 6th and I finished 7th. Next week, we are traveling out to PA to race the Raccoon Valley Cyclocross race.

UCI cinci day 2 and 3

Sorry about the late post. I had a lot of catching up to do from this weekend. Well day two was pretty hard for me. Raced at the Java Johnny's cross race and started in the 5th row, which sucked pretty bad because that ruined my chance of getting a good start. Anyway, started off feeling very strong, I would have to say I was in the top 7. Then, the more the race went on, my legs were getting shot and racers started passing. I ended up finishing 11th. Not bad, but not what I really wanted. Dad raced the Elite Masters 1,2,3. He looked great but he said that he wanted to race in the Cat 3 masters race for day 3.

Day 3 was at Harbin Park. What a great course. It has to be one of my favorite courses of all time. Again, at the start line, I started in the 4th row. But, there were twice as many racers for the 3rd race. The start was wicked fast. I got myself in a good position and kept it throughout the whole race. A couple of racers and I were really battling it out, and it was really cool to hear the announcer guy mention all of our names once we entered and raced out of the sandpit sections. I felt really good throughout the race and finished 10th overall. I was really happy about finishing in the top ten because there were lots of Cat 2/3 racers this day. Dad raced the Masters 35+ Cat 3 race and finished 6th overall. Even though the Masters started 30 seconds behind the Cat 2/3 field, the Masters ended up finishing in the middle of all of the Cat 2/3s which meant, the Masters were flyin'!

It was a great weekend of racing this weekend and it was a real pleasure watching how the pros go to work. Very inspiring. This weekend is Spin's Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die cross race in Willoughby. Very excited for this race because the course is great. I love cyclocross.

Day1

at UCI Cincinnati. Wow was it muddy today. The race was on a very nice golf course, which soon turned to a mud, slopfest. I started out in the third row during call ups at the starting line. When the gun went off, I blasted out and went around everyone that was in front of me. Before the first turn, I was in second place. I then moved up to first place during the first lap and I was feeling great. During the first 3 to 4 laps, me and another kid my age battled it out for first and second, and I was very happy too because 1) I was in the lead and 2) there were two kids leading the cat 2/3 race. But, unfortunately I started crashing on off camber sections and slick downhills, which caused me to loose quite a bit of places and I was in 6th place. I must have crashed 5 times in two laps. I started off great and finished good, but I was disappointed because of all the crashes I had. I ended up finishing in 4th place. Tomorrow and Sunday will be better.

Dad didn't race today because he wanted to save his bike for tomorrow and Sunday. Uncle Scott raced awesome again. He raced the cat 4 Masters 35+ and finished 12th out of about 56 racers. He looked great the whole time and it was awesome watching him race. He will be up in the top spots in no time. Postings will be up tomorrow after Day 2 at the Java Johnny race. git it git it.

Very excited

about UCI Cincinnati next weekend. I'm very happy with the way I feel in training right now and hopefully it will all come together for the three day festival. I'm racing the Cat 2,3 race and I am looking forward to the fast and hard racing. This week's training is going to be very easy except for one day, which consists of intervals. Racing Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Can't wait.

Later