Vets Park

Ok I know, I know, I know. It's Thursday and the races were Saturday and Sunday. "Why aren't you updating your blog Zack?" I know many of you were thinking that (or I hope you were.) Anyways, school has been busy and I have been tired. After taking an 8 week break from competition after Ann Arbor, then jumping in and doing two mens B cyclocross races at Vets Park back-to-back takes a lot out of the system. So when I havent been studying, in class, doing homework or eating...I have been asleep trying to recover. Which let me tell you SUCKS! Ace had me resting and not on the bike Monday-Wednesday and it was SO NICE outside and I couldn't enjoy it. Oh well, it's still nice today and I have to get in some intervals. Anyways...the cross races.



Saturday
So this was my first ever cyclocross race. I had debated doing the C race or the B race, but due to the amount of crap Joe L, Rob P, Rich S and Mark L would have given me for doing the C race, I lined up for the first ever time on grass with the Mens B field. I really had no idea what to expect, I had watched two cyclocross races in my life, attended two practices and had successfully jumped over a set of barriers once.

The whistle sounded and everyone gunned for the wholeshot(holeshot?) I didn't get a great start and was sitting about 18th or so back out of the 30 of us. We wound our way through the course and soon it broke up. I was in no form to stay with the leaders but there were these two guys about my strength battleling in front of me, so I stayed with them and eventually got passed them.

Comming through the middle section by the pit I took a corner a little fast and the front wheel went out and I went rolling across the ground. I got back up and hadn't lost a spot.



About halfway through the race John Marymor from U of M passed me. I decieded that I wanted to try and beat him, so he was my target. I eventually worked back up to him and passed him, eventually making it to the finish in 16th place. Not bad for a first timer. (and I made it over all the barriers safely and swiftly)

The coolest part of Saturday was that Ace and BB had brought a drum and Joe had scored a few flags of flanders. So the Southl Lyon team set up camp on the top of the hill where we could see the whole race and cheered on everyone in the race banging drums ringing bells running and waving flags. It was pretty cool.



Sunday
COLD! Sunday was just cold. The cool thing about Sunday was that the Specialized Demo Truck showed up. So people could test ride (and race) specialized bikes. On the downside, there was less cheering as Ace, BB, Joe, John R. and Doug (who said he was going Sunday) weren't there. However I was happy to see both of my parents show up, along with my trust soigner Nick and our friend Michelle.

Well I warmed up and lined up for the second time in two days and the second time in my life for a cross race. I was deffinitly feeling the effort of the day before. Again the whistle sounded and everyone took off. I got a little better start this time, sitting about 10th out of 40 ish people as we rode away from the line. I hit a hole and got tangled with a guy on a mountain bike for a sec, but we get away from each other without causing a problem.



As we cruised towards the middle section by the pit, it was a sharp left hander. I was trying to move up on the right side to gain a spot or two...which resulted in my losing 15. I went into the tape because I carried too much speed through the corner. I had to get off re-adjust and jump back in way behind the spot I was in. Had I not gone off course, I probably would have stayed with thr group of 7 guys that fought for 5th(?) place. Because I nearly caught them while I was making up spots, but never actually did.

Again John Marymor was one of the few people I was trying to beat. I had a nice gap for a while, but started tiring out and John caught up with me. With one lap to go he was sitting on my wheel. On the last time up the big hill, I put in a hard effort that hurt a lot. But it gave me a small gap on John that I barely held to the line. Again I ended up in 16th place.



It was fun racing cyclocross. I will deffinitly do it again as soon as I can. The problem, the next one in Michigan (other than Iceman) is three days after I get my wisdom teeth out. The next one is while I am in Seattle, and the next one is the day after I get back (yeah...I'll be at that one)

After the race, Nick tried one lap of the course on one of the specialized bikes. He said he would never do cyclocross, he doesn't like technical stuff, which is why he loves the road. Michelle said it was deffinitly more entertaining than road racing. After it was all said and done, my mom my friends and I went to Mongolian BBQ. Tasty.