Oh wow, CCCX was hard.

Today I went down to the third race of the CCCX series today. It was held on a new track at Laguna Seca: Rumor has it that there will be a 'cross at Sea Otter next year and Rod and Keith are trying out the potential courses. I picked up my teammate Sean Coffey in Los Gatos and got to the place with time to spare. Sean was racing his new steel single speed Rock Lobster frame in his first go at the SS race. It turns out that this was a pretty rugged course place for single speeding!

Todays course was part of the Sea Otter mtb short track course combined with some singletrack, dirt roads and pavement. There was a really nasty paved climb with a barrier at the top which required a very awkward dismount on loose, off camber dirt. It was a discourging finish to the hardest effort on the track. There were some fast parts and a bunch of barriers, it was really a hard course.

There were also a lot of corners on this course that I was pretty unsure about- many were off camber and the dirt was hardpacked, yet covered with ball bearing gravel. I fell on an off camber on my last practice lap and jammed my thumb fairly hard and got a scrape on my knee that immediately began to bleed. I was a little worried about my thumb but everyone was lining up so I headed to the start.

I'm leading the series so I got called first and chose the far right spot for a clear shot at the uphill, paved start/finish. The course went left onto the dirt so my position gave me an advantageous line if I could clip in quickly and go hard up the pavement. There were a lot of good guys, this was the hardest field in a norcal race so far. Ben Jaques-Maynes showed up after apparently "taking some time to just relax" after Tour of Missouri. He looked fit and I knew that even if he's been sitting on the couch for a month, he's probably still faster than me. Also present was Ned Overend, american mountain bike hero. Ned is, I think, 53 but he still can contest races at the elite level on the mtb, road and cyclocross bikes. I once beat Ned in a sprint at Nevada City, but it was only so that I didn't have to say that he lapped me!

There were all the other nor-cal regulars as well, and most of my team. Dave Wyandt was missing, but Scott Chapin (Buckethead) and Aron Odell were present. Bucket's moustache is looking pretty luxurious these days! New face Mark Santurbane was there as well.

The whistle blew and I got the holeshot. On the pavement, Mark S really pinned it and started getting a gap at the top. I was chasing him with Bucket on my wheel and I spun out in a corner. He nearly crashed as well, but he got by me and chased up to Mark.

I got going and I could see a group with Ned, Ben and Cameron Falconer behind me for a lap. A lap later, Ben came barelling past me on the bottom of the climb. That guy is wicked, he was turning the 46t up that hill! He had a bike change later that lap and I caught him again. I was only with him to the climb though, then he was gone.

So I'm feeling pretty crappy at this point. It's been about 20 miutes of survival mode after crashing basically twice. I was thinking pretty seriously about going back to the car and just blaming it on my thumb, which did hurt but didn't seem to actually affect me when I was riding. My lungs were absolutely scorched from my hard start and the dry air or something? I definitely didn't warm up enough, that might have been part of it. I thought I was going to crash in every corner too and I just couldn't find sweet lines or get any kind of rythym around that course. I was also expecting Ned to come blazing up to me and I could see him and Cameron all over the course just a few seconds back.

But that actually didn't happen because Scott came off the leaders group. I caught him and we began to do some hard laps and work together and hopefully not get caught. Scott was a lot better on the descents but I imagined the climb must be brutal for him, he's a big dude. He was going right up it though, that guy is gnarly! We didn't increase our gap over Ned much, but we didn't lose it either.

Bucket got a little gap on me after the downhill at one point with less than 2 to go so I knew it was time to make it hard up the hill. I attacked him there and got a little gap that I could hold to the finish. So, I was 3rd after all. I'm actually very happy with this, but it was weird- I was under pressure the whole time and pissed from crashing. So after the race, instead of being stoked, I think I was just complaining about how hard it was and how the hill was too steep and blah, I crashed bla bla. I need to remember to cool down instead of blabbering when the race ends! That was a gnarly 3rd place that I didn't think I could do till the very last lap! It's a proud result and I'm pretty happy that I beat Ned even though he's old enough to be my dad and just racing for fitness these days.



Scott Chapin held on for 4th, also beating Deadly Nedly. Ned was 5th after gapping Cam later in the race, it's good to see Cam getting back into shape too. Sean Coffey did a damn respectable 6th place in the single speeds, I couldn't believe those dudes muscling up that climb!

My thumb is alright after some ice and Ibuprofin and I put tegaderm on my skinned knee. I'm ok and that was a burly race, so the day was a success!