Sacramento Series #3, Discovery Park

I raced in Sacramento only this weekend, there was also a race on saturday in Reno but that's a little too far away for me. Both of these races were part of the NCNCA Cup series, which is a sort of regional series- there is one race from each of the promoters in our NCNCA district and 6 races total I think. So anyway, because this Sacramento race was part of the NCNCA series there was a good turnout for sunday's race and I think it was one of promoter Rich Maille's biggest events yet.

The course was totally awesome. It was in a city park, as a good cyclocross course should be, and it was mainly on grass. The ground was really quite smooth and the grassy turns provided excellent traction. It was easy to keep the speed up since the ground wasn't super resistant. There were a couple sets of regulation barriers, and there was a 4-pack of mini-barriers in an early part of the lap. The 4 small barriers were right after a 180 degree turn and they were positioned in a way that required a hard, short accelleration to have enough speed to hop them all. I jumped them in practice and decided not to bother in the race, even if the other guys were hopping them I was confident that the race result wouldn't be decided there and after that I ran them each time. There was also a place where the course passed beneath a bridge, which reeked like pee and was very treacherous: about an inch of slick mud on top of pavement. It was pretty hairy in both directions and I crashed there when I was warming up so that was really the main trouble spot on the track.

The mens A field seemed good, with all the usual suspects taking the start. Ned Overend was the surprise celebrity at the line, he was in town for a Nor-Cal high school league fundraiser and he made it out to contest the race as well which I think does a lot for an event like this. Obviously, racing Ned is an honor and although he's well over 50 he's still a contender at any race. I was stoked to see him there and I was also stoked that Rich offered up $100 to the winner of the first lap!

So, as the whistle blew I had dollar signs in my eyes and threw everything I had at that first time around the course! My teammate Alex Work got the holeshot and held a pretty savage pace for the first half of the lap.



I came around him on the back section with Scott Chapin close behind me but held it together to come through the finish and get that money.



I sat up for a few seconds to rest and wait for Scott, and we just started burning up the track and getting down to the business of building our gap over Cody Kaiser and Ned, who were maybe 10 seconds back. Scott won the race in Reno on saturday and he was looking good around the course so I was looking forward to a good battle with him at this one. Unfortunately, I had a lapse of attention at the end of lap 2 and fell over in a corner near the finish. So stupid! I think my tires were a little too hard, but basically I was just jackassing through the corner and I blew it.

So when I get up and back on my bike I'm in with Ned and Cody. I was happy with this situation because I could ensure that Scott could get the win and wait till later on and attack them for second. If Scott wasn't able to keep his gap, I could just wait till he was caught and try for the win myself. So I just got to work focusing on my position throughout the course and responding to Cody and Ned when they would attack. I would move to the front before the barriers so that I could ease up the pace just a bit and slow things down and then let Ned or Cody back to the front so they can chase hard and get tired.





It was pretty awesome getting to race with Ned, an all time great in mountain bike history. He's been the world champion and he's top class. He's done an awful lot for the promotion of bike racing and he's a hero of mine from my early days as a bike racer. Cody Kaiser is a legend in the making- at 16 years of age, he's already showing the strength and sense of a champion as well. It is cool to be in the chasing group that contained the oldest and youngest riders in the race!



As we got closer to the end of the race and Scott's lead was up over 35 seconds, I felt that the time had come to apply some pressure of my own so I went to the front with 3 to go and turned it up a bit. I got a gap pretty quickly and I focused on keeping the power on and getting as close to Scott as I could. I think the gap was down to about 20 seconds at the end, so that was cool. Cody attacked Ned on the last lap for 3rd and Alex Work managed to battle it out for 5th, leaving HRS/Rock Lobster with 1st, 2nd and 5th places in this race.





I can't say enough about how well this race was produced. The course was awesome, things went off without a hitch and best of all there was a good charge of cash for the A men and women. I paid for my day and came out ahead thanks to the first lap prime and I got a bag full of killer swag to boot: a 22oz beer, a sweet Sac Series pint glass and a really nice Marmot winter hat. I sure appreciate this kind of prize list and this kind of thing makes a big difference for me- I'll come out to as many of Rich's races as I can!