'Crossin Colorado: That's all folks!

That's all folks. Pretty much the end of the Colorado Cross season. It went out with a bang on Saturday, with the ICCC guys putting on a pretty good show for the "last" race of the season. An "interesting" venue, and they managed a fairly good course. Conditions were almost into the overused "epic" category, with cold, snow, ice and mud, and at times all in the same lap. There has been a fairly large amount of chatter online, with a number of people not caring for the course, the "gimmick" of a spiral course element, saying it was dangerous and the like. While there were things that could have been better, or done differently (de-icing or sand on some paved sections in the AM, shoveling more than 2 paths thru the snowdrifts, and fixing slow & disorganized registration in the early AM...), I thought that the event went well, and was a worthy test for a state championship. PLENTY hard to make a selection. I even liked the "Spiral of Death" after it got muddy , slick & slimy. Plenty of groveling about on the ground was seen all day.

My own race was really much more of a tour. Was still in the dying throes of the head cold that took me out the weekend before, and some desperation over the counter antihistamine doping attempts at being able to breath better backfired big time. Turns out I don't react well to some of these home remedies. Ended up awake all night, listening to my heart thump away. Also managed to hit heart rates 10 BPM higher than I've seen all year, just warming up. Slogged around the back of the 35+ 4 field at what seemed like 30% power, feeling like I was going to die. Only crashed once, which seems like less than the average crash count for the day. 55th at the end of a long painful 45 minutes. So much for my big end of season goal. Oh well, watch out next year, all you beer-drinking dads! I'll be back and ready to rumble.

Personal congratulations from this slow guy to Doug Richards on his win in the beer drinking dad's league on Saturday. It's been great chasing you around at the lunch "races" all this season. fun to see it pay off for you.

For me, it's a couple of days at work, then off to Bend. Pretty cool that an old, slow back of the pack Cat 4 can travel across the country and line up with the best riders in the U.S. at one of the biggest races of the year. Says a lot about the attitude of our little fringe sport. The whole goal at Nationals for me is to only get lapped ONCE, and not get in the way when the big boys come by. Oh, that and see how much of the Deschutes Brewery's fine work I can help deplete. The bikes are in the trailer & headed up there, it looks like it might even get up to the 30 degree mark at times up there. What better way to end a great cross season? Hope to get a few updates in from the big party.

Lap by lap video for the 35+ open & 35+ 4s race. As usual, credit pics & video to Lisa R. MANY thanks for her endless work out in the cold, week after week. You rock, Lisa!

35+ open