Epic. Delectable conditions that I savor. Relish. Long for. Lemme get to the race action in a minute and tell ya a little bit about the weekend first.

Turkey Day was awesome. Best in a long while Dinner with great neighbors...kids running wild having made themselves up like Native Americas, tons of good beer. Late night music DJ-ing to each other. An epic in itself. Friday, The Man was at bay and so played with the kids and met up with The VeloNews boys for some openers at Elks.

Then things went sideways...

Saturday AM I was gearing up for my revenge at Chatfield. I felt great that day a few weeks ago, my cold is all but gone, and I wanted to try and up the ante and get closer to the podium. 4th is good, but it's still 1st not-on-the-podium guy. I pack up and start to head south to the venue and get a call on my cell. It's my lady and when I pick up, she's screaming for me to turn around. She's cut the bejesus out of her hand on a broken dish in the kitchen. I abort and blaze back up home (thank God I was close!) and immediately see that this is beyond my butterfly stitching capabilities. A trip to the ER, skin and tendon sewn back together, the family and I hunkered down to take care of moms on Saturday. She's a rock start and doing fine...

Sunday. Cold and damp outside. Belgie style. No snow here but you can taste it in the air. I pack up the Rock Lobsters, emborcations and head south to the venue at Bear Creek Lake Park in Morrison...about 50 minutes South of me. I tell my wife not to handle any sharp knives and to leave the dishes....I'll get 'em when I get back! By the time I reach Golden CO, about 1/2 way there, snow...probably 2 inches and coming down. 30 degrees. Perfect.

At the venue it is coming down. There are STILL crowds at this Red Rocks Velo race, and all is being handled super PRO. Registration, course marshaling. You name it. I pre ride and the course is super technical...and then add snow. Holy crap...perfect. I wash out continually and then take my Typhoons down lower...and lower...and lower. 30 front and 31 rear. Amazing. My next pre ride lap I was sticking virtually everything. It glued over some amazingly dodgy ice sections.

We line up and I get a call up. Most of the usual suspects are there so it was not going to be easy today. Gun goes off and the WB, yesterday's winner at Chatfield and my bro, grabs the hole shot. Nice punch WB! We fly into the snowy singletrack immediately and start to flow. I stay in 2nd place through the first lap where me, WB, my team mate Whit Johnson and recent Cat 3 upgrade Mike Robson...also the Photographer for Moots! We get a fairly sizable gap by lap 2 and the 4 of us just flow like a 4 part train.

Roughly 3rd lap Mike comes to the front and ups the pace and by this time Whit is in 3rd place and me right behind. Whit has a bobble and I take the reigns at 3rd. Lap after lap we are trading spots. WB takes the front and gets a gab, Whit bridges and I sit on Mike. By the last lap, the BCS boys make their moves. Whit uses his former pro mountain biking skills and puts a gap into WB in the slick singletrack and I come through guns blazing through the volleyball sand section running its entirety and maintain my gap over Mike. Whit 1st, WB 2nd, Yours Truly, de laatste podiumplaats for 3rd. Mike trailed in 25 seconds and unbelievably it was roughly a minute and a 1/2 before the next wave came through.

Never a crash. Certainly a few slips and slides and feet out/off camber-ings, but man the bike performed. Never a mis shift with the SRAM and the tires were delicious.

Next week States. Week after that...Nats. See you in KC sports fans.

Digital celluloid provided by BCS team mate Phil Ball:

Whit rocking to 1st

The WB, super form at the right time. 2nd.

Yours truly. 3rd.

SRAM's Jim Mathis captured some GREAT pictures of teh winter wonderland as well. Thanks Jim!

All's that is missing is a sleigh.

Matty Opp railing his Rhinos.

Braaap!