I just wanted to drop in a quick race report from yesterday's Green Mountain Sports 'cross in Golden. I'm on my way to a large trade show...and then another one, the latter offering me a chance to get my hup hup on amongst the best. It'll be rad if not chaotic amongst 100 other dudes.

So yesterday was ultimately fun, but it took forever to get the cobwebs out given Dubba's wedding the night before....and an impromptu bachelor party Thursday night that showed just how the pro-iest of the pro racers (many of whom are your heroes and shall here go nameless) get so good: consumption of vast amounts of alcohol.

KP and I drive down and had limited time so couldn’t do the Open race at 3, and opted for the 35 Open race at 11:30. Most of the usual suspects were there, we missed Phenecie and the WB as they would have helped animate 'fo sure. The course was at the Youth Correctional facility in Golden, security fences and all. It was a bush whacked course that was WAY more MTB than 'cross course. As absolutely bumpy as you could every have envisioned. My 32 Rhino's were perfectly suited to it at about 38psi. As Tim said and I agreed: a 9'er with skinny tires and flat bars would have been faster and fun'r. In truth it was incredibly bumpy, but alas, fun. I love technical courses...where the technical errs on the side of MTB so I felt like I was grooving. Like last week, it was 100% about 'clean'.

I got a call up and won the hole shot (YouTube captures the start of the 35 Opens)...

(courtesy of Blue Sky Velo)
...and led out very conservatively for 3/4's of the first lap. Wardell and Faia came through as did Brian (?) from Spike Shooter and we formed a group. Timmy and Jeff got this gap that had them dangling 15-20 seconds ahead but their cleanliness and experience enabled them to stay away by that same 15-20 seconds for the WHOLE race. Amazing. I grooved with Brian and yo-yo'd with him. He is a monster and had this sustained power on the climbing sections that was mad. I let him get a gap that I shouldn't have and that was it. 5 seconds to 10 that I could not bring back. Mitch from Green Mountain bridged and I bobbled and gave him a gap and again, couldn’t bring that back. My bad. So from there, literally 20 seconds behind Mitch and roughly 40-60 seconds behind Timmy and Jeff was the race.

While that was going on in front of me and with efforts to try and bridge, I'd watch my rear view for Matty Opp and Rob Batey who were working as a team in their Pro Peloton kits to reel me in. I'd turn around and either see Rob's white sex Oakley's or Matt's white sex gloves switching lap after lap so I knew they were going full gas to get me. I had a choice to either wait for them to use them to bridge us back to Mitch or go it alone. I decided to gas it and put an attack on the 2nd to last lap to bridge to Mitch and put distance into Matty and Rob and it worked. I settled into 5th and came across the line clean. Again, like last week, it was fun racing that forced me to use my head. I think the body'll come around one of these days, but alas, I'm stoked to even be racing....

As for today and this week, I'm at DIA waiting for my flight to get ready to stand on my feet for the next two days. Yea! Looking forward to cankles. But Wednesday night is Cross Vegas and I am pumped. After getting home yesterday, I needed to flip the A bike around, get it cleaned and prepped for CV. Jeremiah hooked up some new bar tape for me and I dialed in the Challenge File Treads that I'll be running for the grass crit in Las Vegas. They feel fantastic for the short time I was able to ride them yesterday before bringing all the equipment over to Boups', who'll be driving from Boulder to LV tomorrow. Good lad.

Cross Vegas Bike porn:

More reports on the whole Cross Vegas/Interbike Experience coming up this week! Have fun at Wednesday Worlds without me!