Just a quick note as I'm trying to get everything organized for my flight back to Europe tomorrow.
This weekend in SnowMass showed some of my best form for years. The course was very similar to AngleFire, high altitude, with a super long hard climb, followed by an awesome fun and technical descent. Not a bad field either, with 6 riders who have been on the WorldCup podium this year!
Adam Craig and I had a gap after the first climb, and I was feeling awesome... but then a small rock sliced open my tire in the first 50m of the decent! I could hardly believe it was true, as we were not even going fast!
I put in a tube and filled it with a CO2... all good, and then as I pulled the CO2 out, it pulled the head off my valve! After blocking the valve with my finger I contemplated my situation... I tried to find the head, but it was gone... then I noticed that I stil had the plastic valve cap, so I screwed it on and what would you know, it held! I got back on the bike in around 20th position, but still had to stop in pit zone to change the front wheel. Then I set my sites on catching the front group again. I got into a great rhythm and started catching and passing riders like they were standing still. With one lap to go I was in 6th around 1min behind, and near the top of the final climb I was just 30sec behind Geoff Kabush and Liam Killian. Then I could see Geoff put the hammer down, Liam was dropped and then he punctured (as had Adam Craig a little behind us). Finally Geoff had some strength left and stuck it into overdrive down the final decent to finish 1.10min ahead of me.
Another note: Marcus Roy from Dunedin just flew into Boulder last week, and I've been helping him a little settle in. He raced the Boulder Short Track this week and finished 3rd, and then was sitting in 11th place in the NORBA this weekend until he crashed and punctured on the final lap... that's an awesome effort for his first international race!
This weekend in SnowMass showed some of my best form for years. The course was very similar to AngleFire, high altitude, with a super long hard climb, followed by an awesome fun and technical descent. Not a bad field either, with 6 riders who have been on the WorldCup podium this year!
Adam Craig and I had a gap after the first climb, and I was feeling awesome... but then a small rock sliced open my tire in the first 50m of the decent! I could hardly believe it was true, as we were not even going fast!
I put in a tube and filled it with a CO2... all good, and then as I pulled the CO2 out, it pulled the head off my valve! After blocking the valve with my finger I contemplated my situation... I tried to find the head, but it was gone... then I noticed that I stil had the plastic valve cap, so I screwed it on and what would you know, it held! I got back on the bike in around 20th position, but still had to stop in pit zone to change the front wheel. Then I set my sites on catching the front group again. I got into a great rhythm and started catching and passing riders like they were standing still. With one lap to go I was in 6th around 1min behind, and near the top of the final climb I was just 30sec behind Geoff Kabush and Liam Killian. Then I could see Geoff put the hammer down, Liam was dropped and then he punctured (as had Adam Craig a little behind us). Finally Geoff had some strength left and stuck it into overdrive down the final decent to finish 1.10min ahead of me.
Another note: Marcus Roy from Dunedin just flew into Boulder last week, and I've been helping him a little settle in. He raced the Boulder Short Track this week and finished 3rd, and then was sitting in 11th place in the NORBA this weekend until he crashed and punctured on the final lap... that's an awesome effort for his first international race!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home