Cross
Vegas was a very different race for me. Being that it was my first national
cross race and that I was racing open category making it a much bigger field
than I am used to was good for spicing things up a little from the usual
mountain bike race. Race day started off very relaxing, I had just rolled into
Vegas with my teammates Sam Gross and Tyler Coplea the day before and we had
knocked out a ride together just north of the strip. That morning we
immediately headed downstairs in the Luxor to go and get some breakfast in and
then while Tyler and Sam went to go spend some time at Interbike, I decided to
relax a little at the Starbucks there and give my first go at the pumpkin spice
latte. I then made my way back to the room to get my things together and get
ready to roll out the race course. We arrived at the course at around 3:00 and
got packet pickup and everything out of the way. Once I was kitted up and ready
to roll, I got a few easy laps of the course in with Jeff Frost who runs our local
AZ Cross series, Tyler, Sam and our friend Hunter Keating. At 4:30, the USAC
men’s open was called to the line and was told that we would be called up by
number, mine being 85 gave me a 7th row call up in a field of 69
riders. At 5:00 the gun was fired and we were off. I found myself pulling
through a good amount of the field, passing and not being passed. We stayed as
almost a peloton until about halfway through the first lap and it was easy to
tell that the field was splitting up. I found myself making attacks really easily
and riding smart up the short, punchy climbs and taking it a little easier on
the flats and downhills. In a certain way it reminded me of my local shorttrack grind in Papago park that runs weekly throughout the summer; the effort
was definitely the same. By the third lap I found myself almost alone, just
grinding out the last half of the race and pulling away from anyone who came up
on me. After pulling through and maxing myself out for a solid hour, I managed
to finish up in 39th place which I was happy for and made for a
successful trip and leaving good times ahead of us in fabulous Las Vegas,
Nevada.
I would
like to extend a very big thank you to my coach Travis (TJ) Woodruff of MomentumEndurance for getting me up to the level I needed to be and for getting my fitness
dialed for every race.
I would
also like to extend a big thank you to the wonderful Harmony Systems Pro Cycling
sponsors for their unwavering support as we take the cycling world by storm:
Flat Tire Bike Shop
BoombotixFlat Tire Bike Shop
One last thank you to our awesome team manager Sam Gross and our team director Kaolin Cummens for making all of these great opportunities possible for the Harmony Systems Pro Cycling team.
