BONELLI
PARK US CUP #1
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| Shredding life in the RV |
After putting in some good races with the MBAA and testing
out some new tactics, I made my way excitedly out to Bonelli Park for the first
round of the Pro XCT and US Cup with my friend Tyler Coplea to meet up with two
of my other friends and teammates Ian Wilkey and Kyle Trudeau. Bonelli Park is
notorious for having steep climbs and steep descents all over the course and it
changes just a little bit every year. The A-line course feature this year was
three blocks that were maybe a foot tall each and about ten feet apart that
required hopping over while on a steep descent, which after some pre-riding,
weren’t too bad to get over. The only other part of the course that was
challenging was the last big descent going back into the venue (foreshadowing),
it was immediately after one of the harder climbs on the course and involved
descending down a long, steep and silty rut that had a couple of hard turns in
it so staying on top of the bike and being very mentally aware after a hard effort
was key.
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| What bike racing does to a person |
The US Cup for 2015 has gotten much bigger and thus has
attracted a lot of international attention. This year’s pro field was no joke
as it saw 100 starters on the line and 16 countries represented! This included world
class pros, multi-time Olympians, Olympic medalists, multi-time national
champions… the list goes on and on. At
the start of the race, the temperature was around 90 degrees with no sign of
even a breeze which was sure to mix things up a bit. After the announcer said
go, we hit the start loop and chaos ensued as expected. I kept it in the back
of my mind that it’s every man for himself and that nobody cares if they crash
you out so as we hit the first pavement section at what felt like mach 10 I was
sure to be assertive and hold my position while moving up as much as I could
through the massive crowd of racers. From then on, I wouldn’t have been able to
say where I was in the race; all I knew was that I was on the edge, maxed out
the whole time. After the race started to break up I started picking off some
positions. I then found myself battling it out with my friend Nolan Brady who
was racing his first race as a pro coming out of juniors, I always knew he was
super strong and was going keep me on my toes the whole race. I tried playing
it smart, pushing hard on the climbs and recovering as much as possible on the
descents while staying upright which seemed to be a tall order when I took a
pretty sweet spill on the final descent that involved me eating more dirt at
high speed than what my appetite had me looking for and a loud “Oooooo…” from
the spectators which is how you know it looked really good. I quickly got back
up and luckily didn’t lose any positions. By the time I got back to the start/finish
area, I was pulled from the race after my third lap in 76th place
which I was really excited about considering the massive field.
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| Catching up with Nolan (left) and Ian (right) post race |
The live coverage replay version of the race can be found here: http://uscup.net/us-cup-tv/
Of course bike racing has so much more to it than the
actual racing and there are a lot of people that go into getting every racer to
the start line. First and foremost, I don’t think I will ever be able to thank
my parents enough for not only getting me to every race but supporting me in
every way possible, they truly do rock!! My dad, especially who is always there
with encouraging cheers no matter what and always being ready with a bottle no
matter the conditions.
I definitely have to thank my coach and team director, TJ
Woodruff from Momentum Endurance who always has my fitness dialed in, makes
sure I’m ready to roll for every race and for being an all-around rad dude and
roll model.
I also have to thank TJ’s wife, Chloe, who is running
the show with AZ Devo along with TJ and is always on top of things and also works hard to
make sure we are all dialed in and ready to race.
Lastly, I have to thank all of my sponsors who help make it
all happen it wouldn’t be possible without you guys!
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