Muddy weekend at Boss Cross and MO State Champs

Hey Gang,

The races continue but it's starting to feel like a grind. It's been a long cross season and an even longer everything season.

When 2011 started there were 4 races i was really looking forward to, now, with the conclusion of Jingle Cross they are all behind me. So everything else is just for fun, in a grinding kind of way.

This post-it note has been on my printer at work all year.

Bone Bender went okay

Tulsa Tough went well

Tour of Lawrence kind of sucked

Jingle Cross went well

Now i got a new post it note to look at for a while.

So Boss Cross...

Racing Saturday was a last minute decision. I knew it would be muddy and that scared me. X and i just spent $350 total to fix our bikes after Jingle Cross. Insane. But, i felt that experience made me a little smarter about dealing with a dirty bike and preventing major wear and tear (note to self, learn to do this stuff yourself) so i saddled up and drove to Raytown.

My competitive juices started to flow and i was smiling while getting ready. This was going to be awesome! Sloppy mud everywhere, light rain and temp's around 45.

Pow!

I think there were 9 of us in the 3/4 race, i took a close 2nd behind Wichita Bob. The two of us rode together for the first half and then he opened up a small gap which i could never close. He seemed to be getting better traction than me. It was a really fun race. I won $50! I think that's the most i've ever won at a bike race.

Saturday was colder but sunny.

The mud was awful. Very sticky.

The field was more than twice the size today but I broke my deraillure on lap 2 so that was it for me. I felt bad because in the 3/4 race KC got totally waxed by the St Louis (or at least not KC) crew. It was pretty bad. We stunk. I really feel bad that i couldn't represent the home town, i do love it so. That being said, even if my bike had not broke i'm not sure how well i would have done. the mud was totally brutal. I thought it was much worse than Sunday at Jingle Cross.

So now i have a broken Deraillure which has to be replaced, plus i still haven't paid for my new shifter that was required after Jingle Cross (Britton at Volker took pity and hooked me up so i could race this weekend, i haven't paid him yet) so that previous bill of $350 is going up. Racing in the mud can be a lot of fun, some of the most fun ever actually, but spending this much coin is crazy.

Anyway, back to the fun stuff...

The highlight of the day was Travis Donn finishing a close second in the Open race. Josh Johnson was first, i think he's from Columbia, so we had a KC / Not KC battle going. I'm pretty sure both guys were using pit bikes. I know Travis was. The Brocket crew was hard at work every lap cleaning his bike. I've never seen a local race that had this kind of pit activity. It was exciting.

So that was that.

p.s.... I WON THE BOSS CROSS OVERALL FOR CAT 3!!!

"Virgil quick come and see, there goes Robert E. Lee!"

That's a reference to the General Lee Jersey that i won. For a guy who always compare his mountain bike wheels to Mad Max's V8 Interceptor the fact that i now have a hard earned Jersey inspired by the General Lee Dodge Charger from Dukes of Hazard is totally and completely bad ass. I'm psyched. This jersey is so cool.

Jeremy and Joe seem like really good guys and they put on great events with great prizes. No wonder Boss Cross is the longest running Cross series in KC. Those guys are good!