Sunday, October 26, 2008

Long weekend of short races

Saturday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, temps in the low 60's. A perfect day for racing. the start of Zach's race was about a 100 yard dash on asphalt to 90 degree left turn followed shortly by another 90 degree left turn.
Well, about 2 seconds after Anita ( my lovely wife and Zach's mom) snapped this picture then things went bad in a hurry. The course was poorly marked and the first two guys went right and the next two went left and then the rest at the front stopped and the rest behind did not. There was a large pile up with Zach ending up on the bottom. Everyone got up except for Zach and one other poor guy. Zach's knee was banged up, his bars were bent way back, and his rear wheel was taco'd beyond repair. One of those big guys behind him must have landed on it.
Oh well, tomorrow's another day.
Today, Zach got up and said his knee felt much better and wanted to go to the Green Acres cross race. So after hastily repairing the damage from Saturday, we were off to the races again. Sunday's weather was the polar opposite of Saturday, 36 degrees, 25mph winds, and snow showers! Great cross weather! Zach got a great start and was in 3rd at top of a big climb after the start.

He kept the pressure on and was holding that position down the long decent. It was looking good.

The racers disappeared over the hill for the second lap and I waited for them to reappear for the descent. 3 racers, no Zach. 10 racers, no Zach. 65 racers, no Zach. Finally, here comes Zach carrying his bike down the hill, race over. When approaching a barrier on top and braking hard the brake shoe slipped off the new rim and locked up the wheel sending him over the bars and into the barrier, knee first. Yea, same knee as yesterday. No serious damage, but very disappointed, two DNF's in two days. That is the way it goes sometimes. Next week, will be onward and upward.

Monday, October 20, 2008

MCF round 4



Round#4 of the Minnesota Cycling Federation cyclocross series found us back in Hudson. The course was very smooth and flat, with lots of turns. Zach got caught in traffic and was in the middle of the pack (54 riders) at the start. He went to work picking off riders one by one until the finish where he ended up 13th overall and took 1st in juniors 15-18.
Zach gives it all at the sprint for the finish.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Cross race #3

Zach got a great start and setting at about 5th For the first 3 laps. The field was very large, 103 racers. After the 3rd lap he started to fade, after being sick all week and not riding.
He still managed a respectable 23rd and 2nd in his age group (15-18) Good job Zach!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Cross race #2 of the season

Today was Zach's second cyclocross race of the season, and first cross race on the Vassago Optimus Ti. It rained hard all morning before the race and half of the race was in a swampy area next to the St.Croix River. Needless to say it was very, very muddy. Zach was hoping to do well since this was our home town race. He got a great start which put him in good position before entering the woods.

The sloppy conditions suited Zach's skills, the only real hard part for him was a 50 yard
run up across a very wet, sandy beach.

He finished 13th out of 67 and 2nd in the 15-18 age class. He was pretty happy and quite muddy afterwards.