Kletzsch and Estabrook Park CX

Saturday:
This was a new course for this year in Kletzsch Park in Milwaukee. I really liked this course after doing a couple warmup laps, and I think it suited me well. It had a nice steep climb with a single barrier at the very top and some good singletrack sections. We need more cx courses with steep climbs on them. :)

I lined up on the front row for the start and got a decent start, sitting in about 7th or 8th for the first section. After the first lap there was still a good size group at the front, so I moved into the lead to try to shed some riders. About halfway thru that lap, I looked back and saw just Casey and Lyle with me, with another rider chasing close behind. The other rider, Lance, bridged up to us to make a group of 4, and after a couple laps we had a good size gap to the riders behind us. I felt really strong, especially on the climbs and singletrack (despite tripping over the barrier at the top of the steep climb on one lap). With 4 laps to go, Casey put in a hard effort and moved away from our group. I still felt good, but I didn't want to go with that many laps remaining. His time advantage kept growing, and we never saw him again. On the last lap, Lance and I got a small gap over Lyle before the last singletrack section. Lance went thru the last set of barriers faster than me and I couldn't catch him before the finish. So I finished 3rd.

Good result on a cool course. I really hope that this course is on the schedule next year as well.

Sunday:
This race was also in Milwaukee in Estabrook Park. Milwaukee really has some badass parks. It was setup similar to last year's course with a couple small changes. It rained a bit before the start, which made it just a little tacky.

My start was almost the same as the day before, and I was in about 8th place or so. After the first lap or two the lead was dwindled down to 6 riders, the usual suspects. The pace was very up and down for a few laps...riders would attack and the pace would get high until we caught them, and then the pace would slow down until someone attacked again. I could tell after a few laps that my legs didn't feel as strong as the day before. I was having to work just to stay in the group. With about 4 laps remaining I lost contact with the lead group and was riding by myself. I realized I wasn't going to catch back on to the 5 leading riders, so I was just going to try and stay ahead of 7th, which I managed to do, finishing in 6th place.

I was hoping for better, especially after Saturday's result, but my legs just didn't have it in them. Casey got the victory again, taking his 5th or 6th win in a row I think. With the results from this weekend, I am now in 5th place in the standings.

Sunday night:
Team Green had a late game on Sunday, playing at 9pm against Team White. We had a pretty good game, winning 4-2. I had 2 goals and 1 assist, with a nice deke around a dman on the 2nd goal.

Random:
It was a really busy weekend...it wore me out. Now I am battling a cold. I don't have any pics yet from the races. If any get posted on the Madcross website, maybe I'll post them here later this week. Brooks had a good weekend of racing, maybe you'll find out about it if he ever updates his blog. Only 2 more cross races left; one on Nov 18th in Sun Prairie and State Champs on Dec 2nd. Heather and I have a fun weekend planned. We rented a cabin a few hours north of here to play for the weekend with the doggies and just to relax.