Tuesday, November 06, 2007

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.

4 comments:

Simmons said...

Great job Brian on the cx races and your first win of the year in hockey! Looking forward to the pics. Go Green!

Have lots of "fun" this weekend at the cabin in the woods. I only hope you have as much fun as we did in our Chequamegon cabin :) Stay warm.

I too wish Klee Irwin would update us on his racing glory.

lyle said...

Nice riding this weekend!

Anonymous said...

Make them chase that Brown Bear!
Good Job bro!

Lars said...

Nice butt kicking.