Bubba #1 JB

The excitement has been contained for long enough. I have gotten a taste of CX already, but this weekend was the beginning of BUBBACROSS!! For me this race began the night before, by going to bed at 9:30. I got up early, and had the bike humming. A pre ride of the course gave me an idea of what I would be up against. Very similar to last year, with a few tweeks. The main difference was the barriers on the up hill section. The short pop of a hill after that was there last year. This was a fast course, with open straight aways leading into high speed corners. It was balanced with some tight turns, a long climb that you could spin out, and some rolling sections. Mostly grass course this week, with a section of gravel road leading into the last corner before the finish line.

I had a third row start, and was able to work my way up to top 6 in the first few laps. We had a nice group going for a lap or so, and were pulling away from the main group. I felt pushed, but was able to keep it going without much digging. The 44 tooth seemed to be perfectly suited for this course, I did not take it down the whole day. I am not sure when, maybe about 30 min into the race, I moved to the front after the long climb. I was not trying to create a large gap, but put pressure on the others. Looking back, I might want to consider a different strategy for the future. At this point it was Dennis and Matt price riding with me. They passed with 2 or 3 to go, and I was starting to get tired. Matt put on a huge attack starting at line, and again at the hill. He was laying down some mad power. I could tell from across the field that he was ready to run and had some fight in him. I never caught his wheel, but stayed on Dennis. On the last lap, I almost rolled past Dennis, he saw me coming around and put up a fight from the top of the hill to the barrier. I thought he had me purely on the reserves he had, but gave it one last shot at the barriers. We were even going in, but I got around him. At that point I was able to see Alex from the Hub gaining fast. I made sure the mount was clean, then hauled off on the two hills in front of me. The long sweeping right hander into the ball field had me hanging it all out, pedaling through the corners, and pushing the big meat. I was lucky to take second for the day. My winnings were spent having refreshments, and debating the finer points of seatposts. Cross is here, and the fire is raging.

On the way home, I grabbed some bags of ICE and took an ice bath to refresh the legs. The tech definatly is waiting to dump the ice in AFTER you get in the water. WOW the legs are like new, and ready for some more. It is worth the price of admission.