U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross, Round 1

Today was the first round of the USGP series, in Louisville, Kentucky. I travled out here w/ ProMan/Paradigm racer Rachel Lloyd to be her mechanic. She's making a full-time comeback to cross this season after previously making 2 trips to europe w/ the national team at the world championships.

We got a room across the river in Clarksville, Indiana...so that's 2 new states on this trip i've not been too before. The motel is about 10-12 mins from the course, making it pretty convinient. They've got a hose that i can use as well, but i only had 1 bike to clean today and did it at the course. I feel bad for the guy that's working for VeloBella this year...he had a ton of bikes to clean and i was done in like 5 mins! Since it's only Rachel and I, we don't have a lot of stuff w/ us when we travel...no canopy, no bike stand. Just the 2 bikes and some tools. Erik Wallace of Thule was very cool and offered us the use of his set-up, so we have a place to hang out that's covered. He's got a coffee machine in the trailer so there's always fresh stuff to keep us awake.

Rachel got a little pinched at the start and was just inside the top 10 on the first lap. She managed to make her way past some riders pretty quickly, and got up to 6th by the halfway point. Katie C was long gone off the front, and the first group was Alison S, Lynne B, Wendy S, and Kerry B. Georgial caught them and hung for a lap, and then rode away on her own after Katie. Kerry ended up coming off and Rachel got by her and that was where she ended up.

In the men's race J Powers go the win to continue a great start to his season, w/ Tim Johnson in second. Wicks got 3rd and Ryan finsished in 4th. Here's a couple of pics from the mens race...

I lasted an hour...

I went out to Livermore on Sat. the 20th to check out one of their cx races. It had been a couple of years since i last raced out there, and this event was at the same place...the lovely Livermore Rodeo Arena. This course ended up being one of the best (for me anyway) that i've raced on in quite a while. It was basically flat, w/ the usual run up the steps of the grandstands in the arena. The LARPD races are pretty small, so they grouped the A's w/ the Masters A's and single speeders, and we all raced the full hour. At the start i got bumped pretty hard by some fool trying to win the race in the first 27meters, but we all made it to the first barriers upright. To them...not over them. A bunch of guys went down and I managed to get by probably 5-6 of them. After that first double, i was on the end of a train of about 10 guys, w/ Snead, Kramer, Mtn Larry and Bodge at the front. To my surprise, i managed to stay w/ them all the way through the first lap, when i overshot a corner and got caught up the course tape and some guys got back by me. I chased for the rest of the race and picked off a couple of guys in the last couple of laps. I was pretty surprised i never got lapped by the leaders, as that usually happens in the 45min masters races i've been doing. I'm not sure exactly where i finished, but i was pretty happy w/ the way i raced, and since this is the location of the District Championships i might be able to have a decent race...if i can stay out of the damn course tape!

New scooter time...

Went up to Santa Rosa w/ Kat Carroll on tuesday to pick up a brand-new scooter for motorpacing. The U.S. Womens Cycling Development Team has a deal w/ Genuine scooters from Chicago to use their product for motorpacing. We hopped in my truck and headed north, stopping for lunch at Chilleno's burrito emporium, where some guy named Levi was also enjoying lunch (so much that he didn't have time to talk to us...). Then we headed over to Revolution Moto to pick out the machine. After much thought, Kat decided that a nice red scooter would work, and Roy went over to prep the sweet, red Buddy 125 . After he got it ready and gave Kat the low-down on how to start it, ride it, and turn it off, we loaded up and drove it home. Obviously we needed to get photos, so Kat donned her new racing striped helmet and jumped on...while the Buddy was still firmly strapped into the bed of my truck...