Travis from Freewheel Hayes lent me his team Hunter cross bike. I’ve been on one cross bike since I started racing, its aluminum, made in a factory, and equipped with SRAM. I’ve sat here—in front of the computer— and quietly lusted after Hunters for years. I had a chance to buy a Hunter track frame years ago, when he made some flat black Mikkelsen/Kamikaze tribute frames and I slept on it. Foolish.
Anyways, getting to ride a custom frame—from any builder—before ordering one, is a rad opportunity, and well worth it. I jumped on Travis’ bike, no changes necessary, and almost started laughing. So smooth, and so capable. How does a bike transfer that sense of capability? No idea but this one does just that. This Hunter rolling Ultegra/Dura-Ace equipped, with an Enve fork and Stans 29er rims, is fantastic. After riding aluminum for so long you almost forget how annoying it can be, and you forget how forgiving steel can be. Leave it to one of the best shops in SF and all time best dudes around to dial a set-up so perfectly.
BASP #2, started at an almost sane 11AM for me with a few warm-up laps of the course and some banter with other riders. The race was scheduled for 2, so I had plenty of time to be calm and get my head sorted. It is beyond great having my girlfriend/manager there, and seeing Dustin at the races does a lot for my head as well.
At the call, assuming there would be call ups and my bad chip - no result from BASP #1 would put me three or four rows back at the start, I was happy to here no mention of call ups. I was able to start on the front row, with about 68 riders behind myself and the other front row guys. What a feeling to be sitting there looking down the straight at turn 1 with all that boiling madness behind you.
Into turn 1, I managed to still be sitting in about 7th. As laps progressed I found myself positioned in 7th, 8th, and 15th before I started to put the head trip aside and work for another Top 10.
Two things I learned Saturday; it isn’t weird for me to be doing well - I have to get over that, and that a lot of C riders don’t know how to protect their racing line/position when someone is directly behind them. I would trail into a turn behind a rider, and inevitably each rider would move wide to apex the turn really tight and every time this would leave the inside/wide out line open. Diving up the inside of a rider and leaving them no exit is fun, and in world in which I studied race craft, motorcycle racing, as long as you can manage it, without torpedoing the other rider, this is totally acceptable.
All in all, it was an awesome race. One in which I found myself leading the jerseys of clubs I always thought be intimidating, passing riders who 6 months ago I would have assumed would eat me alive, and understanding more about racing than ever before. Finally, my bike has been infallible, Giant, Sram, HED,and the Freewheel have created a bullet proof monster.
Golden Gate BASP #3 is next and I’m either getting on the podium for my city/shop/family or failing spectacularly in an attempt to do so.
Epic. Came out Sunday with my manager LCA, to find a brutal course that was fun, fun, and a bit fucking hard at that.
Lead out on lap 1, sitting in 4th or 5th, crashed once, came back up through the pack with some good passes on the barriers of all places. Turned out on lap 3, I was riding in 3rd only to be passed on lap 4 and have to defend my line from losing the position on one of the last turns. 8 races into cyclocross and I finished 4th, my which is also my second top 5 of this year.
Compared to some other races, and series, Stafford Lake was great. The attitude and energy was incredibly friendly and mellow. No shouting, no shitty timing and scoring, in fact results were up within half an hour, with lap times. So many thanks to the promoters for a great event, my great great girlfriend for supporting me, and Freewheel for helping me be there.
