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Utah Cyclocross #3 |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Dave Leikam
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Friday, 20 October 2006 |
Utah Cyclocross Series Race #3
Rocky Mountain Raceway
Salt Lake City, UT
 | | Infield |
Let me just start off with the excuses as to why I did so poorly.
Excuse#1- I have a cold. I could have stayed home, and I almost did, but I would have cranky and mean all day. So I went.
Excuse #2- The course doesn’t suit me.
Excuse #3- The phase of the moon-that little slivery one-is not my favorite.
Now that the excuses are out of the way, here’s how the race played out.
 | | Barriers |
The race course is a fun one that is both inside and outside of an auto race track. The course started in the infield of the race track and wound through the grass, up onto the track and out to the bleachers. From there it’s a fast strait going around the back to the first run up. The run up is about thirty feet of grass at a 45 degree angle that is wet with frost and then sidehill on the grass for another hundred feet.  | | Stairs run up |
Back onto pavement for a bit to a stair run up and then through some of the roundest, rollyest (is that a word?) gravel I have ever seen and back into the stadium. The start went fairly well and I was second going through the winding infield. As we emerged onto the track, I was able to bolt ahead going into the turn to the bleachers for the lead around back and up the snot-slick hill. It all went to heck right there.  | | Into the gravel |
As I was getting back on the bike, I started to slip down the sidehill section and got hung up in the tape. The panic that occurred at this point must have been comical to see. I was flailing about in the yellow course tape while six or seven riders shot past. Once I got going again shaken and maybe a bit angry, I was out to regain what I had lost. I rode hard into the gravel, up the stairs and back down into the round unfriendly gravel where I took the turn with way too much speed. Yup, I ate it right there and lost another spot. At this point I decided to just ride within myself and try to pass people on the strait sections. Slowly, I started moving up as others ran out of gas. I traded places with my friend Mark a few times only to give it back with stupid mistakes. With two to go, I passed Mark for the last time and got some distance. With one to go, I caught one more rider to finish a decent seventh place.
 | | Side hill |
The field size in the C category is usually around 23, but there were maybe 35 starters this week. Excuses aside (except for #3) there were some strong riders there that I just couldn’t hang with. The winner had almost half a lap on the second place finisher. We race at the same place again next week so I had better work on my run up to sidehill crashing skills. Don’t want to disappoint the cross fans.
 | | More side hill |
The announcer gave Bikeman.com loads of mic time each time I came through. Turns out that the first race he ever did was sponsored by Bikeman. It’s pretty cool to hear stories like that way out here in the West.
Check out the results at utahcyclocross.com. Thanks for reading.
Dave
Photos by: Christian Leikam
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; "Infield")
; "Barriers")
; "Stairs run up")
; "Into the gravel")
; "Side hill")
; "More side hill")
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