Utah Cyclocross Series Race #5 Wheeler Farm Murray, UT
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Stop number five of the Utah Cyclocross series was at Wheeler Farm. I like this venue the most because it’s close to home and the courses work for me better than some of the others. This course was set up to use the entire venue with lap times in the ten minute range as apposed to the normal 3-5 minutes. There were long stretches of road mixed in with some paved sections along with a lot of single track.
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With this being the land of Zion and the race being on Sunday, the turnout was a bit lower than past weeks. I decided to go for the hole shot as the start went about 150 yards along the road before the side hill section. I was first into the narrows and started to build a small gap early on when I ran into trouble.
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There was a spectator on the course-WTF?-and that forced me to take the wet leaf covered turn sharper than I wanted to. My back tire slid out and down I went. CRAP!! If I could just stay upright, I could have a chance to win again. I jumped up and got rolling again but the chain was just making a grinding noise. I got off the bike and put the chain back on the cassette and tried again.
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By this time all but one or two had passed me. I finally figured out that my derailleur hanger was bent and was pushing the chain into the spokes. I got going again and tried to stay out of the low gears but forgot and dropped the chain one more time. Again, I was at the back of the race trying to keep calm and I decided to just race my own race. I knew I could make up some ground on the long straits and if I could just keep moving well through the barriers I might make up some places. So I set to work and started catching groups of two and three on each lap. I rode well for the rest of the race and picked up about twelve places to finish 6th in a field of twenty starters. All in all, it was a good day and I rode strong, just not well in the beginning. I think my strategy for next week will be to start fast but ride conservatively in the technical stuff and make people pass me in the straits where I can carry a lot of speed. We’ll see how it goes. Check out the results at Utahcyclocross.com.
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