Jingle Cross

Jingle Cross. My favorite race in the United States! I've been coming to this race for seven years and it is one of the most challenging courses in the U.S. With the world cup being awarded they took the difficulty to a whole new level.

Photo: Jeff Corcoran

Friday I went to school in the morning and then drove the three hours to Iowa City with my Dad. When we got there the course was an absolute cow pen. Thick peanut butter mud coated everything and ripped people's bike to shreds. I did one pre-ride lap and it just about killed my pit bike. Thanks to the heat I didn't need much of a warm up before going to the start. When they blew the whistle I was third into the first corner before everyone had to dismount and run and off-camber muddy section. I felt super sluggish and dropped back to tenth place or so. I then gained two spots back, but I made the mistake of not going into pit #1 and taking a fresh bike. That would have been much faster than grinding through the mud so I lost the progress I'd made. I started to move back up through the front of field and by the time I was back onto the pavement going into the second lap I was in the lead.

Photo: Ken B. Sherman

Part way through that lap Tyler Clark, a junior from Canada, came around me and started to pull away. I tried to stick with him and managed to close the gap a fair bit on the last lap, but I just didn't quite have it. Gunnar Holmgren, also a junior from Canada, was 3rd.

Saturday my bikes stayed in the hotel rooms and I watched a World Cup live for the first time. It was pretty incredible to watch the very best in the world battle it out on what feels like my home course, especially with 10,000 screaming American fans. Huge huge props to John Meehan and the whole Jingle Cross crew for putting on such a fantastic event!

Sunday the rain held off and the course was super nice and tacky. In addition we were racing the exact same course as the World Cup the day before. This course was hard... seriously hard, a huge amount of running and climbing with tons of difficult sections made for some gnarly racing. 

After getting my equipment dialed and my lines down I did my warm up and went to the start. This time I was first off the line and took the hole-shot. I stayed in second place through the long "South Pole" running section but Holmgren was in first started to ride me off his wheel and I dropped back to third.

Photo: Ken B. Sherman

First place put some serious time into us and got a good gap. I held onto second place's wheel for another lap but was feeling really sluggish again and couldn't focus. I lost more time each lap until I was about 25 seconds off of second place. 

Photo: Paul Buchanan

As I was coming onto the pavement going into the final lap I came by Holmgren who had been in first place. He had rolled his tubular tire off the rim and I was now in second! Realizing I could still win snapped me out of my funk and put a fire in my belly. I hit that last lap with everything I had, I sprinted up Mt. Krumpit and crushed the climb. Coming into the finish I closed three bike lengths on first and started to come around him in the last 300 yards. Unfortunately just as I was a wheel length ahead I was forced to take a bad line and got bogged down in softer mud, losing the sprint by inches.

Although overall my race wasn't great I was still pleased with my final effort, which turned out to be the fastest amateur lap of the day and about thirty seconds faster than my other laps. On top of that I was the most consistent throughout the weekend and won the Category 1/2 Men overall jersey! It was a great weekend full of  fantastic racing and I can't wait for next year. Next up, KMC Cylocross Festival!

As all ways big big thanks to my coach Joseph Maloney, my family, and my team, Trek Cyclocross Collective for all the support! Also huge thanks to my sponsors Trek Bicycles, Bontrager, Sram, Englewood Grass Fed Beef,  Mike's Mix and Honey Stinger for all their awesome support!