Ruts N' Guts CX

The trip to Oklahoma started off with a nine hour drive from Indianapolis to Broken Arrow on Friday. Then it was qdoba for dinner, and off to our host house. Saturday morning kicked off with breakfast and an easy spin exploring some rad rural roads.

Then Emma and I drove the five minutes over to the course for pre-ride. Emma placed 7th in the C1, her best C1 finish ever and I had to force myself to stop cheering for her and warm up for my race.
When the gun went off I was just pack-fodder going down the start straight hovering in the lower twenties.

I tired to kick myself into gear but the long drive just wasn't quite out of my legs yet and I dropped from inside the top twenty to around 25th. Luckily on the third lap Travis Livermon was coming back from an issue he had on the first lap and came charging by me. I hopped on his wheel and held on for dear life. I barely managed to stay in contact with him but he brought me all the way up to the group fighting for 14th place. I settled into that group and tried to stay near the front as much as possible as things heated up in the last few laps. In the end I won a sprint for 16th place finishing just one spot outside the UCI points. It was my best C1 finish by a long shot but I just made way too many mistakes (mainly face-plants in the tricky sandpit) to get the finish I was looking for.

Brian, Karl, Emma and me post race!

Sunday the drill was the same. Breakfast, morning spin, drive to the course, pre-ride, pin Emma up, cheer Emma on (She placed 5th!), and finally warm up. Once again I had a mediocre start from the third row and worked my way into the top twenty. I continued to move up but things started to feel off with my back on the fourth lap and I started going backwards fast due to being in so much pain that I couldn't push myself. I hate to quit a race but I pulled the plug knowing that I was hardly even racing at that point. Overall it was a good weekend of racing where I learned a lot and found that my fitness is on track for nationals!

As always thank you to my sponsors Trek, Bontrager, Sram, Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix, Challenge Tires, and Englewood Grass farm for their great support! In addition big thanks to Jonathan, Ashely and little Johnnie for hosting Emma and I. Lastly huge thanks to Karl Hendrikse for helping wrench and pit for us as well as Nick from Phat Tire Bikes in Tulsa for pitting for us on Sunday!