Jingle Cross Day 1

The last official weekend of Cross in Iowa has been Jingle Cross for the past 5 years, and this is my 3rd year racing it. Now the one thing about it is that it is getting to be a very large event drawing people from all over the Mid-West, so you don't know most of the poeple you are racing, which always keeps it exciting. I was back in as a Cat 4 this year, last year for that, and I registered early to get a good staring position.

I got to staging right on time, and they called up the first 8 guys, well out of that only one showed up, so when I was called I asked if we could fill in the gaps, and she said go right ahead, so I was on the front line, great place to be in a field this large. 56 of us this year that they had on the results.

The started us right on time, and we were off, I was second wheel going down the front stretch, but the guy in front was just riding away from me, so I let him go. I got to the barriers which was quite a ways in this year in 3rd place, and lost a couple more spots on the first climb as it was getting slick from the frost starting to thaw a little bit. Up Mt. Krumpit for the first of 5 times, and running isn't my strong point so I knew I would loose a few spots there. Down the backside and into the field which has a set of corners where you go up the side of a hill a few feet and back down, but there is a ditch there, well it is usually muddy, and this year it was actually solid ice, so you had to make sure to hit it straight on so you didn't go down.

After the first lap I was sitting comfortably in the top 15 or so guys and knew as long as I could keep these guys around I would have a pretty decent finish. Next couple laps were uneventful, until I got to the sand pit on lap 3 I think it was, where I was carring a good amount of speed through it, and ended up having my front wheel wash out on the concrete exit, and down I went. Didn't break anythng on the bike, shifter was bent in slightly, but nothing I had to try and fix right away, so I kept on going, and only lost one spot there.

Final lap I was sitting in a spot where I don't like to be, a couple guys in front of me that I can try and catch, and one guy behind me that I don't want to let catch me. So I was pushing t as much as I could in every spot I could. I got through the sand ok ths time, but after that we went into another building with 6 switchbacks that are very tight, and I entered right behind a guy that flatted, and he wasn't able to go to fast, and with t being so tight I couldn't get around him, so once we got out to where it opened up I was able to pass him, but the 2 guys in front of me were gone, so just had to hold off the guy behind me.

I was able to do that, and ended up taking 13th place for the day. I am hoping that tomorrow brings a similar result as last year where I did better on day 2, but they are calling for 2-4" of snow tonight and tomorrow, so we will see how that plays a factor in all this.

Here is a video from it with both me and Chris Reed from the HBA Team http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUwYOvPayzM

Jingle Cross Rock day 1 - HBA members Keith and Chris