Rockburn CX - a Story of Redemption & Victory

So, last week I didn't do a blog.  I'll tell you why: Jake had a bad race and was very upset about it. At Schooly Mill Jake went hard to win for the first 80% of the race, going off the front, but some mistakes in fueling and drinking, and the hard efforts caught up to him and he cracked bad on the last lap. He was very unhappy about it, very upset.  But we talked about as a learning experience.

And Saturday we tried making the Rice Cakes from Allen Lim's "Feed Zone" cookbook.  He had 2 before the race today.

 Well, during the week I had to fly to California on Wednesday and home on Friday, for my 3rd week in a row of travel.  Not good for me. But Rockburn is a great course for me. I've done well there, and this year's course was another perfect blend of speed and flow and technical demands. I got a decent start in the Elite 45+.  Some chaos in the sand left most of us behind the front 10, but they are the Cat 1s and 2s.  I was near George and Shawn Downey and Jon Hicks so I was doing ok.  I was a little off that group fighing the wind on the 1st lap, but got up to them mid race and was able to go by them at some point.  For the last lap I was battling with John Rogers, who has been riding really well this year.  We went into the final U-Turns before the pavement finish, but when I tried to shift into the big ring to sprint (a mistake) the shift didn't happen and so I never had a chance to sprint.  But I was 12th, which was good. I was happy with the guys I battled and beat, who have been beating me all year.

So then it was time for Jake to get ready.  I told him a few things about the course and we talked about him riding smart.

Jake got a good start and sure enough jumped off the front pretty much immediately.

 By the barriers and then climb mid lap he had a 50 meter gap. (you can watch a larger version of any of these videos by clicking on "YouTube" in the lower corner)

But when he came back out of the woods he was in 8th.  He had crashed on some loose gravel.
He made his way forward through that group and got together with Jay Dove and another guy.

They had a sizeable gap on the rest of the field after 2 laps and were taking turns at the front.

Sand on Lap 3

Some photos by Doug Graham

Here's the end of the lap on the technical U-Turns before the pavement

Jake made his move, attacking just after the pavement right after this.

photo by Doug Graham

 After the sand, which was about 1/4 of the way into the lap he had a big gap (that's Neil Shirmer going to tell him too). I'm not much of a fan of "heckling" but listen to the end of this clip:

The game was on.  He had 2 laps to go and was off the front.  What I didn't know was that his front tire had lost air.  It only had 18psi when he was done so he was having to be careful in the corners (and he said he tried to put it in cruise a little to make it to the end)

Jay Dove put in a hard chase and ultimately closed to within 10 seconds.  Here Jake gets the bell for the final lap.  Jake had about 15 seconds with Jay chasing hard.

Jay was sliding around corners try to close, but Jake was clear for the win:

Doug got this great shot (we should get this done life size):

Photo by Doug

Photo by Doug

It was awesome. I'm so proud of him for coming back from the bad race last week.  Thanks to his sponsors and supporters, like Bicycle Outfitters, Van Dessel bikes, Doug Graham, and Coach Sue Hefler.  And thanks to AVC for the great prizes including a beer preme that I gladly accepted on his behalf (and am drinking now), although he did get a taste. Thanks to the guys in the Cat 3 races, like Jay and Larry who have been so great

This was his 2nd win as a Cat 3, which under USA Cycling rules means an automatic upgrade to Cat 2. He also has 25 points and needs only 10 to upgrade, so this evening we submitted his upgrade request.  He is one of only 9 15-16 year old boys in the country who are Cat 2s.  His goal for the season met.  From now on, he races the Elite races, which are 60 Minutes (ouch).