Ride Against the Machine / Salvagetti Mountain Bike Team
Crankworx Colorado Cross Country Race Report (8/2/08)
Rider Results and Comments from the Crankworx weekend...
Special thanks to: Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, HoneyStinger bars and gels, Maxxis tires
Winter Park Crankworx Colorado Cross Country - Winter Park, CO
Shawn Meredith - 32nd place Pro Men - Time: 2:00:1.4
My first pro race in the WP series went as well as could be expected. There was a very tough field with over 40 competitors. The start was good, and I was able to make a few moves that got me in the top half of the field. However around mile 16 I started to go into survival mode, and forced myself to just keep pedaling. A minor fall threw off my mental game for a few miles, and I lost several positions on the final descents, partly due to loose handlebar grip. I am quite satisfied with my time, and have a new goal of moving up in the field.
More on Shawn's race can be found at http://shawn-meredith.blogspot.com/2008/08/crankworx-colorado-cross-country-race.html
Scott DeLeeuw - 20th place Beginner Men 35-39 - Time 2:34:12
Coming off of a 300 mile RAGBRAI week, I thought I would be flying in this race. Even though everyone walked away from me, I still felt like I was riding well and felt really good. The course was almost exactly the valley Point to Point done in the opposite direction. At times I let myself mentally despise the same trails over and over again, but then I remembered that no ride is a bad ride and was just having a blast being out on the dirt. My RockShox Duke has been leaking like the Exxon Valdez for some time now and it started to bottom out on moderate bumps, making me go very wide in to corners, and forcing me to really throttle it back on the downhills. On the last downhill I swept wide through a turn and my bar ends hooked a tree and I went down hard. Luckily I got no road rash as I hit the trail abruptly and didn't skid, but man did it hurt. Confidence shaken, I got up and finished the race at a snail's pace, trying hard not to let what just happened get in to my head. Afterwards we had a great post-race lunch at Dairy King and that made everything all better. Next race I will be sporting Chris' RockShox Reba!
Nicolette Clark - 2nd place Sport Women 19-29 - Time 2:01:25
I was not feeling up to racing at the start of the Cross Country. My wrist had been bothering me all week, and I didnt feel my energy was up to par. I figured this would be the other race that I drop so I decided to just have fun. It started on an uphill dirt road again, and after the blow up at the start of the last race I decided to take it easy on this one. We started up the hill and I immediately got passed by a lot of girls. There seemed to be an abnormally large amount of women doing this race, so it was a little intimidating. Somehow I ended up catching girl and girl, on both the climbs and descents, and rarely got passed. I felt great, I climbed pretty fast and never burnt up and descended fast. By the last downhill of the race there was no one in front or behind me. I was surprised at how much energy I still had, I still wanted to ride by the time I crossed the finish line. I came in second, which was a total shocker considering how I felt at the start of the race.
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