Crystal Cross October 19, 2014

The 2014 Crystal Cross is a race like no other this season. It falls the day after Peak2Peak at a great venue. The 2013 Crystal Cross was my favorite race of the X the Bay Series. It has short laps that have plenty of challenges. Between the stair section to the tight switchbacks that include small climbs makes the course flow and room for a lot of good racing.

This year the course was slightly different but still a very great one. They put a challenging sand wall in the course that proved to be a challenge for everyone. The fastest way through it was to ride it but you had to put the power to the pedals hard during the short run up to it.

Last year I won the B class riding my hardtail mountain bike. This year I chose to ride my full suspension mountain bike because the hardtail was shifting funny after the mud race the day before. So I went with a bike that shifted smoothly even though it put me at more of a disadvantage because of the weight.

The morning of the race it was in the high 20’s. By 10am it was slowly getting warmer and the sun was out. As the B class lined up it was noticeable to see who could be heavy hitters. My warm-up was very short because my legs were trashed from Peak2Peak. I wasn’t expecting much as far as speed. I would have been happy to make it onto the box but realistically I didn’t think it was a possibility. As the race took off the paved walkway I put myself toward the front. I made some time up on the opening stair section and pushed hard riding the wheel of Jacob Ellis. After racing with Jacob last year I knew how fast he was so I tried by best to ride his wheel as long as I could. I knew I had no chance in pulling time off him so I rode his wheel to

open a gap up on 3^rd and 4^th place. It was fun riding toward the front for a few laps. After about 15 minutes of the race my legs decided to give up and I just tried to maintain solid lap times and continued to open up a gap on 3^rd place. Jacob took off and opened up a huge lead that I couldn’t bring back even if I had fresh legs. This race was full of lappers and that almost messed me up on lap 14 of 16. It was a slow lap and I lost another 10 seconds in the short lap. The last two laps I just rode it in with solid lap times to finish off 2^nd. Congrats to Jacob for winning it this year.

After the B class race there was an hour for me to recover for the A class race. I decided to ride the A class just to put in some more miles and get my money’s worth out of the race. Plus the course was so fun I just wanted to put in another hour worth of laps in. I rode this race easy. I tried to put in as many laps hard as my legs allowed but after 20 minutes my legs gave in and I just tried to maintain a solid pace and not look like too much of a fool. The best part about the A race was the awesome spectators. The PBR and Twinkie hand offs were so fun. The beer hand off people were offering beer 10 minutes into the race and when I passed them one lap and didn’t take the beer I got heckled and just laughed it off. The next lap came around and they offered me a beer again and I missed the grab but the guy ran across the course to the next corner and did a great hand off. I put down half of the can and continued onto my race. That morning I planned on taking the B race serious and do the A race for fun.   

 Overall it was another fun Crystal Cross. The guys at Einstein Cycles put on a fun race. Big shout out to Cody Sovis for his awesome announcing during the B race. Made the 45 minutes even more enjoyable. Racing two days in a row like this is something that proved to be a challenge but it was well worth it for the great experience. Cyclocross is a fun type of cycling and I enjoy doing them. The next three weeks are going to be dedicated to preparing for Iceman to hopefully end the season off with a bang. 

Great job to all the racers who raced either of the days or both days at Crystal Mountain. 

Thank you to all of my sponsors and people who support me.

-Mom and Dad
-My Sister and Niece.
-Breakaway Bicycles of Muskegon. 
-Hammer Nutrition
-Crank Brothers
-Spy Optics