360 Cup!!

Work has kicked my butt this week, normally I like to get something posted while its fresh on my mind.

360 Cup went off last weekend and I headed down on Sunday to race the Cat 3 race. I raced here last year and was still not in shape yet, which makes this course though. Its a vary fast course with little to no recovery sections.

For me when you get a hilly course like Manions it allows the mountain biker in me to recover a bit. What goes up must come back down. Courses like this one out in Lawrence is a good mix of turns with a long straightaway to keep you honest. They had one barrier section that was low to the ground which allowed me to never get off my bike and I can't tell you how much I love it when I don't have to dismount on a cross race.

Sorry, no GoPro camera stuff to post, as I am an idiot and could not figure out how to turn it on when we were lined up at the start line. So when I got home I looked and had 3 different 2 second videos of my forehead.

Anyway, there were call ups and I am not that organized, so best I could do was line up in the second row. This is sometimes problematic and sometimes not depending on who is in front of you. About 30 seconds to go time I notice not a single person in front of me had egg beaters. Thought to myself, great, not a single one of these guys are going to get clipped in cleanly. Sure enough were off and I am stuck behind every one of them struggling to get clipped into their pedals.

MJ Photography

Once going I found myself further back than usual, about 10 to 12 back and saw my usual competition (Travis and Vince) was in the same boat, about 3 to 4 people in front of me so I did not panic. The start of the race immediately went into the barriers and some 180 degree turns so basically your stuck in your position and there's nothing you can do about it. You just hope that some fast riders are not up front gaining massive amounts of time on you.

Worked my way through the pack and eventually got up to the front with Travis and Vince again right in front of me. Both were riding strong and took several laps to finally get ahead of them. I nearly blew up in doing so and started to get a little gassed. However Vice was behind me not giving up an inch in his chase and Travis behind him doing the same. Once a lap I would meet them on the same section on a switch back.

Travis is getting really strong. Couldn't shake him, AND this was his second race of the day..
Rogers Pic

I honestly had no idea where we were sitting at this point. I know at leas one, maybe three riders are so far in the lead I can't even see who it is. About two laps to go I see I am not gaining any ground what-so-ever so I said screw it, I am going to hammer out this second to last lap and hopefully discourage any idea of Vince and Travis catching me, made sure to hammer it and sprint out of the corners and was able to get a little breathing room, but not enough to take it easy though. Last lap I had to fight off the two of them up to the final paved section to the finish.

Rogers Pic

At one point I could have sworn that I saw a group of three off the front and I was sitting 4th, but as it turned out that must have been some lapped riders. Finished 2nd on the day. Pretty happy with that. My lungs hurt for a couple days after this one.

Head on over to Twin Six and get more race report.

Cat 3 Podium.. Beer always wins! Hah... 1st place was off racing open.

Roger was out taking pics for everyone, go here to see them!

Results here

MJ Photograpy pics here.