05 October 2009

Who's the Boss? Mr. Joe Schmalz is the cross boss!

Joe took back-to-back wins this weekend. He's on good form and hopefully can continue to build on it for the USGPs, Nationals and Worlds.

For my part, I was 2nd Saturday and 3rd on Sunday. Needless to say, for me it was a good weekend, hopefully one of many this season. I had good power and acceptable technique, with the exception of one turn on Sunday. I was a little surprised to find myself up with the heavy hitters of the local scene. I guess my form is coming around and I had fresher legs than normal having not doubled-up with the Masters race.

Both days the field was stacked and at times I was able to separate myself from a host of strong riders: Steve Tilford, Brian Jensen, Josh Johnson, Shadd Smith, Shad Schreiner, Cameron Chambers and others. While the overall weekend was positive, I still made a few errors and have some weaknesses to work on. My start on Sunday was poor, and it kept me out of the action until I could make my way to the front. I made some tactical errors on Sunday in addition to the obvious technical error of laying it down when I was riding in second position. Time to work on the acceleration for the starts and adopt a little more aggressive attitude.

I am happy with my current equipment setup: the Scott Addict CX is awesome and the Challenge Grifo XS Dry Conditions Clinchers rode really well. I think they'd be perfect if I could run a few lbs less pressure. I don't know if the clinchers can go any lower, if not, I may have to step up to the tubular version.

As a team, KCCX/Verge put in a solid showing both days. Chris put in a good ride on Sunday riding up front for the bulk of the race covering Steve and Josh while Joe rode away. Hopefully the team continues to ride strong and make for some competitive local races. On that note, thanks to Josh Johnson and Jon Schottler for heading west and making things even more interesting than usual.

Luke had a solid weekend and is making improvements from week-to-week. Both days he rode the junior race relatively easy for warm-up and to dial in the course and then did the 1/2/3 event. We're going to tweak his position a little and see if that doesn't help his power and handling.

That's all for now.

2 comments:

  1. Great job this past weekend Jeff. You looked very good on both days. All that training is paying off for sure. You are a cyclocross natural.

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  2. Thanks, Chris. I guess if one puts in the work, it will eventually pay off. It was a very encouraging couple of days, hopefully it wasn't the only two like that!

    I don't know if I'm a cyclocross natural, but I am enjoying getting better at it.

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