NicoleI took a field trip on Sunday to the other side of Monument Hill to Rhyolite Park in Castle Rock to watch a few of the Colorado State Cyclocross Championships. I went with one of my athletes and a friend of ours. They hadn’t really seen a race before, and after spectating at the Boulder Cup, I knew they would enjoy this kind of racing.
Charles and Jeff picked me up and brought me Starbucks. Such a good athlete! We got there a little after 8 and started to check out the course. The racing started at 8:30am with the Senior Men Cat 4. The ground was frozen but the sun was shining. A lot of the ground had snow on it from the week before, but because there was a full day of racing on Saturday, the some of the lines were pretty well worn in, but there were some slight course modifications.
We stayed for four races, SM 4 & 3 and SW 4 & 3. We had to get back home for the afternoon – I had some athletes to meet so we didn’t get to watch the Open/Elite races. (Facebook and twitter kept in me the loop on those.)
I love the athletic community here in Colorado. It seems no matter where I am I will run into people I know. This time it was an athlete I worked with during my first season coaching for Team In Training. She was out there racing, and I told her I’d be out there with her next year! The other was a guy I met on my EPIC ride up Mt. Evans back in 2010. I don’t think I have seen him since that big ride except via facebook. His team tent had bacon, so we definitely paid them a visit!
Throughout the morning we took in as much as we could of the course. Some of the entertaining time was spent at a tight corner. It was a tight, uphill, and slippery corner so indeed the fastest way around it was to dismount. All the guys had been dismounting and running around through the snow until it leveled out back on grass. So when the women pre-riding were looking at the corner and giving it the “what line will I take for this?” we shared the dismount tip.
We watched the pit as some riders took a new bike half-way through as in the later races when temps were in the 50s, the course was turning to mud. There was a steep run-up that was getting more slippery each lap.
And we caught the women’s starts.
And of course being Colorado where a lot of elite cyclists live, a lot of them came out to race. I got to chat briefly with Nicole Duke, introduced myself to Megan Hottman (TheCyclist-Lawyer.com) and saw Meredith Miller as she headed out to pre-ride.
It was a fabulous day in Colorado to watch people giving it all they’ve got on their bikes. I’ll leave you with some more pictures of the gorgeous day!
Nicole
