Saturday, April 7

Brad's winning ways at Jewell, Bellevue, and Swanson

     With record temps. on tap round #1 of the Nebraska Psycowpath Mountain Bike Series was bound to be a success. Light rain the night before made the track conditions just right for the time trial at Jewell park. The dirt was tacky and ready for some fast lap times. I started last in my class. I took off as hard as possible and made a minor mistake on the first switchback and about had to unclip. I put my head down after that and began catching the guy in front of me. The rest of the lap was a blur trying to go as fast as possible. I ended up with a time of 17:31 good for 1st in my class and 6th overall.
     Later on that night it was time for my first ever crit. I had no game plan other than trying to get the overall for the day. The course was in the middle of Bellevue and made for a great event for the spectators. I got off to a slower start than I wanted falling to about mid pack. On lap 3 the pace slowed and I was able to capture the lead. I gave it back briefly on lap 7 but quickly regained it and never gave it back taking the win.
     Sunday was another 90 degree day perfect for the Swanson XC race. I was worried that I may have used too much energy the day before to be fast in the XC race. There were 55 people on the Cat 2 starting line. I got off to a rough start having trouble getting clipped in causing another mid pack start. I was able to quickly move up the field and take over first. I had pretty tough competition from a couple of riders from Iowa. After lap 1 I had secured a nice 00:30 cushion.  I put the speed on in lap 2 for my fastest lap of the race widening my lead to over a minute. I did have a small crash on lap 2 but was able to regain my composure quickly. I knew I had a comfortable lead starting my 3rd lap so I slowed up a bit not wanting to have another crash and risk losing my lead. On lap 3 I was able to widen the gap to 2:21 seconds and take my third straight win capping off a great first weekend of racing. I would like to thank all the track workers and crew for putting on a great race weekend and Bike Masters for all of their support. 

Thanks Brad

1 comment:

Stratomatic said...

Great riding Brad!