After Englewood CX last weekend, Sid, Kaya, and Chris hung out on the backroads of Indiana while the rest of us went home for the week, but the whole team came back together for Go Cross, the start of the USCX series. This is the first weekend where all the main competition came together to see how everyone stacks up. The next four weekends will make up the USCX series and is the most anticipated part of the domestic season.
Early season races are known for hot temperatures, and GoCross always delivers on that front. The heat and sun got to everyone in one way or another. Every year, the Go Cross track seems to have more elevation than the year before. This year's course was dusty and fast with some loose turns and steep climbs, all adding up to at least 190 ft per lap in elevation gain.
Kaya and Sidney started things off well in the C1 on Saturday, both sitting comfortably inside the top 10 for the first lap. With Sidney pushing the pace at the front, a lead group of 4 formed after a couple laps. Throughout the race this got whittled down to 2 as just Sid and Hélène Clauzel were left to battle it out. With a couple laps to go, Sid couldn’t hold the wheel anymore but still finished in an amazing 2nd place. Kaya spent most of the race in a group of 4 racing for 8th. After putting pressure on the group and following others attacks, it came down to the last half lap for the positions to be decided. She got the pivotal gap by hopping the barriers and holding it for the last couple minutes to the finish. Coming in 8th and 1st u23 on the day!
Scott had a strong start in the men's race and led for the first couple of minutes before Andrew Strohmeyer would make the race’s decisive attack through the sand on the first lap. Scott was the rider who was able to follow him for the longest but didn’t want to go over his limit and instead found himself battling with Kerry for 2nd the rest of the race. The two of them threw attacks at each other on the final hills, with Scott just losing out before the finish. Overall, very strong ride to finish 3rd! I myself had a decent start, but got caught out when gaps were forming in the first lap. I struggled to follow attacks throughout the race when groups came together and split back up but was still able to roll in for 8th. Luke got his first taste of a stacked elite field, and made his way up through the field to finish just inside the points in 14th.
Half of the course was backwards for day 2, but still brought the same challenges and even a little more heat. The lead group for the women's race was 5 this time around, but Clauzel attacked earlier in the race. Sid made a small mistake right as the attack went, but still was able to get away from the rest of the group and finish in 2nd again. Kaya had a rough couple of laps towards the beginning of the race and fell outside of the top 10, but finally ended up getting the good sensations back to power through the final 2 laps and made it back to 10th and 3rd u23.
Scott took the hole shot on day 2 with me following close behind in second wheel. We stuck together in the front group for the first couple of laps before a reshuffling spit me out the back. In the final laps, Scott fought in a group of three for the final podium spot, justmissing it and finishing in 4th. After moving forward a bit in the closing laps, I found myself in a last lap battle for 6th with Curtis White, that I eventually came to lose, but had a good day finishing in 7th. Luke also improved on day 2, even though he had the bad luck of last call up. He had a strong ride jumping from group to group, finishing in 11th and 3rd u23!
Next up will be round 2 of the USCX in Rochester! Luke will be skipping this week as he is moving into his first year of college at UC Santa Cruz!
Comments