The opening block of Cyclocross in the US has come to a close. The first three weekends of the USCX has gone by and the whole team is sitting well inside the top 10 of the series. Sid is sitting in 3rd, Kaya 7th, and I, Jules, am in 8th. The final weekend of the USCX isn’t until the Really Rad Festival of CX in a month. Charm City CX was this previous weekend in the [questionably] charming city of Baltimore. The course here in Druid Hill Park is always a very physically demanding one. A course with lots of turns and short uphills calls for a skillset full of short bursts of power to use throughout the race.
The women's race on Saturday started with Maghalie Rochette and Sid dropping the rest of the field and riding together for the opening laps. Mags would go on to take the win as Sid battled to keep a charging Caroline Mani off in the final lap, but she couldn’t quite hold on to second. Sid still managed to grab an impressive result, rounding out the third spot on the podium. Kaya was pushing the pace in a group racing for 5th-8th for most of the race, and she was able to take control in the final lap and come out on top in the sprint ending 5th! May I remind you Kaya is but a 17 year old and a first-year U23, so we are all impressed to see her landing in the top 5 early on in the season!
I personally struggled in the opening laps of the race on Saturday and couldn’t stay with the leading group, slipping outside of the top 10. The next couple laps, I did my best to catch those falling off of the front group and found myself in a group for 8th-12th for the bulk of the race. I was able to take the lead of the group in the last half lap of racing, and take the group sprint for 8th.
Unlike the first two Sundays of the season, day 2 in Baltimore would again be dry and blisteringly hot. The race played out similarly for Sid as on day 1, but this time she held out against Mani for the second spot on the podium! Kaya had a strong race again, finishing up in 7th.
Sunday was a rough day for me; I was sitting inside the top 10 from the start of the race, but within the first minute– not 5 corners in– the rider in front of me crashed in a corner, taking me down with him. This was not ideal. Even less ideal was how my bike landed opposite the steady stream of the field passing. As no other option was available, I stood there, dumbfounded, as the field went by, leaving me in the dust [aka second to last]. After that, and despite my worst foe (the heat), I was able to chase my way up to 14th.
So far this season, Maghalie and David have been hanging out in our team village, which has been really fun, and a great learning experience to see how someone as successful as her prepares. After Sunday’s racing, we all went out to dinner together to celebrate a successful opening block of racing all around! Most of us are now back at home recovering and getting ready for the next trip, but Sid is still on the road, taking on Major Taylor this weekend. The whole village will be back together in Waterloo for the World Cup!
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