Xterra Midwest Cup

A couple weeks ago I was back at it for the second stop on the Xterra America Series for Xterra Midwest in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was my first time up in Michigan and so I was very curious as to what the course and terrain would be like for the race. From what I understood about riding in the Midwest was that it would be pretty twisty and flat, and every once in a while there would be a quick drop and climb on the course. After getting out and pre-riding the course on Saturday before the race, Brian Smith put it best “the course had more turns that a Vegas Showgirl”. It was a very fun course and really showcased what the area had to offer, which is really what I like to see in the Xterra venues.

Sunday was a nice chilly morning, with a layer of frost on the ground at transition. After a less than stellar warm up we were diving into the warmer than air water for the two lap swim. I followed the same plan as before jumping on feet and cruising through the 1k swim exiting the water in the top 5 again. Quickly on to bike we were off, I managed to get one glove on before we hit the trail so I tucked the other glove in my back pocket. My main focus was to jump on the wheels in front and hold on and for the most part it worked. At the water crossing I was still there but after Seth endo’d into the stream I lost a bit of speed and the group gaped me. I was not quite strong enough to close the gap from the constant deceleration and accelerations into and out of the corners took a toll on me and I couldn’t hang on. To the surprise of everyone, at the base of what I think was Cardiac Hill there was a new water crossing that had not been there the previous days before the race and it was twice as big as the first water crossing. I managed to find a good line and started to gain on Craig Evans who had dropped off of the front chase group. We rode together for a bit before Josiah when by and I tried to get on his wheel but he was to strong as well and got away. Craig got back in front of me after a few bobbles on my part and very slowly pulled away as well. On the second lap my non-gloved hand was cold and the brief stint on the pavement between the laps managed to give me enough time to get the glove on. Through the second lap Nico Lebrun passed me and I tried to hold on as well as possible and only gave up about 20 seconds to him heading out onto the run.
We hit the beach on the run and I saw that Craig was only about 30 seconds up and I knew that if I kept things steady I could real him in. Through the first lap Seth had come back strong and Brian Smith as well went by me. At the end of the first lap I had closed the gap in half to Craig and put in a little surge to close it down some more before we jumped back on the single-track trails. About a mile into the second lap I passed Craig and put a decent gap on him fairly quickly. I felt strong and continued to roll along. As I neared the finish, there was yelling that he was right behind me, I never felt myself slow down but he had gained ground and I had to really push the last 400m of the run to hold Craig off and finish in 8th place, one spot out of the money. It was a good race and Craig brought the best out of me on that day. Now it was time for hopefully a quick recovery before the next Xterra Cup race in the Southeast in Pelham, AL.

Headed for a chilly start to the bike

Lap 2, both gloves are on, no Michael Jackson race this time.

Just holding off Craig down the finish by 10 seconds