Weston Reports on Twin Falls CX

Thanks Weston for this report.  It takes a tough guy to race cross in the snow at 14 degrees and to think it was a good experience.  From my perspective, this looks like a good day to run a mountain bike with underinflated knobbies.

 

I heard about the Twin Falls CX series at Idaho Fall’s Blue Goose CX from Tony’s friend Scott Scholes. This Saturday was the 4^th race of their 6 race series that started in mid-October. Each race has a kid’s race, a 30 min race and a 1 hour race with an A and B group.

      This week’s race was in Hazelton around the Valley High school track/football field. It was a pretty technical course with quite a few 180° turns and two different sets of barriers. The course was very well marked despite the snow showers and 14°F weather. Because of the weather they started the race early which only gave me time to do one practice lap to warm up (not ideal) and they raced all the groups together. I counted about 30-35 racers at the start.

      The race started on a short flat that went into the side of a hill where we turned left onto the hillside and struggled to get through a few off camber turns that most of the field could not manage. I decided to run this section mostly and I think I was better off running than trying to ride it in the snow. After a turn around a telephone pole we headed down the steep hill into the first set of barriers and then two tight 180° turns. Then a short sprint put you back on the hill side then down into a long snow drift that came up well over my wheel axle. A few technical sections and turns later the second set of barriers was placed on a slight uphill into the wind. After the second set of barriers there was straight away where you could build some speed if you were willing to fight the wind. After that there was a steep and slippery run up and then a slick steep hill with a tight right hand turn at the bottom to finish out the lap.

      The course was a blast but I don’t think I managed a single lap without falling at some point. The snow was just incredible. The rest of the field must have had the same troubles as me though because I won the B group and took 4^th overall in the A group. The group was super friendly and many of them introduced themselves to me and told me about the other races that they had going. I would definitely recommend going to the other two races that they have scheduled if you can make it. The next race is at Thompson Park in Twin falls on Dec. 21 and the final race is at Rock Creek Park in Twin Falls on Jan. 11. Sadly, I won’t probably make it to either of those races but I am happy ending my season with this race.

 

Sincerely,

Weston Dunn 

 "It never gets easier, you just go faster."

                                   ~Greg LeMond