Junior State Cyclocross!

This Saturday was the Junior State Cyclocross Championships! This was my best race so far. At the start line I was all ready to go, and then I heard the whistle. I was one of the first off the line and I thought I was clipped in so I started sprinting, as if to take the hole-shot. Suddenly, my foot slipped and I swerved a little and was not in the position I would have liked to be in. I was probably in about sixth place and about fifteen seconds behind the leaders. I had to bring up the tempo a lot and finally caught up to fourth and fifth place. In this race there was a ton of singletrack so it was very difficult to pass, but once we eventually got on to a dirt road section I flew past fourth and fifth place. Then I came into a barrier section, the barriers were set to half height, I attempted to bunny hop both of them and did it successfully. By then I had a minor gap on fifth and sixth place. Just five seconds ahead of me I saw second and third place putting down the hammer. Then I came into another barrier section and the barrier was the same size so I attempted to bunny hop that one, and got the first wheel about six inches off the ground and the second one only about two. I nailed the barrier at around 15-20 MPH and almost did a front flip and slammed my whole right side into the ground.
It turns out afterward that I also cracked my helmet. Anyways, I got right up and got on the bike. But when I crashed fifth place caught up to me, and as it turns out third place was right in front of me when I crashed. So we got onto the single track again and I took about thirty seconds to collect myself and then dropped the hammer. I caught up to third place, and passed him on the wider, dirt section part. This time I ran over all the barriers. By the next barrier section, me and third place broke away from fifth and the third place rider was trying to drop me. I didn't budge. The other rider hit a root and his rear wheel started making a weird noise. I passed him and dropped him on the run up and then twenty seconds later I hear a loud POP! I finished in third place and was so tired but the good hard working kind of tired. I did better than I thought was even possible for me to do. So, the moral of the story is; don't give up even if you have a bad start or crash hard. Other good results from the Clif Bar Development CX Team: David Kessler:15-16 State Champion. Zane Godby:13-14 State Champion. Yannick Eckmann: 5th place- Pro Race. Robin Eckmann: 6th place- Pro Race. Brady Kappius: 3rd place- Pro Race. Mitch Hoke: 10th place Pro Race.

By Zack Gould