Cycle-Smart International CX

[pcollins]

Day 1 UCI C2
This was my first UCI race and I was pretty nervous. Luckily I got good random staging on the 3rd row, but the start was super hectic. I got into a group of 3 after the UCI-only descent, which was pretty treacherous. We were racing for ~20th place. Halfway through I rolled my front tubular and crashed, which dropped me back into a group of 4 (Sousa, Reardon, and Berthram). I raced the remainder of the race with the tubular pushed back on, hoping it wouldn’t roll again (I don’t have pit equipment), amazingly it held. Gaps formed every time through the UCI-only descent, and Berthram and I got away from our group with maybe a lap and a half to go. I thought I could beat Berthram in the sprint but a small gap opened through the woods after slamming my hip against a tree and I couldn’t really close it down. I finished 24th/63 and surprisingly (I was just chilling at my car when I heard the announcer call my name and I was like “what…”) made the 3rd step on the U23 podium with Sam O’Keefe and Scott Smith.

Day 2 UCI C2
Staged 4th row and got a good start. After a few laps St. Germain and I bridged up to the group of Myerson, St. John, McNeely and a few others. St. John attacked and St. Germain, McNeely and I followed, which split the group up. St. Germain and I bridged up to Dan Chabanov and then I got gapped off from them in the sand pit and it stayed like that to the finish. I ended up 15th/63 and 2nd for U23. I felt really good and this result was pretty unexpected. After this weekend, I'm thinking that maybe I can contest UCI points at Supercross and NBX.

[ahamilton]

Awesome weekend Patrick. I have no doubt about your ability to compete for UCI points. And I suspect there will be more of these in your future:

Patrick_CycleSmart.JPG (46.82 KiB) Viewed 6887 times

Patrick_CycleSmart_Podium.JPG (44.27 KiB) Viewed 6884 times

Photos courtesy of cyclingnews.com and Todd Prekaski

[JeremyC]

Those bearded guys don't look U23. You should protest.

[pcollins]

Thanks for posting these photos Alan!