Kalispell CX

So the Kalispell events went well......we headed up north this past weekend to race CX on both saturday and sunday. The early morning wakeup on saturday was rough though and then the proceeding 3 and a half hour drive up to race at 10:30 am was even rougher. But it even gets worse when you have a young lad Karl Vanderwood from Helena and now racing for MT Velo kicking your arse in the mens B field. Allthough after a tough course that consisted of plenty of climbing and a bad start i managed to work my way up into a small group which was tailing Karl by 30 seconds. Eventually myself and another fella from Whitefish ended up riding together for the remaining race.....we stuck together tightly and on the last lap i managed to form a small gap and for a brief second i thought i was going to sneak into 2nd place. But i wasn't the one sneaking as the cyclist from Whitefish managed to catch me within 30 yards of the finish and he eventually came around me nipping me at the line. Oh well......i'm just out there for the pain....right ?


On sunday and on a different course, cold weather, and with a smaller field .....Karl-less with his recent departure to race with the fast guys. I managed to get a good jump on the field and took off at a decent pace. It didn't feel as painful as usual and my small gap got a little bit larger. I keep riding hard, enjoying the singletrack sections of the lap and then i noticed that my course flags dissapeared.....i looked around me just in time to see the rest of the field go buzzing by ! Yep.....i took a wrong turn. Maybe i should have prerode the course more than once : ) , so i turn around and ride like hell to catch the new leaders. It took about a 1/2 lap to catch back up and another 1/2 lap to catch my breathe from the effort but i eventually worked my way around and back into the lead taking one other cyclist with me. We worked together for the remainder of the race and then on the last lap on a small run up that i was able to ride, created a small gap on him that i held to the finish line. A win in the b's is a win. But i'd eventually like to suffer in the back of the pack with the mens A group. Maybe soon, maybe in time for the MT state championships.


Matt Baldwins pics from Off the Grind