2007 State Cross! Championships

Gotta tell ya, it was a lot of fun, I was exhausted after a day of announcing, but it was worth it, fortunately I work with the legend of G-Love, which makes it even that much better... here are some observations if you missed some of the races...

Men's A's- Bartmang G just let it rip from the beginning to take another title... he told G-Love before the race that he would need to keep it under control because he was going to the C Rica the next day.... pretty much looked like he was on form, for sure... Bryson "think I'll race for Canyon Bikes today" Perry solidified second spot not long into the race, and kept on trying to drill it, in an effort to reel in the mang'er to no avail, but big kudo's for the effort... Hardwood flew in from Cali at 4am Pac time to drill 3rd overall and take the 35+ A group, only to stagger off after the race like he was in a brawl with Mike Tyson, once again, another cyclocrosser delivering the goods on championship weekend regardless of the circumstances... to round out the top 5 we had Copper Peterson and Reed Wycoffifyouhaverobitussin with a never say die attitude, good on ya...

and...Ali "socks" Goulet who had a mechanical right off the bat and was sitting dead last, probably in a different zip code for the first few laps, to lay it down and catch 1/2 of the field... he ended up being one of the studs of the day...

Womens A's- The Sherwin took control early and stayed in deep space, there was a fight for the podium postions with Dr Kris Cross spinning away to second holding off T Pezz pushing a really big gear and eating up about 10 meters per stroke with Deuter Time not far behind, this was a great race with the womenfolk flying... and the Mistress did it with her Catholic School mini then had the energy to get the whip out (see real pics at the bottom of this blog in the SL Trib webblog... it's pretty cool)

Men's A 35+- once again Hardwood took it with Jonny "Give me more work" Gallagher taking a hard earned second after setting up the course and doing a ton of work all day, to round out the podium AJ Air Jordan, who crashed multiple times, looked painful, but he still finished while flashing the pearls... ed.note.- A-Train was ripping it up until all at once he pulled the plug... read in his blog he felt horrible and couldn't overcome it... prediction the Train will be on new high speed tracks next year, watch for him to be back in a big way, (I'm just one of many Art fans out there, no doubt).

Men's 45+- was a race with McWin taking charge from the gun and to Mc Win it a Mcgain, but it wasn't an easy ride for him, he looked like he was fighting the big lactic acid build... Killer Warsoki took second looking like he caught the virus from McWin and rounding out the top 3, yes the ever classy Chuck "Tom" Collins...

Juniors 15-18- will promote the law firm of Swenson, Lasky, Matthews and Cottle pretty quickly, look for all of these dudes in the future, they are all greased lightning greenies... Congrats on a great race that Mr Jackson and I really enjoyed covering...

Men's B's- Connor O'Leary wears a lot of sunscreen on his face... probably because he's Irish... the 1/2 pound of the white stuff doesn't do three things- 1. Slow him down. 2. Make him less cool, and 3. Do him any good, 'cause he goes so fast the sunlight can't catch him! Coming in second was the Hoove who did his best impression of a Spanish climber up every hill with Kelly Glenn of Contender rounding out the 3 spot.

Womens B's- had Jennie "in the house" Wade churnin' and burnin' to create a decent gap on hard charging Heather Gilbert and Christy "Casius" Clay... side note, I had to run up next to Christy to ask her what her name was because we wanted to announce her postions, a couple fans asked me if I was interviewing her while she was racing... I told them that "I was asking her what her HR and Watts were at the time"... I think they thought I was serious... big ups to Mother Theresa for making the trip all the way from the Cape de Cod to race... and do pretty well at that.

Men's 35+ B's- the story was simply Scott Allen showing up for the first time and carting Micholo Pratini around the course, lap after lap... only at the end to have both guys trying to push the other across the line first... Micholo was not going to let Scallen do all the work and not win... that is why I really dig my teammates, because they are... great crossmanship boys, that is what a team is all about...

Masters 55+- Roger "I am also a winning" Gillespie held off the Lew brothers for first...

Singlespeed- was absolutely one of the very best races... Jason "Sammy" Sagar (yeah, like the front man of Van-Halen) showed us why he IS the man... then Alex Rock shows up from nowhere with his gasoline suit on... yes, his gasoline suit (there is an old Pete Rose saying "love the sport hard and it will love you back... I would go through Hell in a gasoline suit to play"...well that is what the Rockstar did, and he would not be denied for the two spot and fought hard for the gold to no avail... this guy is lethal when locked and loaded and stormed through the race harder with each lap, Gardie and I went nuts! I heard Alex may go to the EU next year to race, I hope he does! Jess "the body" Dear was Revolutionary getting 3rd...

Men's C's -was a huge field and everyone went hard.. Mike "I'm not" Walkenhorst took another one, he will be upgrading quickly...

Junior boys 14 and under had another big field with 14 bikes that were loaned out by Canyon Bicycles of Draper... it was Curtis, Hoover and Duncan in that order.

and finally the Junior Girls had a good showing with Chelsey Layer rippin it up for the top spot.

Thanks to all the fans including one Marty Jemison showing his support... here is a really cool link from the SL Tribune Blog regarding the race with pics... and yes thats our own Stephen Chops Lewis commentating, he is quite articulate...good job man!

http://166.70.44.68/multimedia/2007/1110_cyclocross/index.html

B-Horn