WA State CX Championships

It has officially started being cold. I mean like mid-high 30's cold. And this year's cyclocross state championship races were once again held at Arlington, some 40mi north of Seattle. Well, let me tell you, it is noticeably colder just 1hr north of here, with a little dusting of snow and frozen puddles in the fields. With hours in between our races, we decided to bring a tent, some chairs, a table and heater to be comfortable. Though it didn't rain, the tent provided an established area where we chilled and stayed warm between races.

Papa- you sure you know how to operate that?

Both of the boys on Team Ramirez seem to be having good form as the close of the cross season nears, so going to the championship races was a must.

Donovan went off first. Though the fields were small, you could tell this was the championship race- I only counted 1 mtb in his race. All the other kids were on light aluminum machines, most with gears, (soccer) cleats on all their feet = seerious bees-ness....

Chris Froome wishes he could clear barriers like me...

He is starting to develop a bit of a rivalry with some of the guys on the Rad Racing squad.  Donovan is psyched to have walked away with a very respectable 7th place.

Push to the line! Good for 7th place. In the state.

Next up was his old man. After fumbling a bit at the start (new cleats r in the mail!), I made a strong push in the first 2 laps to get myself back to the front of the race. Pretty soon I was riding in 3rd, just 4seconds behind Jon, with Peter hot on my heels. There were some technical sections on the course today which played to Jon's strengths and instead of catching him, he continued to put time between us. By the end of the race, I was running out of gas and felt Peter closing in, but managed to hold on to 3rd.  The guy that beat us all by a zip code is a good guy, last year's champ and a bona fide Cat1-2, just trying to fill his points quota to go race where he belongs.  

Jon (2nd), me (3rd), Peter (4th).
Good pals, good times, completely spent...
(Nick Adsero half cameo on right... we'll be racing together soon, bud...)

This time, since it was the championship race, aside from pats on the back, we came home with one of these for 3rd spot:

Overall, it was a good day at the races. Thank you Theresa for putting up with your nutty family! 2 more races left in the local calendar. But before then, Happy Turkey break if you are in the USA.

Thanks for reading.