CX Nationals Day 3

The third day of Cyclocross Nationals began early in the morning with Bob Downs racing his masters mens event at 8:30. The entire Planet Bike team came out to rally on their leader.

Bob had a great start and was sitting in the top 5 after the first lap.

photo: Mark Legg

He moved up to 3rd by the third lap and was looking strong. The technical, slippery course was causing trouble for many riders, however, and Bob went down hard on the back section of the course.

photo: Mark Legg

Another couple of bobbles after that and he had soon fallen out of the top 10. A valiant effort, nonetheless, and Bob's form was demonstrated by his strong showing in the early laps.

CX Magazine report, Cyclingnews

Following Bob's race the entire team gathered for a team photo. With 16 riders participating at Nationals this year it was truly special to have everyone together. Spanning all age categories Team Planet Bike is a force to be reckoned with!


After the team photo Katie Compton had something special to present to Bob for Planet Bike's support of her this season.
As the leader of the UCI World Cup competition Katie wears a special white leader's jersey and presented Bob with this. She is the first American (man or woman) to ever lead this prestigious competition and has been wearing the jersey in World Cup races since she won the first race in the series on October 4.

Another few team pictures were taken including a womens team shot

and one of all the juniors on the team

The afternoon races consisted of some masters mens events for the 30-40 year old guys. The crowds were huge and raucous.

So were the fields of riders. Chris, Curtis, Jerry, and Geoff lined up with nearly 170 of their closest friends to contest the 35-39 age category.
Planet Bike East Coast Team members Curtis finished 12th, Jerry 83rd, and Geoff 88th. Chris was also duking it out in the race and he made it more laps than he had predicted and looked strong out on the course. Nice racing guys!

Masters reports - CX Magazine, Cyclingnews


And thus concluded the day of sanctioned racing. A special Clydesdale race occured later that evening under the lights. With a weigh in determining start order and costumes encouraged the race drew lots of spectators. Planet Bike also donated some new Blaze 2W lights to riders and the course was lit up well.
And it was terribly slippery as temps dropped below freezing and off camber grass sections become icy. Crashes were prevalent.

Here is Planet Bike East Coast team member Geoff Williams. Nice lights Geoff (notice the ones turned backwards as an attempt to blind his competition?)