After another State Championship, Maxx Chance is off to Belgium, with mates

December 15, 2012

Junior 17-18 podium (l - r) Ian McPherson 3rd, Maxx Chance 1st, Garrett Gerchar 2nd

2012 Junior men 17-18 Colorado State Cyclocross Championships podium (l – r) Ian McPherson 3rd, Maxx Chance 1st, Garrett Gerchar 2nd

[updated 12/16/2012]

Maxx Chance has earned so much state championship attire, he probably needs a separate closet in which to store it all. Today he added another vest when he became the Colorado State Cyclocross Champion in the Junior 17-18 category at Cross of the North in Loveland.

Maxx Chance wins the 2012 Junior 17-18 Colorado State Cyclocross Championships

Chance, a Clif Bar Development Cyclocross Team rider, just returned home to Boulder as the final overall Junior 17-18 points leader for this season’s U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross after second and third place results at the Deschutes Brewery Cup in Bend, Oregon.

Garrett Gerchar (Boulder Junior Cycling) and Chance rode off the front for most of today’s state championship race. In a flat-out push on the last straight-away just before the finish line, Gerchar clipped out of a pedal and lost a few bike lengths to Chance.

Like Chance, Gerchar enjoyed second and third place results in Bend. The Clif Bar Development Cyclocross Team took notice.

Garrett Gerchar floats ahead of Maxx Chance in a bumpy section of the CO State champs course

Garrett Gerchar floats ahead of Maxx Chance in a bumpy section of the Colorado Championship course

Chance said today that he and teammates Ian McPherson and Spencer Downing are heading to Belgium with Mitch Hoke, a Team Clif Bar rider who also directs the development team. Gerchar will join them. “Garrett [Gerchar] was doing really well in Bend so we extended an invitation to him,” Chance said.

Current plans call for Gerchar and the Clif Bar Cyclocross Development guys to stay in Oudenaarde in Belgium and compete in five or six races. Chance and Downing are scheduled to contest the World Cup event in Zolder, Belgium. The remaining races are expected to be local or Superprestige contests.

This will be Chance’s first trip to Europe. “I can’t wait to race against the Belgians,” he wrote in a note regarding how he feels about the upcoming races in Belgium. “I know what it is like racing here in the states and who the big guys are, but in Europe it is a whole new world. I have only heard stories about European races and hope the trip and races live up to the grand stories I have been told about them.”

Gerchar and Chance crossed the finish line with the first and second place Junior 17-18 women, Laurel Rathbun (Hammer) and Kirsten Williams (Natural Grocers).