Vets Park CX

Today turned into another awesome weather day. CX season is supposed to be cold, dreary, muddy, and even snowy. Out of my CX races this year I had 60's, 70's and 80's all on sunny days. I can't complain about that.

We lined up with 23 strong in the A race. The field was stacked with the usual suspects, MTBers getting the final touches in for ICEMAN and even some out of town guys came in. I started the first lap in my usual spot. Robert and I were fighting it out for dead last. Just before the end of lap 1 I got into my rhythm while everyone else settled down from the fast start.

I rode my bike and enjoyed every moment of it. Every lap I would pass people. 1, 2, or 3 people a lap. Just like my other races, my steadiness won. No crashes, no screw ups, and 110%. After 3 very tough end laps battling it out with a WMCR rider, I came in 11th overall and am very happy about my result. Props to the WMCR rider who could run like the wind on the run-up. I would gap him, then he would run-up and catch me. Finally on the last lap he got me.

The funniest part of the race was after the first set of barriers on one of the middle laps. I had ran over the barriers (smoothly) and jumped back onto the saddle. I look up and hear, "Awe, man, that has got to hurt." It was a 14-15ish year old kid standing at the end of the tape over his BMX bike he had just rode there. That gave me a great mid-race chuckle.

Looking foreward to next weekend shows some 40 degree weather and hopefully no rain. Today was probably the hardest I have ever raced in my 3 years of racing. After the race my lungs were on fire like I had just had an asthma attack. Talk about 1 hr of VO2 Max. My form is good and with a little rest and a touch of intensity between now and Saturday, I should be good to go. Not to win, but have a good race, have fun, and try to place well.