In the Snow Globe

December opened by taking Taylor and I to Easthampton, Massachusetts for yet another cyclocross race. I could probably come up with a list of 10 or so reasons for a somewhat lackluster performance, two that would actually be pretty valid, but I guess the fact is there are some fast guys out there and when you have an off day you can get spanked pretty easily. It was a very cold morning only rising to 29° by the end of our race. My feet were extremely cold and I could barely feel my toes by the end, running at barriers had a certain floating feeling to it since I couldn't feel the ground below me too well. From the start I just wasn't able to go and I could feel it in the first few pedal strokes, so I let a bunch of guys pass me in the starting sprint. I just fell into a relatively comfortably groove and rode the race at my pace. Slowly I reeled some guys in, especially on the sections suited to my mountain bike skills. In the last lap I was able to muster some extra strength and reeled 4 guys in that had passed me the lap before. I just made sure to get in front of them before the final run up. It was very steep with little to no chance to get speed into it, so most guys were running it, I was riding it, so I knew I could open a few seconds there before heading into the finish sprint. Although I had to dab with my left foot at the top I had opened up some space and headed to the line for 16th place. Taylor had few minor problems where he lost a little time had been catching me and rolled in at 21st, blowing another guy away in a sprint for position. There were 30+ guys in our field, but I think below 23rd place got lapped and didn't get scored.

The interesting item of the day was on our trip to the race. We hit a complete blizzard a few miles South of Springfield. We could see it coming and all of a sudden we went through a wall of snow, just like going through the glass of a snow globe. A few miles later we went out the other side. The weather was quite nice on either side, but for a few minutes it was complete snowy chaos. Taylor and I burst into laughter when we hit it, thinking we might be racing in similar conditions. It was almost a let down when the snow stopped as suddenly as it begin.

Off to Warwick, Rhode Island next week.