CX Lives Again!!

The 'cross bike was put back together and has had only two rides on it, but the first race of the season was Sunday! Actually I should say races, as in plural. It was great to be back out and feeding the addiction, especially on such a tough course. It was really flat, but 6 dismounts made for a tiring experience. In the first race, the cat 4 category, I had a slow pickup off the start having selected a very bad gear to get going. However I finally got up to speed and shot towards the front then dove hard into the first turn, a U-turn with room for only one rider on the exit. I came out of the turn in first place and held position for about half a lap. From there I lost a few positions slowly over the next 40 minutes. I ended up in a relatively close battle for a few laps, but managed to attack and pull away with 1/3 lap remaining to take 7th of 36.

I then cheered Chris on during his race, shouting and ringing a lot of cowbell. After stressing out a little too much then suffering from two hard crashes he was slightly down in spirits, but I convinced him to get back out for the noon race, the Cat 3/4 race. We both rode in this race, though we were quite tuckered. We decided to start at the back and use the race as training and try to pick off who we could. After a brief separation on the start we rejoined and rode the rest of the race together keeping each other posted on gaps over 4 or 5 other guys near us and general course notes. My legs felt like they could barely turn the cranks but I managed to finish the 45 minute race. I'd saved enough energy through that race that I managed to have a little kick for the last lap. I'd been opening gaps in technical parts of the course all race, so the final lap I pushed as hard as I could through those sections and kept my pace up throughout. I managed to drop the rest of the guys that had been just behind us. I managed a 24th place finish of 39. Not too bad really.

Overall a great start to the season. The results are posted here.