2018 CX Participation Season!!!!
After an unmotivated summer and a back injury playing beach volleyball on vacation in Mexico at the middle/end of August, coupled with coaching Trevor's soccer games on Saturday evenings and Will's travel to NNL competitions, this season is shaping up to look like a 5 or 6 race season. This is ok with me, as I get to do more stuff with the kids, and still do a few races....
Town Hall Cross - Men's Cat 3/4
The B race was at noon, and the Master's 40+ was at 3:30pm. Trevor had a soccer game at 5pm, and the drive was 1:15, so I chose the B race. That's how my schedule will work this year mostly. I had everything packed Friday night, and got out of the house at about 8am on Saturday morning.
Uneventful drive to the venue, and I rolled in about 10 minutes after 9, as the 4/5 race was underway. Started to unpack some of my stuff/set up the trainer while keeping an eye out for
@Magic and
@Santapez to pass by. Steve came by first, in mismatching sprinkles bib shorts and our O&B baggy trail jersey. What the actual fuck?
@MissJR runs our kit orders. How does this happen? Look good, or ride fast. Choose one. 0 for 2.
Shortly after,
@Magic came rolling thru, looking very pro on his new Van Dessel whip. I made sure he knew Steve was very far ahead, and this was unacceptable.
I snapped a few pics, rolled around to the S/F area and chatted with
@seanrunnette @MissJR and @harryhamilton for a little bit, then jumped on the course after the 4/5 finished for a pre-ride.
I knew the lower field was out this year, and they added a little jaunt thru the woods with some gravel. So I hop on the course and make my way around, and then I get to the hill. F that hill. Yo go up the left side, switchback style, get to the top, then roll part way down before a sweeping left to go back up the steep part. Straight up. I'm definitely not in good shape this year, which became painfully apparent as I shifted down thru the gears in the cassette to find one that was't too painful. I ran out of gears. Fuck. This is pre-ride. I'm going easy, looking at lines and mud holes. And I can barely turn the cranks over. I'm running a 1x setup. It's how I bought the bike. 11/32 cassette with a 42t WolfTooth DropStop chain ring. Wasn't a problem last year. Gonna be a rough race. So anyway, I finish up my lap, and head to registration to get my number.
I watch the Masters 50+ and 60+ go off and chat a little more with peeps while watching the race.
Holy shit. The front of the 50+ race is 5 guys all together for the first 4 laps or so. Then it was 4. Just before the finish in the last few turns, 1 and 2 have a gap on 3 and 4. Harry is in 4th. Somehow, 1 and 2 get tangled up a little, and one of them goes down. The other guy soft pedals to the finish line AND THEN STOPS 2 YARDS PAST THE LINE!!! Well, here comes three and for sprinting for the finish! Winner/line blocker got relegated to 4th, dude who crashed got the win, and Harry and the other guy tied for 2nd.
After that, I rode one more pre-ride lap, hit the trainer, then finished 41st of 48.
Next up is Lucky Charm CX on Saturday. 1/2/3 Race.