Well the first half of the cross season is in the books. Time for a well deserved rest after the mud fest that was Granogue and the suffer fest that was Wissahickon. First off let me just give a huge hats off to the DCCoD and Kelly and all the folks at Wiss and Human Zoom and The Sturdy girls for outstandingly organized and run races.
As mentioned Granogue was a real riders course . With a huge Nor'easter blanketing the area and hanging for days the grounds on the Estate were soaked through and torn up from the earlier heats. As the day progressed things deteriorated even more prompting the promoters to make corrections and change lines. All well and good unless it's during a race. Lot's of bike changes and a well working pit crew were a key. Finished the day 2nd after a back and forth day with Matt Kraus. Rodger Aspholm takes the win just ahead of us.
Sunday Dawned Cold windy and wet. The course at Wiss changed from race to race and dried out considerably by the Men's Elite race at the end of the day. We even had sun to look forward to.
In the Masters race it was Kraus and I at the start. Aspholm bridged at the start of the 2nd lap leaving me in his wake. Just didn't have the legs to go with him. In the end it was Rodger on the top step and Matt and I taking 2nd and third respectively. Second race went well till the 5 to go card showed up, legs emptied and boy it seemed to get cold. Still I made 10 bucks on the run up picking 1$'s out of the mud. Seems to help the legs when you can entertain the crowd.
Erica stomped on the woman's Elite race. After slipping a pedal at the start and dropping to the back of the race she showed grit and determination and worked her way all the way back to the top ten, finishing 9th for the day. That earned her 2 coveted UCI points and gets her off the back row at the starts. Watching her go from Mom to competitor is always a thing of beauty. And boy o boy can she ride well in the mud.
Like I started with, it's time for a rest. 8 weeks on leaves you tired but in our case still wanting more.
2 comments:
Good report, Mike. It was definitely an epic weekend of cross racing. Nice work out there!
Both of you killed it this weekend even with the crazy conditions. It was a pure joy to watch and cheer you both!
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