Cyclocross Action

So the first cross race of the season was awesome! I like to ride out to the race course when its at the Kids Lake venue because its a good 20 minute warm up away from my house. The temperature was a nice 45-50 degrees with a nice sprinkle mist coming down. Perfect Cyclocross weather!
Once I got to the course, I had to get a quick lap in to check out the course layout. It was about average in length, maybe a mile per lap, and a few good mud bog sections but nothing too technical. The mud was actually more like play-doh and not the kind of mud that gets all over you like you see in pictures of epic cross races.
The course steered around a lot of the really wet parts of the park that I was kind of hoping we would have to go through but, it was still a cool course. There was one weird section that went down hill to a right hand 180 degree turn, followed by a barrier immediately after the turn, about a 20 yard run up and then another barrier.

This is about 10 or 15 minutes into the 60 minute A race. I started a little too fast trying to hang with the fastest guys, blew up somewhat and trying not to vomit as a group of 4 or so riders are catching me. I was probably sitting in sixth or seventh right here.

It seems like for me, most cross races go like this: first 20 minutes go super hard then try to recover. Second 20 minutes, settle in and try to find a good rhythm. Third 20 minutes, try to hold your position and survive the last part of the race. The picture above was about midway through. Two other guys and myself were trading pulls and trying to keep a good tempo going.

Mixing it up with Matt Ankney at two laps to go! Actually I'm getting lapped by Matt with two laps to go. I was trying as hard as I could not to get lapped, but the dude was flying and put a good half a lap on second place.
I felt like I was going as fast as I ever have, but the competition is growing and getting faster. I know I can get stronger in the next couple of months and this race was a good baseline starting point to go from. I think I finished 10th or 11th overall.

I think this may have been the biggest rider turnout at this course, at least the biggest that I've seen. Right after the race I didn't think I would be sore at all, but last night and today I'm pretty sore. Next weekend is the Chandler Park race in Tulsa, so hopefully I can get some good riding in this week and hit it hard again Sunday! Cyclocross RULES!!!!!!