Canton CX 10/25

[mfwestbe]

4/5 Race

This was CX #1 for me, and whether because of that or my reg 10 minutes before it closed, I was number 603 in a field that started at 500 (row 15 maybe?). There was no one behind me except the juniors, who went off after us.

I did my best to gain some position on the pavement, but from there it was slim opportunities for passing. I spent the next 40 minutes with an avg.175 HR, so that was fun. The two steep hills were terrible for 2 laps because folks in front of me didn't even appear to try, or failed and left me no choice but to run up.

All-in-all, beautiful day, and surprisingly little mud after this past week. However, Mark B's words did pop in to my head around lap 3 - "Why I am doing this?" But, I plugged away eventually catching up to another small group at the end of the last lap who had no chance on me in our last ditch sprint. Finished 51/88 (started w/ 99)

[Mkidd3]

Ha!! and I also said "10min after you've finished you'll be looking for the next race". The cx bug is hard to shake. Well done on your first race!

[mfwestbe]

I also said "10min after you've finished you'll be looking for the next race".

This may also be true...

[NCgaron]

I am going to keep this short. I personally hate this course it way too fast and flat for my riding style. I ended up 30th after popping out of the top 10 after two laps. I did however manage to hop barriers for the first time in almost a year and a half.

[michaelcole]

Nolan,
Props for the hops. But if they were the old BostonCrozz barriers, then it's a requirement to hop them at your level. No bonus points unless you are a cat5.

[NCgaron]

Yeah it was those they moved them to a new spot and I didnt see anybody else in my race hopping them. They were a ton faster than other years.

[pcollins]

Started on the 3rd row for the elite race, had a decent start and slotted in around 15th to 20th. Nothing really exciting happened except for tripping on a root and face planting on the run up. I didn't like the course, too much pavement, a couple really bumpy corners, tons of steady pedaling and those 40cm barriers were tough to run over with speed. It was really fast, my avg speed was 27 kph and avg HR was 195. I bunny hopped (no contact) the short barriers every time, which was fun. I started to fade around halfway through, finished 19th/46.