The park is in downtown Des Moines, and there is a decent size hill that would be a factor in the course, as a run up. Got there about 2 hours before my start, got to check out the course, watch some other guys race, and then got dressed. It was a chilly morning as the fog hadn't lifted yet, but was very humid, I did a pre ride of 2 laps with my base layer on, and dropped that before starting. I got in the front row of the start, and looked back to see what seemed like a sea of people, 28 of us to start. The start wasn't the most ideal as we just went about 50 yards, took a hard left and started climbing towards the barriers for the run up, so it really didn't seperate the field to much. I was still in the front 3 or so at the top of the climb, and lost a couple more spots before the end of teh lap, but I finally settld into a groove that I could go at one pace, and I wasn't loosing any more spots, but wasn't gaining any eiethr.
Me and another guy rode for quite a few laps together switch spots back and forth, until he finally pulled away slowly as I started feeling fatigued from the race the day before. So now I could see him one corner or so ahead of me, but could never make it back onto his wheel. With 5 laps to go I got lapped by the 1st place guy, and then the next lap I got lapped by a few more guys, and by the end of the race I think the top 6 guys had all lapped me, and most of the rest of the field.
Came across the line in 11th place out of 26 finishers, so not a bad showing for my first cross race of the year, now next week will be just a single race weekend, so hoping for a better result there, pictures for this race will be up soon as well....
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| Capital City Cross |
2 comments:
You ridin' a CX bike or MTB for these events?
Looking at doing a pair of races in Minnesota later this month using my MTB... curious what you're ridin'
Nate
CX Bike, I have used my MTB in the past before owning a CX bike though and that worked out just fine.
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