Devils Cross 10-19-08

This past weekend found us traveling to the Quad Cities for the first in the DICE cross series. This is a new venue for them, and was a great place to have a race, everything you could have wanted, some pavement sections, some uphills, some fast flat sections, and some good off camber stuff. Going into the race I wasn't feeling great, but I decided to try and see how it went, just couldn't get my legs going, and they felt heavy, so I knew I was in trouble there.

We showed up at 9:30 because this was to be our son's first cross race as a Junior. We get him all signed in and head back to get him warmed up and ride the course so he knew where to go. A little on his race, he was racing at the same time as the beginner men, and as a Junior it is 10-18, not realizing there was any other Juniors all he had to do was finish. Turns out there was another Junior, who must be 18, but that's ok. He did 3 laps before getting lapped by the leaders, and ended up doing 4 laps total in just over 30 minutes, did a great job of staying in it the whole time and not letting up, he does need to make sure he drinks more, but that will come with time and learning, and we need to figure out a way to get him to lift his bike easier too, the barriers about killed him. It was great though because all the way around the course people were cheering him on and ringing cow bells, and just being supportive of the little guy out there hanging in with the older guys.

On to my race. Like I said before I knew going into it that today would not be my best performance, but I tried anyways, got to the line, and it was nice to see a team mate there as well, Chris made it out to the race, and although cross is not a team sport, it is nice to see others from the team doing it. We get all lined up, and the ref lets us go, and the race is on, starts off on a long sweeping left on the pavement before shooting off into the grass and the first set of barriers. I get a good start as no one else is really pushing hard, and go into the first section in around 3rd or 4th place, but already I am feeling it in the legs, and was just trying to hold on to a respectable pace. We hit the first run-up and by this time I know I am done for, so I watch about 1/2 the field pass me, and just come to the realization that today is not my day. I was able to finally get into a rhythm about lap 3 and had 2 guys from the DICE team around me, so we were constantly changing positions with each other. Somewhere around this time I get to one section and see that Chris was off his bike and messing with the front brake, I as if he is ok and he says yes so I keep going, come to find out later that he hit a hole and went over the bars, but when his bike hit the ground the front shifter moved down his bars and pulled the brake cable, so he had to get some slack out of it so he could ride. I continue on my way and keep my pace the best I could. Lap 5 Chris catches back up to me, and I get a little boost and try and stick with him, but that was on the run up, and he was gone, at this point I looked down for a second, and somehow went off course, so that cost me about 10 seconds trying to figure out what I had done. I finally got the one DICE guy to break down to the point of I was feeling better on the run up and actually ran it and never saw him again, but the other guy had a decent lead on me and I never was able to regain it. Lap 6 and I can see the 2 leaders closing in on me, so I knew before the end of the lap I would be caught, just when, they got me right after the run up, so it was just time to keep my pace and go to the finish.

Crossed the line in 11th place in the Cat 3/4 race, so with not feeling well I still had a good placing. Next weekend we will be heading to Spooky Cross in Urbandale for 2 days of racing action, and I will have my new bike by then, so hoping for feeling better and a better result.

Devil's Cross