Thanks Kalin for the picture (I'm in the middle)The first Cross Crusade race came and went in 'perfect' cross conditions. Rain, mud, puddles. Excellent! The forecast called for it to be partly sunny, thankfully, we never saw it.
But first... The day began with normal weekend duties - breakfast, nagging my daughter to do her homework, house cleaning, etc. My daughter had a classmate's birthday party at the SW Community Center which is very convenient since it was only a bit more than a mile from Alpenrose. So, after 'dropping the kids off at the pool' (literally, not figuratively), I rode off to Alpenrose to get registered and warmed up.
When I got there, it wasn't raining, but the course still looked slick but not to bad. I warmed up for a bit and tried to get the skinny on the course from my team members that were done racing. The course turned out to be very similar to the ones in years past.
At about 2:30 I decided to head to the starting area. Big mistake, there was already a huge group lined up. I typical Dan fashion I took my space at the back and waited. It was about this time when the rain started coming down.
The starting whistle went off and I was off with the group. I managed to pick up quite a few places until I hit the single track when my wheel went one way and my handlebars went the other (loose stem). I banged it back in place and was back. As I rode by the Cyclepath tent I called out for some tools for the pit. Bill obliged and met me there on the next lap. (Thanks Bill)
The rest of the race consisted of me trying my hardest to move up from pretty much dead last as the conditions degraded more and more. Each lap getting more slippery than the previous. I crashed once (slow motion going around a corner). I ended up completing 7 laps and seemed to be getting faster with each lap. I managed to pick off some riders that wanted to beat but definitely did not end up where I wanted to be. I finished at 30th place (out of 78 guys). Not bad, but not fantastic. Definately some work to do for next week (such as getting a better starting place).
The race was way more fun than the race last weekend. The race last week was so hot and dry. The weather was definately a fun factor this week.
On a side note, this race broke last season's record. 1,267 racers showed up to compete. Awesome. This could be a national record I would think.
PS - if you click on my name in the OBRA results, it is not me... There is another Dan Porter out in OBRA land...I wish I could see his picture.
Not Me: http://app.obra.org/results/
Me: http://app.obra.org/results/
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