West Layfayette CX Challenge

This race was a learning experience. You could call it other things, but that's what I'm sticking with. I was pretty psyched for it, since it was the first race for the bike and first A-Race for myself. It was hard. The course was a fun one. The first fourth of it was twisty and technical and the other 75% was an open bumpy grassy field. I was able to ride the entire course before the start, but I still didn't have too great of a feel for it. I knew I had to be in the top 5 within the first lap if I was going to be in the mix of it by the end. I also know that the starts are always fast and furious. Indeed, the start was fast but I was not furious enough. Going into the first corner I was 5th, but I was being a wuss through the technical section, and lost my position. I could have gone so much faster through that section. I have no idea what happened. By the second half of the first lap, I had lost contact with the field. Yet I tried to keep my losses at a minimum and just keep it consistent, hoping I could pick off a few guys by the end. No such luck. I thought at one point I was going to catch Andy Messner, then he went off like a bullet again. It turns out he had a flat.......I couldn't even catch him when he had a flat! Another performance of the day goes out to Remo Thomson. He's 15 years old, and he raced to an 8th place in the "B"s and jumped in the "A"s right afterwards. He suffered like a dog, but rode extremely strong. He had the exact opposite performance as I did. I didn't bonk, but I just couldn't corner like I usually would. It was a bummer, but I ended up with 9th place(out of 11 starters, with one of them flatting). The only good thing I have to say is that the bike handled like a dream...... now I just have to learn how to handle it like a dream. Oh yeah, I held off being lapped until the last 300 meters(and only by the top 3 racers). I was not 2 laps behind like it was stated on truesport. Not that it matters or anything but I'd just wanted to save myself a little dignity.

On another note, congratulations to Mario Camacho of MOB Squad and Adrienne Murphy of Mesa Cycles on winning the Argyle Jersey Level of the Slipstream Sports Youth Cycling Award. Next year I'll be racing for Mesa Cycles, based out of St Louis MO. I'll write up a report on the team later. I'm really tired.


Here are the pics:

2nd or 3rd corner

2nd half of the 1st lap

Can you say, "SLOW!!!!!!!!"?

A reversed cambered U-turn.

Through a loose dirt/barrier section.

After the barriers.

No excuses.