The Dot CX

Hmmmm...not much to say about this race. This was my first attempt at racing again following the Dirt Gods vengeful wrath for doing a CX race on my MTB!! It was also the debut of the helmet cam...Unfortunately my aim pretty much sucks so all I got was a close up of the course 10 feet in front of me, and some pretty good quotes from the audio!!!

A few of my favorites..."Giggety", that was going into the first turn after the start. "POWERTAP...I can't compete with that"!!! A racer passed me that had a Powertap hub. "I'd go faster if I was a pro like you"!!! This was to a junior teammate that is a cat 2 rider, he started at the back of all the cat 4 racers which was about 100ish, I was about 10th at the time and started with the first wave of 4's.

Anyhoo...I started riding again on the Tuesday before this race. My ribs were finally good to go and started pedalling again!! I knew going in that my motor would be lacking a bit of top end, and I was right!!

On to the race...We arrive with plenty of time to get ready, so we watch some racing, sign up, eat some of the tasty confections that were available, and just generally kill time. The time comes to get ready, it's still pretty freakin cold!!! I grab the winter riding jacket and heavy gloves and off we go. Good warm up done, time to decide the dress for the race. I shed everything but a base layer and go with regular MTB gloves, which was the way to go!!!

Aaaaand...we're off!!! I stab the pedal on the first try, and the drag race to the first turn begins. I checked my max speed, it was at the start and was 28.5 mph...love that 46 tooth big ring!!! I lean into the first turn in about 4th or 5th out of 53 and proceed to catch air off of the roller that drops down to the course....WOOOHOOOO!!!!

Rolling along, I'm suffering pretty good, trying to maintain my position in the race. It's kinda working...a rider every now and again rolls by and I just try to maintain my effort and stay steady. Somewhere on lap 3 of 4 I finally breakthrough the pain, settle into feeling good and pick up the pace a bit. I start reeling in a trio of riders that are in front of me, and manage to pass all three on a short off camber uphill left...

One of the three passes me back, and rides me off his wheel. I slowly start reeling him in and get to his wheel at the second dismount. Up the hill and back on the bike, I say to him "kick it in big dog"...the guy was taller than me. He puts the hammer down and I manage to stay with him through the last headwind section and proceed to run out of gas just as we hit the pavement to the finish. Fortunately my last effort was enough to create a big gap and had time to do a wheelie across the line in 12th!!!

Good thing it's been raining, because I would really like to be blasting through the woods on some sweet single track ANYWHERE...and since I've done another CX race on the Truth, the the Dirt Gods might feel it necessary to take revenge again for the desecration of an Ellsworth Truth, whose origins are sown deeply in the roots, rocks, and sweet technical single track of the WOODS!!! Not a CX course...to this I say...It's fun and I await the vengeful hand of the Dirt Gods for lining up on the Truth in yet another CX race.

O gods of dirt and singletrack
Bow down and hear this cry
This Truth rider has faltered
Cross is fun, this is why...
The course of tape guides me
The barriers of wood divide
Take not my mad skeelz from me
NO!!! Not another black eye!!!


I love riding my bike!!!!