Racing Cyclocross - Barton Park

Barton Park

This fall season I decided to try my hand at cyclocross. During the prior year, I started following cyclocross events online and watched a few vimeo and youtube videos and came to the conclusion that it was something that I would like to try. I also wanted to get into road biking as a good form of cross training. With that in mind, I purchased a cyclocross bike from my LBS, and also picked up a extra set of rims equipped with road tires. Not the ideal set up for road biking, but it would work for the mean time, but as a cyclocross setup, it would work great.

With very little time on my cross bike and very little training ( yes I tried a few mounts, dismounts and barrier hops), I signed up for a race in the local Blind Date at the Diary series. I raced in Cat C because I couldnt make it in time for the beginner race. Overall, it was a rough introduction into cyclocross as the race takes place in the evening under the lights of the baseball fields and other pop up lights, but not all of the course was lit so it was a little nerve racking sliding around in the dark amongst many other like-minded individuals. I soon realized that I went out way too hard and was cramping and exhausted by the time I crossed the finish line. In the end, I placed well, 18th I think in the C's, not bad for my first event, and I definitely knew that I wanted to race more.

A few weeks later, I signed up for my first Cross Crusade event at Barton Park. The Cross Crusade needs little introduction for those pugged into the cross scene. Once again, I raced Cat C because I didnt want to get up super early to make the Beginner race. I described the cross as a little muddy, but I later read that it was the driest Barton course they'd ever seen. Oh well, it was a good excuse to try out my new tires. I took this event at a much slower pace early on as I did not want to blow up like I did in my last race. I also did not know the course so I took the first lap and a half to get comfortable. Somehow during the first two laps, I failed to recognize where the finish line was and hammered hard on the third lap only to realize that the finish line was not where I expected and I had half a lap to go. So once again, I bonked hard and wasnt able to hold off the people that I had passed during my surge. However, I finished the race very happy and was glad that I came out to race. I look forward to next year and getting a group of friends together to race and maybe...... put together a team. We'll see.

UNT

Bryan

PS. No pics from the Blind Date, only Barton Park.

Oh this is where the finish is...

Portland Trail Series

The past couple of months I have been competing every other Wednesday at the inaugural Portland Trail Series in Forest Park. The series consisted of 5 races ranging from a little less than 5 miles to a little below 8 miles with a stout amount of climbing in each race. I thought the series would give me some minor goals to work towards as I come into my off season. After a competition free summer, it was nice to get out and test myself once again and get some speed work in.

In the end, I ended up winning all but 1 race, where I got second, and won the overall series title. It was a wonderful event put on by Todd Janssen and a handful of other great volunteers from the Tuesday night trail runners and Trailfactor group. Thanks everyone! You can see all the results here on Nspire.

Blurry iPhone shots