I Got A Little Woody Today

Today was the first of two days of WSBA cyclocross racing at Riverside State Park. They have a different schedule so I only signed up for one race each day since both races I usually enter are running back to back. Today I did the men's masters 55+. Since I was only in one race I planned to race hard and see how it went. The course made it very challenging.

Yesterday we had a ton of rain. The park normally drains the water away but since the ground had frozen a couple days before much of the water pooled and froze overnight.

They started all the masters, 35+, 45+, and 55+ together so I had no idea who I was up against. There were about twenty of us in thee group. I jumped out at the start and was around 5th or 6th when we went through a twisting, winding park. Coming out of that I tried to power around a wide turn to get past a couple more guys. I hit a lot of loose debris on the ground--I never fell on the icy parts--and my back wheel slid out from under me. Almost everyone got by me before I was back up to speed. 

I was bummed out by that but I raced hard and started reeling people in. But I had no idea if they were in my age group. So I just kept going and finished feeling good about my performance. Well, except for the part where I threw away a good start. After the race I changed into clean, dry clothes and broke out the cameras to shoot the remainder of the days racing.

Later on I was taking photographs and I heard the announcer calling out the names for the 55+ podium finishers. Danged if they didn't call me out at second place. Heck, I never podium. So I figured there must've been only two of us. Nope, there was four.

It was a great day of racing. The day warmed and the course turned to mud. I wished I could've raced in the afternoon. Tomorrow I'm in the single speed race. It's the state championships. I'll get my ass beat big time. But I'll have fun.

Dodging icebergs on the first lap.

We crunched up all the ice that covered the water.

 My little woody.

'

I thought everyone yelling for Frank was calling me by the wrong name.

 I yelled for my buddy Brian to wheelie for the camera.

 The run up was very, very long.

 It got muddy in the afternoon.

 Bad ass teen jumping the log at the bottom of the run up.

 Bad ass Cat 1 guy jumping the same log.

 As the day warmed there was more mud.