Monday, October 27, 2008

NCCX #3: Boone

Whilst the majority of the team was doing an awesome job at the Second Empire 5k, BCC's special teams cyclocross unit headed west to Boone.


Barriers, beer gardens, and Bull City Cycling. This is what cyclocross is all about. The Boone guys put on a great race with a challenging course at a cool venue, two beer gardens, and a dj who was kicking tunes ranging from Stevie Wonder to Sonic Youth to Madonna to Gang of Four. Linus woke up with nasty congestion and a cough and prepared for the race with coffee, Bojangle's biscuits, and his special super secret PowerSauce. I don't want to give away his secret, but I'll just say that the label said it may result in "dizziness" and "awesomeness". Given the fact that his ailment inhibited breathing and given the fact that breathing is an important part of cycling as well as living, Linus put in a strong effort. Recent rain added a little mud to the course and damp grass combined with a strong headwind really sucked the power out of us on long straightaways. 

Linus and I drove up with Durham's own mtb bandit, Jay, the fasted guy on 26" wheels. 
Jay once again proved that expensive cyclocross bikes are not necessary for a top-ten finish. 

I, on the other hand, wanted to use my needlessly expensive, but much beloved cyclocross bike to redeem my poor result from last Sunday. As you may recall, I rolled a tire on a steep descent, so I bought some new glue (Vittoria mastic) and glued the hell out of my tires and crossed my fingers. The finger-crossing was put to the test, given a really tricky off-camber, precariously-rooted section of the Boone course. The tires held as I made up for my slow start by picking-off riders throughout the hour. 
Initial results said I was in 10th, but looking at the website today, it has me in 11th. I'm not sure what that's all about (I'm not sure what the truth is), but I do apologize to the real 10th place person--I took your prize money. Payout went 12 deep, and since 10th place only got $15, my guess is that I owe someone $5. Or a giant beer. 

3 comments:

felonious said...

Nice works by special teams in making it happen on Sunday.

co2cycle said...

Update: results have been revised to a 10th place finish for me!

DukePirate said...

Great finish Chris: you're in the money, you're in the money! (Sing it now...)

That's a great pic of Linus going over the barrier.