cx is on

just back from cyclocross in richmond. with the wealth of cyclocross in the old north state, i haven't done an out-of-state race in years, so it was interesting to see a different scene. richmond is larger, more urban, and probably grittier than most towns around here and it made durham look downright pastoral. the race drew folks down from dc and elsewhere, which meant more tattoos and fewer kids.

the course was a good one. in addition to a familiar twisty maze setup on flat grass and some off camber bumpy stuff, they had a couple of treacherous descents which consisted of steep turns on what was once grass, but had turned to loose dust, sprinkled with roots. rain threatened, but never really materialized. i think a little rain would have helped traction but a lot would have resulted in certain death. the race was set at some historical park and was about 1/3 cobblestone, which was pretty rad, especially on 32mm tubulars at about 30 psi (as opposed to 23mm clinchers at 110 psi). those would have sucked if they were wet. each lap was capped off with a steep staircase, short enough that i felt that i had to run it, but long enough that my legs were burning at the end.

the first race of the season is always a wildcard. i have no idea how i'll respond to the anaerobic first 5 minutes. i have no idea if my bike will fall apart or my tires will fall off. i have no idea if i can actually ride technical stuff. i have no idea if i can endure 60 minutes of suffering. in the end, i think things went alright. i didn't stick around long enough to see the results, but i ended up somewhere in the middle i think. i actually raced this one as a collegiate rider, partially because i thought registration would be cheaper, but also to support collegiate cycling and possibly to shoot for a decent overall season ranking. they started collegiate A's with the Cat 1-2 men, so it didn't really matter. i will, however, be back to represent the BCC in a couple of weeks for the raleigh & cary races, hopefully with some company.