CrosstheDomes

This past weekend was the WCA Cyclocross #2 "CrosstheDomes" by my wife inc. They put on one heck of a race, with a course that had everything. The weather was crosstastic--low 50's with intermittent rain showers.

This week I tried something new, actually warming up for the race, and I think it helped! Well, actually it is hard to tell. Less than a minute in there was a chain reaction of pile-ups coming down a hill into a 180 uphill turn. I was in it:

As the peleton sped away I tried to get going again but my shifter was turned in--so the cable was stretched--so my chain wouldn't sit in a gear-- so I had to stop and jam the shifter back into place. It took a long time and I actually had the thought that I was going to DNF after 1 minute of racing. But I hopped back on and played catch-up through the 35+ masters who started 30 seconds after us.

Then I crashed two more times in the first two laps. One pushed the shifter in again, the other was in the same place as the first where I was cooking the corner too hot and I did this fancy "front tire slip otb downhill into 2 akido roles back up grab the bike and remount" without losing much time. Although, I felt it all over Sunday morning.

In general I had no handling skills, partly front tire choice, partly lack of skills practice. So I was taking the techy stuff way too slow for most of the race, but I was much faster when I was upright!

I had one more mechanical with 2 laps to go. After the barriers I somehow got my chain jammed in my Paul chain guide. It took me a long time, well 30 seconds, to get it out. Which allowed this fellow to bridge the gap.

We played cat and mouse the last lap. I punched it up the big hill (that isn't him in the picture below, he was riding the hill too):

But I didn't attack enough once I had the small gap. We went back and forth, rather slowly, the rest of the lap. He came around the last corner with a 3/4 bike length lead and kept it through the uphill sprint.

I just need to put the pieces together and I think I could have some good races this year. Once again Lauren took a bunch of pictures, check them out if you like. She also took a video with her phone upon Ryan's request. The lens is a little dirty but it works. It also shows Cale's tremendous effort to ride both sides of the pit.