Monday, October 6, 2008

Stoney Creek CX

The kick-off to Iceman training has officially begun. Cyclocross is great way to get in some lung seering efforts and bring out that final edge for the end of the MTB season. This year Stoney Creek was no exception. I decided to skip the UCI race this year since they won't let me ride my MTB, so I had no prior preperation for Stoney. I hopped the barriers a couple times in warm up and I was good to go. The pace of the race was instantly uncomfortable. We hit the beach and I decided to ride it. Big mistake. I totally redlined my heart rate and completely blew up trying to get to the other side. After a bit of recovery, I worked my way back up to Tim Saari and John Card. They kept working me over on the beach every lap, until I finally copied John's method to running with the bike. What a huge improvement! John ended up having some trouble in the end which left it down to me and Tim on the final lap. I bridged up to him on the run across the beach and got around him with a ginger elbow tap. Michael Wissink and Jeff Weinart were long gone off the front and I rolled in for 3rd. It was a fun race and I can't wait to get out there for some more racing. This weekend Michelle and I are headed off to Iron Cross in Southern PA. It's a 62 mile CX race up and down 6300ft of rolling mountains. Sounds brutal... I can't wait!

1 comment:

Steve Kinley said...

Nice job with the MTB. I experimented with mine last night and can put a 700 on the rear like you did if I want to add the disc brake. Not sure if I will or stay with a skinny 26" and V-brake.