Thursday night I was frantically building my cyclocross in preparation for the First race weekend of the season. The bike I rode for Mountain Cross is in difficulty at the moment.
The drag into the road season tends to be a long one. We get some great group rides in maybe a local crit or two before the real racing begins. Cyclocross on the other hand comes at you as fast as 125 “killer B’s” off the line. As always the first race of the season is Nittany Lions UCI 2. Trying to grab some early season UCI points can pay off big time the rest of the season. This year it’s only getting harder. Not only was Jeremy Powers there, but a handful of European riders decided to make the trek over to U.S. for the early part of the season. Needless to say the field was pretty stacked, 50 riders strong.
I believe I was on the 3rd line at the start. Thank goodness their starting light was broken. The whistle blew and we were off. I didn’t have the best start, but good enough. I battled my way through the first few corners trying to be the last one to brake
. I was proud of myself for not backing down in the corners. In the middle of the lap was a huge 10 yard mud puddle. When the mud hit my face it was like losing your virginity all over again (yes it was over that quick). Towards the end of the first lap we hit the long mud run and I was able to make up another 4 or 5 spots.
Going into the race I knew it was going to be like a 40K time trial. With the peanut butter mud sections and slippery turns it was going to be a long hour of 
racing.
On the 3rd lap I worked my way up to Bad Andy with Jared Nieter on my wheel. Wes Schempt was only about 20 seconds up in 8th place. I kept it positive and kept a steady tempo with the other guys. 2 more laps passed without making up much ground on Wes. With 2 laps to go I figured I had the upper hand with the long mud run right into the last 200 meters to the finish. I took 3rd position making the other guys do the work. Andy went first into the mud pit followed by Nieter they both took a different line then I was expecting and it threw me off a little. I went the opposite way from them and cut it too hard. I overlapped a course stake and hand to pull my bike back and take off running. It was enough to open up that 10 to 15 yard gap from the other two riders. I know Neiters is a last lap gambler and he took off like a bat out of hell and Andy was able to stay close, but I was unable to close it. Neiters ended up catching Wes for 8th, Wes was 9th, Andy held on for 10th. It was a long last lap knowing I was outside the top 10 and finishing 1 spot out of the UCI points.
I’m taking away the positive…. There were 40 other riders who wish they were in my spot.
Charm City next weekend
If you live within an hour there is no reason to not be there and be a witness to the beauty that is cyclocross
Photos from 
http://www.pbase.com/dens/nittany_cross_011
your XC kit has x-ray capability
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