I've been 'Crossed!!!!

Holy crap that was fun! Did my first 'cross race ever today and smiled from start to finish. It was hard, and I still haven't stopped coughing from the cold, but I have to say that I know see what all the fuss is about. In the end I finished 8th overall, and learned quite a lot. First and foremost, it's not wise to ride an 11-23 set up:). I was a little lax in setting up my bike for this race and just threw on whatever cassette I had at the time. Probably made things a little harder than they needed to be!

The course was awesome, and the fact that it was on the site of an abandoned psychiatric center was ever cooler! Mountain biking has given me a real good hold of technical skills on the bike, and I found that the technical sections were one of my strengths today. Need to work on starting strong from the beginning though. All my training thus far has been devoted to settling in and pacing my effort evenly. This race was a shot in the arm. 'Cross is definitely not something to "settle in to". It'll be fun to improve my 'cross racing tactics in the coming weeks as this series still has another two races to go. Here are some pics from today. The pics are of the psych center. I had a really cool vid of the entrance of the park, with Pantera playing in the background, but it won't upload. As soon as it does I'll share:) Oh and the last pic is what I'm enjoying right now (Great South Bay IPA) in a glass I got from the 6 hour mtb race-gotta love the skulls!