Saturday - C1
After a month long hiatus for some collegiate mtb with the Marian University Cycling Team, I jumped back into cyclocross season in Cincinnati. Naturally, it was a full blown mudder. The Challenge Tires Limuses were dialed, the course was slick and the rain was coming down.
I started second row on the outside and we all came screaming into the first corner off the pavement and into the mud. I worked my way through the first few off-camber sections and tried to move up.
Unfortunately there isn't much else to tell from day 1. I'm not sure what it was but I just never found my flow on the slick course. I just wasn't going anywhere and gradually lost places throughout the race to finish 22nd. Definitely not the result I was looking for in the C1, but it was a good reminder that there is a lot more to cyclocross than fitness and high-speed cornering!
Sunday - C2
By mid-afternoon the sun had dried out the muddy track from Saturday and it was like a highway for my Chicane tires. I put the previous day's mistakes behind me and was ready to get after it again.
Naturally right off the gun I missed my pedal... and was swarmed. Not ideal but it happens sometimes! I worked my way up a little bit and eventually settled into a good group after a few laps.
Alex Morton, Grant Elwood and I chased down Sam Noel and Spencer Petrov and a new group of me, Sam, Grant and Alex emerged. We rode together the majority of the race, but the course was just so fast paced we were never able to close on the next group.
On the final lap the four of were still together fighting for 14th place and the pace was all out. We all wanted to be first into the last off-camber section before the finish and it was a battle. In the end I took home 16th. It definitely felt good to be really racing again after a rough one on Saturday. Next up I'll be doing a local OVCX and then it's off to Canada for the Pan-American Championships!
Thank you to Linear Sport RT, Violich Farms, Englewood Grass Farm, Challenge Tires, Mike’s Mix, and JM Coaching Group as well as Trek, Bontrager, Wheel & Sprocket, Styled Aesthetic, and David Hobbs Honda for their support. Lots more racing to be done this season!
Photos by Jason Whitman and Kent Baumgardt