Beautiful, sunny day for a cross race in Hagerstown, MD. Arrived 1.5 hrs early, which is nice. I need to keep doing this. Got reg'd and changed and then hopped on the course before the Cat4 race went off. Some major changes to the course this yr, mostly for the better, atmo. Still bumpy as shit , but more turns and they threw in a set of barriers before the sand pit which effectively MADE you run it.
After the call-ups aI got a fairly good start spot right behind Thor. The gun went off and we flew down the start stretch. I picked up some spots and headed into the turns in decent shape. Still stayedf with the pack but dropped back a bit on the steady climbs; I'm just not a climber and I really am not climbing well this yr. Down the narrow decent I was able to raelly rail it but it was so narrow that I couldn't make any passes, so I just hung back. My XS's really held well and I was able to take lines that a lot of guys couldn't. I'm convinced that they are the way to go unless it is muddy. I climbed the steep hill well (powered up it) and then went balls to the walls on the straight back stretch (the start stretch). I saw "1" lap to go and went as hard as I could, only to find that here was ANOTHER lap to go. Ugghh. Held on and outsprinted a guy who tried to pass me on the finish line. 39th out of 59. Not great, but better. Still would like to climb up into the top 50%. And beat Thor :-)
FWIW-the CX hairs guy may have me on his vid, briefly, at the start of the race.
4 comments:
Great job NVDk. Score a good one for HUp U. I was at Kelly's Acres today and that is a sweet course. Cool uphills, sweet downhils, a few power sections, logs to bunny hop over and the New "Flyover". gotta take a peek at those pics, it was a blast. run up steps on one side and then ride down the other side, and you ride under it to. I fared better too, but not as good as i had hoped for. Adam from bike lane(cross results nemesis and now good bud) beat by a few but still mamaged to get 32 out 50-60 i believe. We did 6 laps on cat 4, as many as Masters 3/4 which was nice. A few dnf, i am sure-alot of wipe outs on the wet grass. I like this one better the BCA and Mike even showed up, i think he thought you were doing this one too. I thought I heard a distinct "HuP" during the race but shrugged it off for sake of delirium. Are you only doing the big 60 milers on sunday next week. I will be doing the IC lite only, other commitments lead me elsewhere. Well glad to hear good results. Check out the Gloucester , Ma results on bikereg, alot of Hup united folk there and one got 4th in cat 4's. Take it easy.
I'm doing IC lite. I hope to get there early enough to cheer you on. Dan K is supposed to show for the Masters 35+, too. Maybe some other A-town Hupsters, too. Good job! I had to take on soccer Dad duties on Sunday.
Keep at it..... :)
Nice write-up.
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