New Mexico Cyclocross State Championship Race Review

The New Mexico Cyclocross State Championship course was somewhat hard.  It included a lot of tight switchbacks, patches of sand, leaves banked in the corners and a set of stairs.  Overall, a somewhat challenging course, but a lot of fun.

I did several warm-up laps and found where I could pass some people as well as areas where I would have issues.  I also had no flats or mechanical issues before the race started.  So, I finally got set in a place where I wouldn’t have to work my way up from the back of the pack.  That is what I thought, at least.

When the race started I stayed in the pack where I started and thought this was going to be my best race of the season.  That quickly fell apart because of several different factors.  I was towards the front of the pack when we hit the first turn and stayed there untill we hit the first small uphill with a switchback at the top.  This is where everything started to fall apart.  The four or five guys in front of me tried to ride the turn but didn’t have enough speed or space.  They fell over and I was stuck behind them.  Next thing I knew, I was in the back of the pack and watching almost everyone flying by me.  I quickly tried to gain back the distance I lost, but since I am not a pure cyclist this was hard.  Before I knew it, I was second to last.  So, I set in and started to work my way through the pack.  I passed one person within the first lap, but the next two laps were a dry spell.  No matter what I did, it didn’t seem like I could gain any ground.  But, since I live higher up than most people in the race my lungs felt better for longer, as well as, me being a distance racer.  Within the next lap, I passed another person and the lap after that I passed two more.  The final two laps where like playing cat and mouse.  There was a guy about 100 yards in front of me and I was slowly gaining on him.  I thought I would be able to catch him by the end of the race, but he looked back when I was about 10 yards back.  He started to pick up the pace and to pass people.  I slowly lost ground to him, but I passed everyone he passed.

I finished fairly well and I feel if there were another lap I would have caught several more people.  For my final cyclocross race of the season and final race of the year, I feel like I had a great race year.  I started a new sport and I never finished in last place.

Time to start training for next year!

Oh yeah, Wonder Woman was there too.