Tonight I competed in my first cyclocross race. Cyclocross is a type of racing where people race bikes on a mixture of gravel, dirt, grass, and mud and are "required" to dismount and navigate over or around obstacles. Tonight's race was the"Blind Date at the Dairy"-pretty cute. It is put on at the Alpenrose Dairy near Rob and Ann's place. Wendy, the boys, and Rob came to cheer me on-and I needed it! The race was much harder than I expected. I did two practice laps around the 1.4 mile course and barely made it to the start line in time for the start. The first lap was very hectic with about 100 riders on the course at the same time. "MASS HYSTERIA!! (name it claim it)" The race runs for 30 min + one lap that starts with the lead rider. Don't think too hard about it, it just works. Anyway, the race starts on pavement and moves to a gravel road. The gravel moves to grass with lots of hairpin turns. For added fun, there are a couple of mud hills you must climb and at least one requires you to get off and carry your bike up. Near the finish line there is a pair of barriers the rider must hurdle while carrying his bike. I also added a video of the race starring yours truly (cinematography props to Nate). The third clip shows me crossing the barriers. After lap one of four, I was totally gassed. Lap two felt better, but by lap 4 I was wiped out... literally. After crossing the barriers, I hopped on my bike, and as I turned the corner my bike went completely out from under me. Thankfully I was on grass, so I smoothly and quickly (according to Rob) got up and hopped back on in time to get passed at the last second by some dork. Oh well. In the interest of disclosure I have also posted video of the finish (again Nathan did Oscar-worthy work with the camera). Thanks for reading. Enjoy the video and the cheering. I sure did.
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3 comments:
A couple of comments. 1 - I am not one of the last. The announcer was talking about another part of the course. Just had to clear that up. 2 - I love Nathan's commentary "and that is Rob..."
MUSIC MAN! (friend, the iowa brain is the devil's playground. trouble!)
this is so fantastic! what a race--you look great! super filming and commentary by nathan. what bike are you riding? do you road bike this sort of thing, or mountain bike?
Anna, I think you are right! I was thinking of another movie too. Bonus if you can get it. I used a Fuji Cross Comp. To 99% of people, it looks like a road bike, but it has some differences that let you ride it off-road (wider tires and more clearance for tires primarily).
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