Herman Cross

Jeff Yielding put on a top notch event in Herman to kick off the regional cyclocross scene. Night event, live band, great spectators who all had personal bottles of wine, and 100 racers.

Thanks to Boz who shuttled Rich, Zak, and myself to Herman we got there in plenty of time to warmup. The key points of this course were: series of tight 180s after the S/F, sand pit, muddy 100 yard section, and the stairs. While warmup up I wasn't sure what to expect. Felt okay, but not fast by any means. Tried riding the sand pit, but that wasn't gonig to happen. I never really ran up the stairs while warming up since I figured I would have plenty of time for that in the race.

I was a late addition to the field which meant I started at the back of the intermediate race. Which usually isn't that bad, but shortly after the start there was a series of tight 180s. I went through those with one foot out on the start. I did make a up a few positions there but it was tight. We then bombed down a paved hill and into another series of much wider 180s. If I felt more comfortable I would of dived under some guys there, but it was a little hard to see and I didn't really feel the need to be that aggressive. I hind site I probably should of been more aggressive on the opening laps into and out of corners. Oh well. First time into the sand I did run by someone who just passed me. Sweet. Then we hit the mud hole. Sort of reminded me of swamp buggy races where you are flying down the course and the you hit the bog and you grinding just to keep moving and stay upright. Then more pavenment, but I was so gassed from the mud hole I slacked the road sections. Mistake #2 of the night. I should of pushed much harder there. Everyone was hurting so going harder wouldn't of hurt that much more. Then the stairs. Never fun, always hard. But it was great on the opening lap to hear bells, cheering and seeing photo flashes as you rn up. I pretty much did the same thing for 7 laps. The last 3 laps I ran the mud hole. Probbly not faster, but I didn't feel as gassed when I got through it.

Overall pleased with my efforts, but should of gone harder. I was making up some ground on Boz late in the race, but he was too far ahead. 10 ft a lap doesn't really help when he is 20-30 sec ahead of me. At least I finished, but I did lose out to Pete on a single speed. He and I went back and forth a little trading positions, but he flew around me on the flat pavenment section at the end. He was flying and I was not. Zak pretty much started where I did, but had a much better race and brought home 6th. He was flying last night.

It was great and I'm glad I went.