Herman Cross 2.0

You could say that Herman served as a great bookend for the local cross scene. Kicked off the season in style with a night race that had a ton of fans, beer, and racers. Jeff and his crew put on another top notch race last weekend for the MO State Championships. I would write about my non epic performance but others have summed up the weekend pretty well.

http://teamredwheel.com/

http://teamseagal.blogspot.com/2008/12/2008-hermann-cx-state-championships.html

http://www.pedalordie.blogspot.com/

http://www.cyclingdiary.blogspot.com/

The short version of my race goes as follows. Did a warmup that was too short. Lined up at the back. Early in the first of 4 laps a rider crashed in front of me and that opened a 40 yard gap. I then set out to chase riders. It took me all the first lap to get warmed up since I failed to get in a real warmup. Slowly I caught a few guys. The stairs were brutal to me. I did catch Boz on the end of the third lap and pulled him up to two riders. The four of road together for a short bit and then Boz and his teammate dropped off. I did everything I could to stick with that rider but I was dropped big time. I finished 5th out of 5 in the Masters 30-34 behind Dr. Mark, Jay, Naggie, and a Verge rider. All top notch riders. I finished just behind the 35-39 rider who finished 2nd in his class.

This weekend I will head to KC for Nationals. Tonight I just converted the Rig to cross mode with skinny tires and alternate gearing. Looking at online videos I went with a 32/15 gear for starters and will bring a 13, 14, and 16 with me in case I want to go up or down. After that I will be at CXmas and will enter the family class because I will have my daughter in tow.