Just got back from a weekend cross/camping trip in northern Minnesota. The race was the Red River Cyclocross Challenge, hosted by Great Plains Cycling. It was a well-run race, and a fun course.

The weather was warm and, being Moorhead, gale-force windy. We were in a park by the Red River at a course with about two-thirds grass and about a third through the forest on a clay-covered trail. The course had three elevations, each about six feet apart: high, medium, and low. The medium part was the grass, the low part was the clay-lined trail, and the high part was a thirty-foot long grassy mound that the course snaked over.

They curved the trail up one end of the mound, then around the other end end to make an off-camber turn, then ran the course back to end of the mound and off to build up speed into a set of double barriers.

The wooded part was a little tricky because of the clay. There was a descent that snaked between a couple of trees, then made a sharp right. Another section of trail had a hard right into a section of wet clay, and the run up was, of course, pure clay.

The race started pretty mellow, and I held on to a top five position for some time. I was smooth over the barriers, OK down the descent, and feeling good on the flats. It hurt, but things were looking good.

Then it showed pretty quickly that this was my first cross race. I dropped my chain at the top of the first clay run-up and waved the riders behind me around. The clay on the run-up gummed up my left cleat. I didn’t notice how much until the double-barriers after the mound. I came off the mound, began to dismount, put my right leg in between my left and the bike, and turned my foot. Stuck. I should add that I had also taken a risk and was using some new shoes and pedals for the first time…

By the time I got unclipped I was on my back with my bike upside down next to me. There’s a reason people wait by the barriers. It was awesome. I grabbed the bike, ran over the barriers, and got back on. I didn’t lose much time, but I lost some momentum and some confidence.

The rest of the race was the same. I lost a few places, started unclipping early to avoid getting stuck, and tried to keep my position. Then I lost a few more places.

I didn’t like unclipping my left foot early on fast dismounts, so I tried leaving my foot clipped in again before the double barriers. I landed on my back again.

I ended up racing the last lap or so neck and neck with another rider. If this had been a road race I wouldn’t have cared, but cross seems different, so I hit it on the double barriers. I didn’t end up on my back, and I got a gap for a little while, so I did the same thing a little later on the run up. This time the gap was enough to keep me ahead to the finish, to whatever super-high place I was fighting for.

So that’s it. I’m hooked. Next weekend I’m doing some traveling, so I’ve got two weeks to hit the parks again and practice the barriers before the next weekend.