Well, I’m really late with my homework, but I wanted to clear the queue before I got back to racing this weekend after a LONG layoff. First up was the Fort Worth weekend.

Broken Films Cross

We tried to drive in the night before but ended up calling it a night at midnight about an hour South of our destination and headed in first thing Saturday morning. I had figured that would happen so I “catted-up” to a tougher, but later race.  The majority of the course was mainly dry grass and hardpack trails with roots (grass crit). The exciting part was the mud gully with a banked turn.

My race pretty much sucked from start to finish. It just wasn’t there. Maybe I was too tired from the travel? I got a bad start and hung on to the tail of the whip for a while before cracking. Finished up to keep the no DNF streak alive.  Another Austin guy won the race, so that was cool. Some nice pics and video here.

ThinkCash Cowtown Cross

Total 180 from the day before. This race had most everything you’d want, except mud: fast grass, loose stuff, off camber, sand, and a run-up.

A quick pavement start funneled down to a sidewalk climb over a levee, then a 180 at the top, back down the other side then back up again through an off camber section. Made for an interesting start.  Someone half wiped-out halfway up the hill but I managed to make it through unscathed. From then I found 4 guys to race with and had a great time. Lost pavement sprint for winner of the group, somewhere well off the front.  Great time on an awesome course. Event photos here.

Honestly, the best part of the weekend was introducing my in-laws to cyclocross. They had a great time and really brought the cowbell…a medieval-looking model from their time in Turkey. Check out the pic!

Cyclocross Scuffle

Racing back in Austin. Very nice. Decent start but still got caught up at the first technical spot, an off-camber sharp turn. One guy decided to not wait in line and started running with his bike, nailing people with it the whole way. Not my favorite racer. Made it out of the group I was with for the first few laps then got stuck in no man’s land between groups. ITT’ed the last lap and called it a day. Felt great and was by far my best race of the year. One unusual feature was that they put two full size barriers on the run up. Nice shot of my “enjoying” that. Taken from here.

Starting to get some real cross weather down here. Looking forward to a few more races then the State Championship in mid-January. Adios.

ChrisM

Tex-Mex Syndicate