Middle Park Madness....

Kat chasing! Awesome job, Girl!!!
The reward is in sight....

Ahhhhhhh.........

I got passed by Jackal while I was taking refreshment....

Damned chain!

Sunday was definitely an interesting day. It was warm. Really warm, considering it's the end of November. I went out to do a couple of warm up laps and realized that I was going to have to shed the gloves and ear warmers. I thought of removing the base layer too, but decided against it. There were a couple of spots on the high areas of the course that were catching a pretty good breeze and making things cool. Had I been a bit faster, perhaps I would have taken it off. Oh well.

The course was another great one. All 4 of the venues that DICE laid out this year were excellent. Challenging. Fun. They have great CX fans over there by the river, too.

This course was about 50% hilly and 50% flat. About 1/3 of the course was soft ground. Soft like a barn yard. And damp. It was good.

Anyway....

The run-up was great. A barrier near the bottom that forced you off the bike. If you were a fast guy there was one good line. If you were more like me you could push your bike up any line you chose. The hecklers at the top with the beer determined my line for me from the second lap on. Left side of the climb. Closer to the beer. Hey! These guys and gals were at every race in the Quad Cities this year yelling and screaming and encouraging! I can't tell you how much I appreciated it! Also, some of the ICCC folks joined them and really made some noise. A big call out to Brian Abbott too. The man is a slide trombone virtuoso!

Let's see, I guess I can skip most of the boring details. There were a couple of times that I was so far behind, I was ahead. Brian Eppen followed me up the run-up on about the second lap. (ummm, yeah. he was lapping me... the first of many times) I had to quick get out of the way to avoid getting run over. I think it was on about my third lap that I was taking refreshment and someone yelled out "here comes your son". Crap! Getting passed by him again? Drink more beer! I trudged along until the hour was nearly over and had about a half lap to go and didn't really want to suffer through another one. My "friends" at the top of the run-up had come down to see the finish by then, so there wasn't much point of "suffering" through another lap. I started a tactical race at this point, slowing down just a bit and waiting for Eppen, who was leading by about 3 minutes, to catch me so I could suck his wheel across the finish line. Worked perfectly. I have to say that I had a blast. The weather was perfect and there were a lot of supporters with cowbells and lungs and even Brian with his trombone. It was great! (He still had lungs after tearing it up in the 3/4 race. Wow!)

The Bike Tech crew did well and had a great showing at all 4 of the races. A big Thank You to Kathleen for all of her encouragement yesterday and always! You 'da bomb!

I also won a nice set of Geax Cross Blades CX tires. Who can argue with that?

Ahhh well. Jingle Cross next weekend in Iowa City, then it's over for the year. It's been fun!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!