MO State CX Mudfest!

Was so excited to race on Sunday! This being my second year of racing cross, I have never raced in "cross" conditions before... Last year Vet Cross was getting nasty but I raced too early for it to get slippery...
And fun it was!! Well, until last night taking two bikes apart to get all the grass out of my hubs/derailleur/crank, etc... The power-washer could only clean so much...

I arrived in time to get a proper warm up for the 3/4 race, but since I am susceptible to peer pressure, Roger convinced me to double up the SS and then turn around and the 3/4s right after... So got my numbers and had just enough time to pin them on before the race started... I arrived last, about a min before we took off... Owe well, not the first time nor the last probably....

We are off and I see Roger take off like a rocket ship... Yah, I will see you later dude... For some reason, I did not quite have the fuel to the fire that day... Basically both races I rode well within myself, did not really dig to deep on either one for some reason...

Anyway, conditions were crazy muddy... I held on within range for about a couple of laps before fading, then it started to get kind of ridiculous. After two laps the mud (sticky as peanut butter) started building up so much you were basically riding with the breaks on. You know, it wasn't riding your bike that was the hard part, its picking up a 50 pound bike over the barriers and the log that was a bitch. From there I just put it back in cruise control for the rest of the race with the 3/4's up in 15min after the race... My homies Roger and Jesse killed it this race with a 1st and 3rd! Roger is flippen killing it at cross, pretty impressive and Jesse is always strong, killing it without even training... Jerks for sure!!!!
Owe ya, I ended up a mediocre 7th... My first SS race in a while and you know what? My 1X9 has turned me into a spinning little beeoch, I can't hammer the 36/16 like before and I am getting schooled.... Owe well... This is all to keep me in shape for MTB anyway...

3/4's up next, switched bikes, got on the Crux with my disk breaks...Was dying to see how this rig was going to work in the mud...

Started in the back, again... Took off and immediately noticed a difference between my two bikes... The Crux was awesome...
The tire clearance you get (disk breaks) without the canti breaks is unparalleled. The mud buildup was simply not there.. I also felt more comfortable spinning (I know! pathetic)..

My results did really not reflect the better ride with another mediocre finnish in 10th.. I could basically ride about all the course on this bike. Well the deep mud behind the bmx track was a little more difficult and I only made it like 3 times... But made it however...

I did see a bunch of DNF's with derailleur problems.. One dude told me he DNF'd by choice because he did not want anything to happen to is derailleur? Uh, dumbfounded look on my face I am sure...Anyway, perhaps next race I will dig deep for a decent position, but you know, I had fun and I forget about that sometimes...

I left early to get my little man, but saw TDonn pulled out 2nd in the open... Nice dude!!!

Also, I do have to note that the infamous Burnsey (Pirate) made a cameo appearance!!!! Great to see you out there!! Dude, I don't know what happened to all the beer hand-ups? This whole season they have been missing... We need Team Seagal over here more I guess.....

Pretty sure Ethos Racing got some State Championship Jerseys in there! I lost track of everyone out there.... Damn I want one of those so bad...... One of these days....

RESULTS

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Till next time.... On another note, MTB race schedules are starting to be put together! Exciting!!