My overly verbose post from my team site:
Psycho Cross 2011 was held at the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point on Saturday the 30th of October. This year conditions were much drier than last year but we enough to provide for a little mud and loose soil.
The juniors had 5-6 riders and the crowd seemed smaller than last year. The highlight of the juniors was a 9 year old girl showing great tenacity at finishing the race despite being at an age disadvantage to the rest of the class by at least 4 years.
As the juniors wound down the C class started to gravitate to the starting chute. The announcement was made that there were 46 riders this year. Last year there were 35.
I positioned myself in the middle of the second row behind a man in a banana outfit. We were also graced by two "Waldos", a "weiner", a "redneck" in an overall-beerbelly prosthetic, and a few other less notable Halloween costumes.
As the whistle I had a decent start clipping in without delay and getting to the top of the starting hill in about 7th, right behind the banana. The 5 riders ahead of him opened a gap and I couldn't get around in the first section of turns or the technical woods section. I made a pass on the velodrome surface and knew the riders behind him would be held up just a bit.
I hit the "bus stop" style chicanes, which were on the banked back straight of the track, at speed. No need for braking on the first bus stop, but the second one was just tight enough to require braking to make the turn back onto the straight before the 3rd turn. Back up to speed and lining up to make the 90 degree right hander into the infield that starts the approach to the barriers.
Not having ridden much in the past month I had no endurance -- that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I was passed on the approach to the barriers by some faster riders but managed to jump the barriers pretty well. Then I watched the faster guys motor away from me while I struggled to maintain 300 watts for the 2 minutes of remaining infield work. Gotta work on that.
The last part of the lap is the runup. After several inward spiraling circuits of the infield you are led to the cement infield area next to the scoring tower. Then a 90 degree right hander that puts you on the mud section right next to the grandstand. What seemed like a wall of sheer mud was probably only 10 feet high and at a 35 degree angle.
To my knowledge nobody has ridden up it, and I certainly didn't try.
The rest of the race was pretty much the same. I attempted my best to maintain position, passed a few lappers and felt good overall.
One stronger rider kept having chain issues which allowed me to pass him with two to go. Another rider behind me caught up and those two were able to gap me on the last lap. Coming into the infield start finish I was determined to catch those two on the final lap and make a race of it.
As I was expecting the bell a rider passed my at the line with his arms up. The winner. No bell for me. *&%&%^*(&. My plans were dashed, my race was over, and I was mad.
Later when the results were posted there were only 12 riders scored. I guess that makes me the first unscored rider and puts me in 13th. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this.
Last year I finished 27th out of 35. This year 13th? out of 46. One year of racing under my belt and an improvement I'm happy with.