[Iffacus]

Bromsgrove Olympic (Just South of Birmingham UK) came in 2 laps down on the winner :) , also had teh pleasure of seeing one of local youths taking his first ever win :D

also broke my rear brakes on bike #1 :mad:

Man i know why I enjoy cross more than Road Racing

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[Surferbruce]

way to go. today was my first race too at the urban cyclocross series in so. cal.
i went for the 35 min cat c (beg/sport) instead of the 25 min cat d and finished second to last one lap down.
it was a really sandy loose course and i am absolutely knackered. at least i finished and didn't puke....

[Homer]

I've been riding road races for 3 years- I just started this cross stuff a few weeks ago. Raced a couple races in Oregon on an old mountain bike and just got my "real" cross bike and did my first race last week.

The race was the Stumptown Classic- one of the UCI races that's part of the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross.

I crashed on the first lap on pavement due to absence of friction and rookie handling manuevers. I rode the entire last lap on a flat front wheel. It was OK in the mud but it SUCKED on the asphalt sections.

I'm hooked too but I need to reduce the bodily injury. I've crashed 3 times in 3 weeks and of course it's always on the right side of my bike so I have the highest likelihood of breaking expensive drivetrain stuff. So far the bikes been lucky, my knee hasn't been.

Here are some pictures from the race.

Oregon Velo photographs (http://www.oregonvelo.com/)

Look at the Stumptown photos. I'm the guy in the background of photo 2493. It rained like mad the day before the race so it was pretty soggy. The warm-up lap was absolutely nothing like the race due to the thrashing the course took.

BTW- do people "cat down" in cross races in your area? I'm amazed at the guys who race beginner and C class who really should be racing UP a level.

[BlastRadius]

Look at the Stumptown photos. I'm the guy in the background of photo 2493.
The guy in the orange or the guy in the blue?

[arctic hawk]

Wow! Looked like a blast!
Hoped you had tons of fun!

[Homer]

Blue... It was a first lap photo, before I was covered in goo.

[Dan0930]

yeeehaaa! rode my first cross event as well and i felt like i was about to puke on every lap. What a freaking blast this is.

Things i learned on my first cross ride:

1) I'm slow. But I knew that already.

2) The barriers are higher than they look

3) Dismount/Remount done right is awesome

4) Remount done wrong can be disasterous.

[Homer]

OK- they posted the results. They didn't count one of my laps. I suck but I don't suck that badly.

Since I'm not a high finisher, is it improper to email the officials and say "I finished near so and so" or not? Ultimately it doesn't really matter, it's just the ego hit.

[DPCX]

Hey Homer,

Probably just a waste of time but i know what you mean about an ego hit. At StarCross, they only have like 22 places listed in the results for my category when we had over 50 starters. I know the guy in 19th & he was in a small group right in front of me, within 10 seconds or so. I believe i finished around 23-24th-ish but I'll never know for sure. What makes me mad is that i started almost dead last after a couple of stupid idiots crashed in front of me on the first half lap. I fought my way up to where I eventually finished but I'll never know exaclty where that was. Frustraiting, but I guess thats racing (not at the front :). Stumptown was fun though even though I had a bad day.

[KleinRider]

Blue... It was a first lap photo, before I was covered in goo.

no gloves!?! :eek: heehee, looks like a blast! I can't wait to do my first one (of course, it'll be a long wait - more time to train, right! ;) ).