Cyclocross - Rode my first cros event today

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

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....

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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! ;) ).