Cyclo cross season opened up today. Cross season is usually visualized in the mud and colder weather. Today brought sunny skies with 94 degree temps over a tinder dry course. I wasn't mentally ready for the temps or the intense 40 minute race. I spent the past two days in Columbus finishing up adding a bathroom in my son's basement and am not used to working a physical 10 hour/day job.
New this year in the B race which is now 2 different races with my group the 45+ combined with the the 35+ making up one race and the open B and expert women racing in the other. We had a field of around 55 racers with 24 racing in my division. I had a great start and was in the top 15 near the end of the first lap. Because of the hard start I was red lining going into a twisty/turny section and made a bobble and ended up crashing at 5 mph and knocking the chain off. That cost me at least 8 hard earned spots, after that I needed a little bit to recover then got into a nice groove for the next 3 laps. On the last lap I had a little left in the tank and was able to pass a few guys who were in worse straights than me. I ended up 9th in the 45+ race and probably qualified for oldest racer in the B field which means nothing as the winner of the race was a 55 yr mtb'er.