Cyclocrossin'

Cyclocrossin' on a mountain bike. That's pretty much how my weekend went down - with the first cyclocross race down in southern Tasmania. The good thing about this cyclocross race for me was that they allowed all bikes, because of the lower-than-normal cyclocross bike population down here with the lack of racing. 

Nonetheless, It was a good day! A few punters turned up, from both the road and mtb racing scene, so we all got to put our skills and fitness to the test against the other types of riders. It made for an exciting and closely rivaled day of racing!

 The starting sprint!

The start sprint was fast, and I wasn't sure if being on a mountain bike was an advantage or disadvantage on the long stretch of road, but I managed to get myself into 2nd spot before the single track, behind Ben Bradley, and we were able to get a significant gap on everyone by 10 minutes in. 

One of the hike-a-bike sections... or so they said, anyway.  

Ben started to lose me and then before I knew it, I was on my own. I seem to find that when I'm on my own I don't have the drive to keep going at 100%, and seem to drop down to 80-90% of where I should be at - but I'm working on fixing this, as it's a psychological thing. 

Ben Bradley choosing his lines carefully

I soon found myself being chased down by the 3rd and 4th currently placed riders, Josh Gittus and Todd Stanton. Josh normally races on the road but has started to get back onto the dirt a bit more, so it was good to race him. I found that he could quickly make up time on the uphills while I could get away from him on the descents. He caught up around the 20 minute mark, and managed to hold on before Todd caught back up as well. 

Todd Stanton chasing me down.

Todd got past Josh, and then tailed me for a while before overtaking me as well. After that he was always just that little bit in front (I could see him for the rest of the race, but just couldn't catch him without using up all of my energy).

You can almost see the pain on Josh Gittus' face

During all of my attacks trying to catch back up to Todd, I managed to lose Josh, and get a bit of a gap on him. I never saw him again for the entirety of the race, which was more than ideal.

So much finesse.

By the 40 minute mark, the barriers and run sections really took their toll on me. What turned out to be my favourite bits of the course quickly turned into the most despised and universally hated sections. 

Todd Stanton happy with the gap he has on me.

 Ben Bradley getting in a practice race, before the National Rounds next week.

Overall, this race on was of my most enjoyed and fun races that I've been in. I managed to take away 2nd in Open Male and 3rd Overall (because Todd decided he'd go in Veterans because he was worried he'd get beaten ;) ) Thanks again to the usual suspects, Cyclingo, Rowney Sports and Niner Oz! I can't wait for the next round!

Also a big thank you to Osborne Images and my Sister for taking the photos.