Saturday’s Masters RACE saw very nice weather and good spirits on the start line (I don’t mind hot, cold, rainy, muddy or snowy races either so the weather is always perfect CX weather in my book). While the Masters race was scarce on entrants, the 4,5 field was well represented. It’s great to see new faces and Fantastic to have new teammates! The venue was beautiful and the course well thought out with a good mix of hard effort and recovery. Not a particularly technical course, second day was more so with a few added features, nonetheless it had enough challenges that it wasn’t a “roadie” course either. Enough with the preamble and on to the races.
I rode up to the start line with very little expectation on how I would fare with high intensity efforts so I decided to push a little but settle into a pace where I could stalk whoever I found myself behind. I was somewhat shocked that i held my own relatively well at the start. I was well within the group as we made the first turn and quickly settled into a pace I was surprised to find was not overly painful. After some back and forth with racers from other Master categories I was able to find my form and take the lead over some of them. From that point on I concentrated on building my lead bit by bit. It wasn’t easy but oddly enough it wasn’t as hard as i thought it would be either. I certainly do not have the aerobic conditioning I normally might but honestly I think the physical effort I have put in on the yard this summer has improved my power and I didn’t feel like I struggled as much as I did last year on the hilly parts. My skills were a bit rusty at first, but even that started to come back with each lap.
I know several 4/5’s passed or caught me but I also dialed a few of them back in and was able to stay in front of them to the finish. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with my race performance. It was especially great to have so many teammates competing.
Prologue Cup Day 1 – CX Season Opener
