Cross Attempt #2

Yesterday I made a last minute decision to hit up the Octoberfest CX race in TO. I Hadn't trained all week, other than some slow adventurous rides, and I drank a lot of beer Friday, so I was unsure how she'd go.

I enjoyed the course quite a bit during my warm up laps, and figured it would suit a MTBer like me. It was hilly, with some fast dh's and some tricky technical features. They had a long sand pit, a big log followed by a sand pit, some barriers and lots of off camber sections.

I had a good start, getting just inside the top 10, and felt like I could move up if I wanted to. I wanted to try and ride everything, so when we came to the log I hopped up, but washed out in the sand on the other side. Somewhere in the process of falling I smacked my derailleur off something and bent the hanger pretty good. I rolled along for a bit trying to find a gear that worked, but none of them really did. Justin was right in front of me coming up to the steep big climb, and some how his rear tubular rolled off while he was riding straight. He's lucky it happend there and not on a fast turn, but unfortunately it cost him big time.

I ran up the hill, then cruised down to the pit area to try and fix my shifting. All I could do was pull on my derailleur to bent the hanger as straightish as possible. I got it looking decent, and then got rolling again behind a train of masters that just went by. I tried to shift to a smaller cog, but for some reason my shifter would not release. I was stuck in the 25, so all I could do was shift between 48,39 with a 25t cog in the back. It worked alright, but was far from ideal. The train of masters was gone, but I managed to catch a couple other guys while chasing. After 2 or 3 laps of riding the 2 speed, the shifter started to release, and I could use about half my cassette. It still wasn't right, and my chain went in the spokes more than once, but I made the best of it. Later on I caught a few more guys, and just just tried to enjoy the course as much as possible. Stafford came by me just before the finish of my second last lap, so I was forced to finish 1 lap down. Oh well, it was fun.

I'm thinking about training a little and doing the race in TO next weekend to get a bit faster for the UCI race. My goal there would be to not get lapped, which will be very tough with a bunch of pros there. Hopefully the laps are long. haha

peace