Psycho Cross; first double cx weekend of the year

Back-to-back races, traveling and jamming to obscene music for hours on end while stuck in traffic, traveling to yet another race.  Ahh, the season has begun.

Today was Psycho Cross in Eugene, OR and it was terrifically under attended.  Seeing as this would be the same venue for the OBRA CCX Champs in November I figured it'd be good to at least see the course and get a feel for it.

We had 9 people in our combined field, 3 As and 6 Masters.  Seriously?  This is an awesome venue and so much better than racing on the mountain bike course through the dust bowl that we're going to be at tomorrow.  Immediate race goal: don't let a Master pass me.  We'd start at the same time so I'd have a chance to throw down with the old guys.  And no, I'm not apologizing for the old man comment because I got asked what grade I was in today.  I'm seriously thinking I need to get a fake ID and start passing myself off as a junior racer.  If only.

The whistle blows and judging by the pre-race banter I was expecting an easy rollout.  Nope, race on, I go to kick into the pedal and totally miss, foot hits the ground and there goes the field.  Remembering my lesson from last week I keep my calm and start the battle.  Heck, worst I can get is third place and this is a practice race anyway.  Unfortunately, the two other As get the gap and they're off.

I really should have pre-ridden the course more.  It took me three laps before I eventually nailed down the right lines but I got it.  By then the damage was done and I just had to finish.  One interesting aspect of this race was the heat.  While the course was shaded the 95F heat, dust and open field sections really drained your energy, and moisture from your mouth.  Throwing a bottle cage on was the best decision I'd made.  I watched as I slowly lost about 10 seconds per lap and then made up about 20 seconds per lap for the last three.  Maybe I took it too easy in the middle but I definitely had a good jump in the closing laps.  

Successful day, I wound up third on the day and didn't let any of the old guys me pass me.  I'm kind of disappointed that more people didn't show up, this is an awesome course but I'm pretty psyched to come back in November.

Another night in Eugene, then back to Portland for Pain on the Peak tomorrow.  Great, another race in a dust bowl.