Cruising Through Boxing Day CX and Beyond

Been staying active on the bike since missing the MO State race (end of my competitive season) doing a good mix of intervals along with bike driving, but nothing of great intensity.  I'm enjoying riding/racing out the season on what I have left and having fun with it and making it through the holidays with the family with no stress.

That being said after Festivus in STL I had an open day on the 26th so Dale and I headed to KC for Boxing Day CX.  The initial plan was to race masters and then a couple hours later do the Open, but that changed about half way through the masters race; I'll get to that in a minute.

After a great Christmas day with the crew Dale and I headed out early getting to the race venue to see an interesting lay out for the course.  First and foremost let me say I am not a 'hater' and truly thank anyone who puts on a race.  Big Kuddos!  The course, pancake flat was a series of go straight, turn 180, go straight, turn 180, look out for the log, go straight...  Absolutely uneventful and uninteresting, but still thankful someone put it together and I was racing. 

Lined up in a field of combined masters ages for a mass start and off we were.  Justin Bowes, visiting from Chicago, set a fast pace right off and I sat on his wheel (big gap quickly formed behind) for the first half of lap.  Over a pole/log barrier I upped the pace and from there on out I was off by myself to the finish.  With 1 1/2 laps to go I did have a run in/tangle with a lapped rider that tore up both shin fronts and hurt pretty good, but was able to continue with plenty of room at the end.

Small fields this time of year

 

Half way through I decided to skip the Open race and head back home early as the loop was brutally boring and saw no reason to do it again.  Talked to a couple locals and they referenced a long trail system nearby so Dale and I ended up riding 1.5 hrs on that before loading up and heading home.

Sunday was a Christmas day with my folks so couldn't make the Grote race and this Wednesday forecast for Cross off the Year race has 22* as the high and night prior at 9* so I see no reason to battle the elements.  So that means heading out of Bolivar on Friday to Dallas and racing Sat/Sun at the Resolution Cup event.  After that its an easy cruise on to Austin for Nats