More coverage from the State Champs

Blackbeard checking in again... the official 'cross season has come and gone. No big wins by the SPH crew, but some fun was had. As was the case last year, many of the SPH crew wish that they had made it out to more races. But, alas it wasn't meant to be. One week after not reading a race flyer and missing the VeloCX, Blackbeard loaded up his car with Lar, Little Lar, and Job in tow. Jake and Big Huot followed. That's right... 5 of the 6 SPHers were fired up to represent. (Little Lar, aka Marcus, aka Pierre is part of the team SS or not).

The temps were around freezing, but the sun made it seem at least 5 degrees warmer. Luckily the wind made it seem about 7 degrees cooler, so it was cold. Isaac almost wore a winter hat cold.

The first race started out dumb as always... way in the back and wondering what the heck I am doing. Running through the sand pit the first time left me falling off the back of the main pack. Not a big deal, as I'm not main pack material. As I started to wind up the legs I slowly started to pick people off. Riding through the sand pit helped in this quest, though I would pay for it in the second race. The first race ended with Jake in the top 25 or so, me in the top 50, Larry top 75, Job and Pierre were top 100. Not too shabby!


There was about 5 minutes between when the first race ended and when we had to be lined up for the second race. Whoops. What am I doing? The plan was survive as long as possible. As the race started the fast guys (and they were fast) pulled away like they were on motor bikes. The slower crew though started to settle into a nice pace. Not sure how I did, but anytime I almost don't get lapped in a 45 minute race (heck, I'm happy when it's a 30 minute race and I don't get lapped) I'm a happy SPHer.

Highlights of the race were: the sand pit... it was fun powering into and through that thing. The stair hill climb was also "fun". Anything that brutal is fun in my book. What didn't I like? The long straightaways (that doesn't seem like cross to me) pretty much were it. Everything else was sweet.


Next year I'll be racing Bs. And might try to do well. We'll see if I can actually train and mountain bike race (new bike... that is way too nice for this cat).