Tour De Cross Race #3 - Real Cross Weather!

The Tour De Cross #3 Cyclocross race was today. This race series has been at an unusual time of the year for cyclocross, and as a result, we've had some unusual cyclocross weather.......

First race was warm and dry. Warm might not go far enough.... Rarely have I had sweat pour from my brain bucket after a cross race, but at that one, I did......

Second race was relatively warm, and only a little muddy. Kinda like an early season race.

Third race was real cyclocross racing..... We took the start line with the rain having just stopped. The temperature was a whopping 40 degrees..... and the course was an absolute swamp!

This really seemed more like a classic cyclocross race. Corners were sketchy, water standing all over the place. On the first lap (right after this picture was taken), I managed to take that little near 180 turn and lay it down. The following roll in the mud, or maybe it was a slide, really took the piss out of me. At that point, I realized quickly I'd take nothing but DFL, so I backed it down one notch and simply finished the race.

Is there anything wrong with that? Yeah, I did not kill myself out there. But then again, there were 5 people in the race, and I was in fifth. Maybe that really was not the way 'cross should be ridden, but today I guess I did not have much more than that in me.

I started the race without any 'cross in my tank, and very little cyclo. By the end, I was empty on both counts.

Next week is going to be a real tough one - a duathlon in the morning and a 'cross race in the afternoon.