Monday, October 26, 2009

Coyote Point CX

Latest race report here

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Lion of Fairfax

New report up.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Surf City Returns

new race report is up on http://www.murrayrenaissancecx.com/

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Murray/Renaissance CX Team Season Opener



Today was my new Cyclocross team's season opener and launch party.

My race preparation went well as I somehow managed to get the team tent, grill, coolers, etc and myself setup with plenty of time to warm-up. Big thanks to Mira. It is awesome having personal support and I get better results when I have it. I wasn't getting called up so I made a point to get to the staging area early and managed to get a front row start. The first two laps went well, as I avoided an early crash and was able to stay in touch with the lead train in about 12th or so. Lap 3 got a little dicey as I got hung up behind a few 35+ riders and lost contact with the lead train. Lap 4 stung ! as the heavy parcours; sand, wet grass, brutal run ups started to take their toll. On this lap I bounced my chain off the cog on the minefield descent and lost some time getting it back on. I continued to fade on lap 5-6 and lost a few riders right near the end ouch !

I'm not disappointed with my 17th (out of 34) as I've never cracked the top 20 on this brutal course. Plus a few more of the faster "old" guys have switched up from the 35+ to make the fields deeper than ever this season. I've got good fitness which I hope to build on for a competitive season culminating in Nationals in Bend, Oregon in December.

Finally I've picked up a sponsorship for this season and have been able to bring two of my friends and teammates to create the new Murray/Renaissance Cyclocross Team. I'll be publishing my reports on the team site and dropping links here and on twitter, http://twitter.com/markmastoras