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
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