the Urban CX write up....

The Urban Cross
tripower
A-men Mike Hosang 5th
B-men Bill Gilmer 4th
B-men Kevin Horvath 5th
C-men TimStarkey 6th
Jeff Green 7th
Art Marks 9th
Mike McMahon13th
A-women Liz Schleeper2cnd
B-women Sally Tempest3rd

Danbo made it with all his gear, (thanks to his handy dandy checklist) but hit a curb pretty hard and bent his steerer tube!
Many, many broken derailleurs out there today! Bike shops are gonna love that! Tim had one towards the end of his race while in 3rd, but got a bike change with Mike McMahon and finished strong at 6th . Small kid on a BIG bike!
Crazy had one too! He was looking Hi and Low for a bike with time pedals. Finally walked up on Bill all gangsta like and said “Yo Bill, Gimme yo bike!’It was very entertaining. Big kid on a little bike. Trpp broke his too, and got a bike change with Liz..Both riding Fuji cross bikes. Schleeper must have had a most impressive crash late in the race cuz she came through with a huge chunk of mud and grass on her helmet. We’ll have to read about that on her blog.
Crazy takes the cake for most things to go wrong… On the way up, not too far from where the race is on 64, we roll up on a very familiar truck, it’s Crazy and Art finishing up a flat change Nascar style. It was raining rather heavily at the time. I saw that they had things under control, and proceeded. While laying under the truck getting the spare, Mike dropped his phone and it sat out in the rain for about 20 mins. Phone’s not working now…
Then while he’s out racing, Hawker Dawes accidentally ran over Mikes trainer! Plus the derailleur mishap? Wheweee, what a day!
Wait, there’s more… Late Monday night I get an email from Crazy seeing if I grabbed his wheels from the pit to which I did not. (I did put them in there). He was still racing when I grabbed my wheels…
I suggest that he get a new truck and bring Brenna along to straighten his crazy ass out!
It was very cold, windy, and wet, what some would say is perfect cross weather. I agree, but I found it pretty cold getting ready to ride, once riding, I was fine, but during that prep time I was shaking. Wish I had a trainer. I’m calling Conte’s tomorrow and hooking myself up. My trainer (one of the original cycle ops from waaaaaaay back) broke at the Richmond race. I always got made fun of while using it anyway, so a new one will be good. Hawker, I’ll getcha some prices for Crazy! Warming up (spinning) is very key for cross because the field sprint is at the start and lap one is of the utmost of importance. After lap one Sunday, my legs looked up at me and spoke in a slight whimper “what are you doing to us?”.
The course was weird. I found it too slow going. I guess if it weren’t so muddy, it would be better, but that soupy mud was insane, and everywhere. I don’t want to say it was too hard, but there certainly wasn’t any flow to it. Granted they had to make some last minute changes with the old silk mill being too slik! Good job to all who worked it, it was very well run and organized. And a cool location. Mr Russell, good job to you on another good race. I wanted to stay up there with ya, but you see what my legs were telling me… I will be sure and bring my pimp hand to Richmond. We need to get into the singletrack first and then drill it next weekend! Remember how cold it was there last year?
My race was nice, got a good starting position. Had 2cnd, then 1st, then 3rd, then4th, then 5th, then 6th. Worked my way back into 5th and held onto that for the finish. With multiple stupid crashes and stalls in the muck, and searching for mudfilled pedals with mudfilled cleats, only to have them not want to unclip when needed causing stupid crashes.. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time. A lot of my pictures show me smiling (or is that a grimace?). And its also great to have so many from our team come out there and muck it up! Always good to have the fam unit out there in full support, cheering, ringing the bell, and shooting some awesome pics.
I am most proud of all you newbies to this aspect of cycling. You guys and girls rock! And good to see Tripp and Mike & co up there as well. Nice racing Mike! We had a huge group meet up for some post race Mexican food which was good times. The bathroom scene was a little bizarre, I opted for the ladies room after seeing peoples reactions after coming out of the mens room. And being majorly harassed while waiting in line to pay..Why me? Tripp felt the bad vibes and slid out the door, but my boy Crazy had my back fo sho! I had to walk a fine line cuz the Judster was with me…. Ahhhhhhhh