Tuesday night cyclocross #2

This Tuesday's cyclocross race took place at Capilano Park. All my talk about starting at the front and fighting for the first few corners was not put to the test as, right after the start, the course turned right and climbed a hill then went over the barriers. As expected, I was slow up the hill but I'm much quicker than other riders around me over the barriers. The following single-track section was enjoyable but my least favourite part of the course was right after; some sweeping corners around trees on a gradual uphill. The top part of the course was good with more wide corners and a quick down and up dip. There were a few technical corners but this seemed to be more of an endurance course which didn't suit me. The full results were available this time and I finished 20th out of 28. I made up one position on the last lap as someone, who had just passed me, suddenly had his brake rubbing on something. He probably rolled his tire off somehow and was rubbing his tube as he suffered a sudden pop to his back tire. I made up one more place as I caught a fading Erin Middleton going over the barriers. She quickly took the place back around the baseball diamond but I hung on her wheel for most of the rest of the lap. Just after we witnessed the tire explosion, I passed her and was able to stay in front until the end. I felt I was faster through the corners and I went just before the last technical section. As I scanned the results, I noticed that I beat Olympic gold medalist, Lori-Ann Muenzer. I'm sorry to say I wouldn't recognize her if I saw her but Marg recognized her during the race and picked up the tempo. Unfortunately for Marg, Lori-Ann was toiling in the C race and not in Marg's B race. Luckily, there wasn't a velodrome section on the course. Corey's not going to believe that my lap times were 5:41, 5:34, 5:36 and 5:34 plus the run-up at the beginning. In total, I covered the 6.6 km course in 22:42 for an average speed of 17.4 km/h with a top speed of 29.8 km/h. I had an average heart rate of 164 bpm and a maximum of 186 bpm. I was a little tired to start the race as I rode 8.6 km to work in the morning and 20 km from work to MEC to Marg's to the race. I did another 19.5 km afterwards to get home.