School of Cross

Saturday was my first cyclocross race of the season. After some troubles with Bow Cycle while trying to buy a new back wheel and that causing me to miss my first four races, I got a wheel on loan until they find a wheel they can sell me. The course in Edmonton offered two contrasting elements; a mostly flat section in the playground with an overabundance of twists and turns and a short ravine section with a difficult downhill followed shortly by a difficult uphill and then some stairs. The playground contained the barriers, which someone said were much higher than UCI regulations allow, a trip through some deep sand and course markings which were difficult to see. I wasn't the only rider who took a wrong turn or two. Now, after that short list of negatives, it was actually a great race. Kyle was giving great commentary and updates so racers knew what was going on, there was lots of snacks from the Wild Earth Cafe and the playground was still accessible so Julie was content while I raced.
My race got off to an interesting start as a Hardcore rider missed clipping into his pedal and caused a small crash right off the start. It happened right in front of me but I just stopped and waited for the pack to get rolling again. No major technical sections kept the pack moving well until a good order was established. My first lap was my most eventful due to the crash, a small crash of my own just before the stairs and planting my bike in the deep sand instead of picking it up cleanly while I watched a rider in front of me try to carry some speed into the sand. I really enjoyed the hairy descent but never had any troubles with it. I have some mountain bike experience so I knew to use my top brakes and get my bum well behind my seat. In fact, I had my stomach on my seat while going down it. I was able to do the very short but difficult climb on my second and fourth laps. I'm not sure how many riders had to run up that one.
I ended up completing four laps as I was lapped by the top three riders late in my last lap. My lap times were consistant between 9:59 and 10:10. In total, I raced for 40:13 and covered 10.3 km for an average speed of 15.4 km/h and a top speed of 35.1 km/h. There was just over 30 m of climbing each lap. I averaged 173 bpm with a maximum of 186 bpm.