Georgia Cross - Race # 1

By Ryan Crabbe

For my first foray into cyclocross Sunday, October 22, had to be considered an overwhelming success. With a bit of extremely helpful advice from fellow CBR cross racer Mike Reardon, I set off race #1 of the Georgia Cross series at the International Horse Park in Conyers, GA.

The course was a 2 mile loop with two barrier obstacles and one run-up on a steep sand embankment. I raced the CX4 class which is equivalent to Cat 4 road down to beginners. Our field was quite larger with 45-50 starters so I knew getting to the line early would be important to get a good starting position. We were set to run a 30 min. race which meant 3-4 laps.
From the start I got off the line very quick and clean and I had myself positioned top 5 in the first corner where our first dismount obstacle was located at the exit of the corner. From that point forward I was positioned pretty well in the race as the large field began to string out. By the end of the first lap I was somewhere in the top 15 and getting great encouragement from my wife, Jennifer, who kept me informed of my placing throughout the race.

At lap two I was firmly holding down 11th place and felt very fast through the obstacles, and the technical sections. Lap 3 I began trading positions with the rider in front of me battling for that coveted top 10 finish. I really felt strong and knew where I could put in some attacks in the final lap in order to nail down a top 10. At the beginning of lap 4 I was 10th and flying, I gave back the spot at the feed zone (where Jennifer gave me a bottle) in order to re-hydrate and throw water over my head for this final effort (real cross racers don’t carry water bottles I’ve been told). At the second obstacle I took back the 10th spot and attacked hard through the technical switchbacks in the woods. I sat up a little to recover through the lone long climb of the day, and on the descent threw all caution to the wind to try and open up a gap. It worked and I stayed on the big ring and stomped on the pedals through the final sections of the course. On the finishing straight (which was long and fast) I opened up a hard sprint just to make sure. First race, 10th place. My goals for the day were no flats, no crashes, and top 20. Next week on to race #2 in the series at Ft. Yargo in Winder, GA. I think I’ll keep my goals the same and continue having some fun with this.