CX Race Tomorrow....and it's gonna hurt

[madisongrrl]

Today was humbling....I just got done taking a CX clinic taught by Ben Turner of Cyclo-Smart. It was great. Ben was so helpful and full of knowledge that I was very thankful that I took the clinic.

http://www.cycle-smart.com/coaching/...n/ben_bio.html

There is so much technique to Cyclocross. Today, I took in an amazing amount of CX information. So much so that I'm overwhelmed and a little nervous for my race tomorrow. I almost regret asking WI's USA cycling CX rep to upgrade me to a CAT 3 (which she easily did because of my mountain biking race results).

My Norba license now states:
Categories
Cyclo-cross Cat 3 Active 12/31/2006

It might have been a mistake, but I'll find out tomorrow. Too late to chicken out now.

http://www.wicycling.org/CycloCross/...ce%20Flyer.pdf

The mounts, dismounts, barricades, sand pits, off camber downhill sections are going to kick my butt. I practiced mounting and dismounting my bike 100+ times. The bruising that I have on the inside of my right thigh is outrageous. One time I completely missed my bike and my thigh landed on the back of my tire...pinching it between the tire and the brake. And that was just practicing at an easy pace....wait until tomorrow when I'm racing at the redline, totally anaerobic and terribly tired. I can't imagine being any more bruised than I already am.

You cyclocrossers are nuts...I feel safer on my mountain bike.

Happy CX season everyone,