Limestone Cross at the Kiln

Less then 24 hours after returning from Nepal, I rolled up to the start of the Limestone Cross at the Kiln. I had been on a bike twice in the past 5 weeks, and the last time was over 2 weeks ago, but any chance to do a cross race was an opportunity to be seized. It was after midnight Nepal time, and I was still tired from our 30+ hour trip, so I had no real objectives other then to have fun, and get some exercise with light exposure to help readjust my circadian rhythms.

I have no idea where the race organizers got their call up list from, but staging at the back was fine with me, as I was far from finely tuned racing shape. The biggest perk of a local race is the amount of spectators that will come out and watch, several Lamprey Systems families were there.



The race started with the usual congestion in the middle of the pack, but with the muddy and snowy conditions, riders were sliding out all over and there were several crashes right in the first few turns. I saw one guy do an endo and flip over his front wheel. I managed to slip past most of the wreckage and work my way up from the back of the field.



The slippery conditions probably worked to my advantage, as there was more emphasis on bike handling then leg power (which I was distinctly lacking). By starting off conservatively, I could ride more efficiently towards the end of the race, hold better lines in the turns, and avoid the fatigue induced sloppiness that can put racers into the ground.



Greg had a good start, and by the time I came around after the first lap, I got word from the sidelines that Greg was in the lead. Unfortunately, he got taken out on the steep, wooded climb and somehow sheared off his front valve stem.

Check out the crash sequence in the background:







Unfortunately, this was the end of Greg's race as he hadn't brought his spare bike.





A group of hecklers had assembled themselves on the wooded climb and were taking advantage of the slow speeds to pummel racers with snow balls. It took them 3 laps before they were able to finally land one on me.



You can see Selene's snowball in mid flight.

I passed for 5th place as he was taking a beer hand up at the top of the run-up, but I was a long way off from the podium spots. The race paid down to the top 5, so I managed to get my entry fee covered. You can't go wrong with a cross race, I hope this trend of winter racing continues, it would be nicer to have a longer cross season.

Winter training has been kick-started.

Gotta love the snow man, great work by (L-R) Ashley, Sophia, Ella, and Maya: