Cyclocross at Central Park of Morris County

MAC weekends are great, some of the best racing, best courses, and top competition. But driving two+ hours each way, and racing both weekend days can be a bit tiring. So it was a nice change to get to a local race just across the border in New Jersey for a low-key event. Greg and I arrived in plenty of time; we had time to ride some laps, watch some races, and even grab a belgian style waffle. Wow, the speculaas spread was something incredible.

I was just sitting around, leisurely watching the A race, and felt like I could have just taken a nap right then and there. With no specific goals for a NJ race, I felt like this was just going to be for fun.

We lined up towards the back, but the start was so wide open, and the field relatively small, so there was plenty of room to move around in the start. I'm definitely not a fast starter, but followed Greg up the field for the first half of a lap. I moved up a few more spots in the open sections, and got to about the top 6-7 riders. It looked like one guy (Eric?) was off with a good margin over everyone else. Coming through the start/finish I moved past the group and started working on chasing down the leader.

The course was deceptively rough, it looked like a nice grassy course, but there were ruts, big roots, rocks, and it made for a much rougher course. After the practice lap, I dropped my pressure down to 23 in the front, 27 in the back, and that made a world of difference. This was a course where tubulars were a significant advantage.

About half way through the second lap, I caught the leader and followed him for a while. I didn't want to wait for a sprint at the end, so decided my best bet was to try to get ahead and stay there if I could. I put in a hard effort and didn't look back until a lap later. By then I had a good gap and just rode to maintain it.

In the end, it was myself, Jerry, and Eric.



But man, those Belgian style waffles were awesome.