St. Malo Race Report

Tristan in good form remounting.

Jaydi cleaned up on the field, including kids up to U13 (she's 9)

Another nice pic by my wife Ramona.

Early in the race, I was this close to Bill...

I loved the first half of the weekend's CX Grand Prix. Weather - windy
but warm in the sheltered areas; people - friendly as always; and
francophone hospitality and pea soup to boot!
Racing B was fun and challenging, and watching the A race was great,
too. I saw Rocket Ron break his chain and decide to run it out. I also
saw Tomek take the time to beat on the hecklers at the top of the wall.
Great racing all around.
A few comments on my race. It was nice to meet John and Jared before
the race, and Marlan after. I was seeded in the middle of the pack, so
it was a dusty slow start. I started passing some riders when we
stretched out in the grass section. I found that riding up right to the
bottom of the wall helped more than jumping off early and running to it.
By the way, how does one shoulder a bike? My bike's full weight on my
shoulder gave me a pretty painful bruise after so many trips through the
sand and up the hill. Oh yeah, cross labs. But I'm kinda far from
Winnipeg to come in for them.
Every time after the wall climb, I was paced by Marlan or Lindsay or
Bill, and sometimes Charles from Altona. This was great - would I have
enough energy left to run the sand? How far should I try to pedal in
the sand? Run or jog? Shoulder or push (shoulder!)? Would I leave the
sand with enough power to get back up to speed? Could I keep up with
the guys on the headwind road section after the barriers? Not much
resting time in cyclocross. After a while I just focused on looking
ahead and turning the pedals smoothly, pushing around and lifting my
heels. And trying to stay ahead of or sometimes get ahead of Bill.
Well, then Bill was out of reach. Ok, stay ahead of 209 (turned out to
be Charles). Darn, he turned out to be out of reach too.
Great bunch of racers, I had lots of fun. I was most pleased to be
beaten soundly by a guy my dad's age (Lindsay - former Olympian). I
hope to keep learning from all of them/you!