Started off the Cross racing season for myself this past weekend with the Bavarian CX Championships in Mindelheim on what was more an XC than a CX course. Dominated by a splintered climb to the top of a hill, the course had quite a bit elevation gain in it with a fast downhill that was singletrack at the top before opening up onto an open green field for the rest of the descent. All in all the course was boring, too bad because they could have laid out a much nicer course given the terrain they had to work with...
For me I was just trying to ease myself into the pain-cave for the first time this season. With a strong field on hand, my goal was mid-pack to kick start things. Starting from the back, I picked a few off in the super loose first few gravel corners, then had to dismount the only time over the double barriers since everyone else was fumbling just to get through them. The best came when we hit the fly over the first time, couple people got tangled go up the ramp and with out carpet or some sort of texture, the ramp face became a slide for those with not enough momentum to make it up. Seeing a hole on the very left side I dismounted at the bottom, grabbed the railing and dashed up the side before remounting at the top. That was another few spots in the plus.
From there I just put down the hammer and tried to make steady gains with out blowing myself up. In the end I landed just outside the top 10 with an 11th, a respectable result to start the season. One thing that I enjoyed a lot was disc brakes, given the speed and length of the descent, I was able to descend faster than the others with my extra stopping power.
This weekend we have a double header on tap, Mannheim and Lorsch. Mannheim will be a mere tune up for Lorsch, but I still have a ways to go fitness wise to be able to ride with the front guys. Will have to look at races further down the road to be in the mix up front...
