Monday, September 10, 2012

It's Alive! 2012 CX Season Kick-off at Tacchino

After a long, sticky, slog of a summer, fall finally arrived on Sunday! No, not the weather, although it was pretty much perfect, but cyclocross season with the Tacchino race in Rosaryville!

I should preface this all by saying that I haven’t quite figured out what I’m going to do with the blog this year. Steve is still dealing with some lingering health issues and will be taking the entire season off for the first time since he started racing. So that means I’ll be going to just a handful of races this year. I think I’ll still cover them on here, because I like writing, but the tone may end up being a little different since I’ll be more of the “CX friend” than the “CX wife” this year. It’s not you, cyclocross, it’s me!

This weekend was pretty great though overall, good friends staying with us for the weekend, the U.S. national champion racing at our l’il local series, and some good, fast-paced racing. I didn’t get to the race until noon, just as the women were starting, and I’ve got to confess that I spent more time socializing than watching, since I had just gotten there. But my friend Rachel had a solid top 10 finish in the B women’s race, and Allyson took 4th in the A race as she begins the defense of her 2011 MABRA champion jersey.

The usual three amigos put in their usual solid race in the elite masters field, although I’m still not sure if anyone will ever be able to catch Dave Weaver. Harshman secured a top 5 result, with Jay not too far behind. The B men’s field looked crazy big, but with no teammates or friends racing, I took that time to drink a beer and eat an onion tart. Ah, nothing like a beer under the team tent in the afternoon.

The highlight of the elite men’s race was obviously that Jeremy Powers, in town for a coaching clinic, decided to race. I’ve seen him race a couple times in the past, at Nats and Worlds, but it’s definitely fun to see him on our course. Of course he completely dominated the race, much to the excitement of folks who haven’t seen him race before, but more interesting locally was the resurgence of the Haymarket/SEAVS team. Nieters looked skinny and fast and would have run away with the race if Powers hadn’t been there. Wes Schempf is still crazy good as well, and now he’s on that team too. Our team finally has someone competing in the elite race, and Eric Krause had a good race with a solid mid-pack finish. My other friend Eric, also recently upgraded to a Cat 2, had a good showing as well.

Yes, the weather was fall-like, but it was still hot enough that riders were allowed to feed.
Never seen that before! Here, Lundgren takes a swig.

Overall, a fun spectating start to the season for me. A little crazy to think that the season has already started and Labor Day was only last weekend, but with the weather cooperating for the first time in weeks, it really did feel like fall was finally here.

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