Awesome course complete with a ridiculous run-up that I kept telling myself was rideable but I couldn't get but half a dozen pedal strokes up in practice before bailing. Lots of mud and water despite a beautiful and sunny fall day. I had intended to line-up with PJ in the 4's but he had an MTB crash that kept him away, so I was sole MRC'er in the first race.
After a last row start I was able to make up time and places in the muck each lap. I'm no runner, but while others were struggling up the steep run-up I was able to keep an easy-ish jogging pace up it and passed guys each lap. The run-up was immediately followed by a wicked muddy off-camber descent (which I LOVED) followed by a flat double track through the woods with plenty of passing room. In the woods there was a hoppable log, but I've gotten a little better this year at dismounts/re-mounts and found that I was a lot faster than most of the guys slowing down to hop the log. There was a concrete set of stairs on the first pavement section (backside of the course) that needed to be treated carefully as a couple of nasty crashes would illustrate. The sand was hard as a rock and totally rideable by everyone. Lots of swoopy turns on grass, lots of standing water to splash through...it was just a really fun course.
On the last lap I had a group of two others with me and we were quickly gaining on a fading 5th place rider. We caught him with about 200 meters to go and as we were coming around him, I gave one last dig to try and get a gap going to the line. Strong cheers from Jim English, Mike Cook, and Bill Doonan were super helpful and I was able to hold the others off at the line, though I think I inadvertently cut a guy off (zero O2 left in my brain at that point) at the finish. Fun race for sure and hopefully we can grab more MRC'ers next year.
Hartford 'cross
- scott_sweeney
- Tête de la course
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Hartford 'cross
Whoever said nothing is impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
Re: Hartford 'cross
nice race scott!!!
i know for a fact Canton has sections were thre will not be mud!
i know for a fact Canton has sections were thre will not be mud!