Kiss Cross #1 - Highland Park

Quite the mud fest out there today!  Terry and I drove out to Highland Park in Grand Rapids this morning.  It has been raining now for almost two days straight out here.  In Alma we're somewhere close to 5" as of now and it is still coming down.  I would imagine G.R. has been receiving about the same based on the course today.

Rick Plite of Kiss Cross put together a great course based on the conditions.  We only did eight laps in the A's, which ended up being pretty short but nobody seemed to complain.  There were two sets of double barriers and one in front of a slight hill.  Add to that two switchbacks (oddly enough the one on the uphill was very ridable while the flat one was sloppy mud about 4" deep) and you have a fun course.  

The A race started off like a gun, as to be expected.  Don Cameron and Steven Howard took it out hard and gapped everyone in their wake.  Rich Stark was up there a bit as well as one or two others that I can't remember at the moment.  I was in the chase group with 5th through 8th position for a few laps which included Simon Bailey and a Founders rider (name?).  The Priority rider in 5th place ended up blowing a gasket and dropped back pretty fast right about the same time that Simon and Founders put in an effort, which popped me off.  I ended up rolling in uncontested for seventh place around 30 seconds back of 5th/6th place (which ended in a sprint).

My body and bike were both covered with mud and it was a great day for a race.  At least it kept on raining today as if it had stopped we would have been breaking derailleur hangers left and right.  As it was my Michelin Mud tires were spitting up huge chunks onto me throughout the day.  The bike and clothing is all clean and ready for next weekend's romp over in Davisburg for  the Tailwind UCI Double cross!

Kristie is coming home from Florida tomorrow!!  I can't imagine why she would have wanted 90 degrees and sunny as opposed to this rain and clouds we've had...