Mansfield Hollow
After monsoon like rains on Friday, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Mansfield Hollow Saturday morning to see a relatively dry course. This was a big day for team DAS with racer Ben Burdick making his cyclocross debut and racer Elizabeth Allen doing her first non DAS cyclocross event of the season. The team ended up with 5 racers overall, two in the men's cat 4 and 3 in the women's field.
Rich managed a second row start for this race, so he was excited to get an early jump on the rest of the field. Unfortunately, the front row racer in front of him crashed just off the start line, leaving Rich scrambling to get back into position. He managed to make it through a pileup in the first twisty section, but Ben wasn't so lucky. After bunny hoping the first barriers in front of heckler's hill, Rich mistimed the second and ended up having to get off and run his bike up the hill with the rest of the cat 4s. He redeemed himself on the second lap, able to stay on his bike and ride all the way to the top. Ben followed the majority of the field getting of his bike before the barriers and shouldering his bike up the hill each lap. Both Ben and Rich were able to gain ground after the first lap, with Rich finishing in 14th and Ben in 36th. Both were happy with their finishes, but happy to be done for the day.
All three women's races were on the course at the same time, with just a 2 minute separation at the start. Liz took off with the Cat 1-3 group (which included the likes of pro mountain biker, Karen Potter), but being her first race since 12 hours of Bradbury, she started at a more relaxed pace. In the final lap of the race, Liz finally got her motor going and was ready to race, so she was disappointed that the race was over after only 45 mins. Tracy had a bit of an off day, racing in the 35+ category and struggled through some of the tougher sections of the course. Opposite of Liz, she was more than happy to hear the bell ring for the final lap. Crystal (cat 4 race) still didn't feel strong fitness wise, but this was the first race where she really began to feel her handling skills were improving. She was able to keep her momentum going through the turns and stayed upright the entire race. All in all, the women posted positive results with Liz and Tracy both taking 5th and Crystal taking 10th in their respective categories.
MRC
What a difference a course makes! After a beautiful, dry course Saturday, team DAS was not happy to find the Bolton fairgrounds full of mud and slick corners. Pulling up to the course, some team members were excited to see a flyover had been added to the course since the Wednesday Night race here a couple weeks back. Unfortunately after the master's men's race, officials had to block off the flyover, rerouting the course around, as it became to dangerous to use. There were no actual stairs on the run up side of the flyover and as it got wet and slippery with mud from racers, there were many face plants happening. After a bit of a hiatus due to his wedding and honeymoon, racer John Young was excited to race this course for the second time this season. Along with the flyover, the big change in the course was riding it in the reverse direction from the night race. This actually made the course a bit easier and removed some of the more challenging sections.
Both Rich and John raced the Cat 4 men's race starting middle of the pack and back of the field respectfully. Rich had his strongest start of the season and was able to get ahead of most the large packs in the first lap. He held strong in the second lap (falling in around 14th or 15th) but began to fade in his third lap and lost some spots. Luckily, he managed to pull it together for the final 2 laps and even out sprinted 2 racers on the line to take 14th overall out of 81! John had to fight through a good amount of traffic on his first lap, but he managed to avoid getting tied into any serious crashes. Each lap he looked stronger and it was hard to believe he had gained 8lbs and been off the bike for 3 weeks! John moved up 15-20 spots, giving him a good finish his first race back.
Tracy and Crystal were next up in the women's cat 4 race, which took place at the same time as the women's open for the second day in a row. From the start Crystal felt her legs were lacking and felt beat from racing the day prior. This lack of energy showed as she wasn't able to hold on going through a tight turn in the wood chips and crashed. Tracy, on the other hand, was an entirely new woman. Though a little slow out of the gate again, she quickly turned her gears over and started to roll. She easily took riders on the first incline and continued to drive hard through the entire course. Tracy looked strong and determined during all 5 laps of the course, as she managed to hold off the elite/pro women until the last section in her final lap. This was definitely a breakout race for Tracy, placing in the top 25%, and team DAS is excited to see what she will do next!
