Full Moon Vista Ellison Park Cyclocross

Alright, blogging in bed from the iPhone so as you can imagine I'll want to keep this brief (but of course I always say that).

So for my first foray into the upstate NY cross scene I decided to head to Rochester for the Ellison Park Cyclocross. Unfortunately I couldn't do the UCI race they were hosting on Sunday as I wanted to race in Guelph, a great stop on the Ontario calendar and the first race in the new Southern Cup series this year.

I carpooled to Rochester with Shawn who would be racing the 35+ after my race, the cat 3/4. The drive was much smoother than the usual GTA trek and I can see racing in this area more often out of convenience.

We arrived and after the longest car to registration walk ever got signed in. The course featured one major climb and lots of deep sticky grass. Aside from the climb and descent, there was not much in the way of features but the long grass and seemingly endless false flat sections would be plenty to suck the legs out of anyone.

I got to the start corral early enough to secure the last spot on the front row and proceeded to get one of my now signature holeshots. By the top of the climb one guy came by, and I figured I'd get on his wheel and go from there. Turns out he was having none of that and promptly rode away and won the race. Awesome.

I figured I was solidly in line for a podium spot, or at least to place in the money which was 5 deep, but lap after lap guys would roll up to me and slowly, painful to watch slow, ride away from me on the many slogs through the grass.

That pattern repeated until 45 minutes (or near enough) had passed and I finished 6th. Damn. In any case all that climbing made for good training and fellow Ontarian and former teammate Mel Bunn was 2nd in the women's race, which was little more than a preride for the UCI race which would be using the same course.

All in all, the Full Moon Vista folks put on a good event and I will be attending more of their races.

Enough blog for now... Guelph RR soon.

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