OVCX#11/Cap City Cross-11/14/2010- Infirmary Mound - Granville, Ohio

Lap 2

"sprint" finish, James T wheel on right ahead of me

One of my favorite races in my area. A short 45 minute drive. It happens to be one of the few courses that you can really open up the throttle and give your 11/12 tooth gears a workout. Where you can test your ability to just stay on the gas at a much much higher rate of speed than most any other course, other thank Kings CX. This place requires the ability to take risks, sit in the saddle, put power down, sprint out of every corner and go fast really fast. Oh, that's every cross race, ha.
Well, I do think this course lends itself to a different kind of rider and fitness. Some said a "roadie" course, I am not so sure about that, but it was a more open course that certainly requires a different type of fitness.
It's a long lap, it's all uphill from the single-track section in the woods with a steep hill, that required some to dismount, but I rode it every lap. All the way to the top of the pond lip and another false flat up into the woods. So almost 50% of the

John, Andy J. Spencer, me

lap, you are going up and up. Once at the top, there is a hard right, downhill into some washout (fall line), then a series of up and down slalom sections on the side of the lake hill. These things could be ridden at a high rate of speed in the drops, if you were smooth and picked the right line in and out of them. The last up, brought us back towards the start area a bit and past and around the wheel pit. There was another super speedy section of wide double track with horse shit in one of the corners, across the road and down into some sandy stuff, across a

Matt S. and take in air & recover

bridge then into the single-track woods. I am not sure there was too much technical 'cross' skill required at this course, other than the ability to ride what is there at a high rate of speed and take risks in and out of the technical bits that are included. I did ok, at this place and nudged out Bo Sherman in a sprint for 9th Place, but couldn't pull back James Turner. He was within 10/15 seconds for much of the race, I just couldn't real him back. It took me a long time to get my mojo workin' and by the time the legs felt fast, I couldn't close the gap. Mirus beat me by quite a bit this race, he came by me like I was at my first race at some point. Looking at the BWE photos, I looked pretty sad going over the barriers for the first few laps, the low back issue not completely healed.
A weird vibe at this combined Cap City Cross race and OVCX series race. Not sure the vibe and feel of these two race series are on the same planet.

The Ohio Ortho team had a huge turnout and some great results. In the Open 3 Race (B's for Cap City). Sholl, Joel, Ryan, Kurtis, Pete and Joe all battled it out with some fast guys from the OVCX series. Doug C and I were the only ones in the 3/35+ group. Josie Stubenrach got a nice 5th place in her race. Daisuke, Brian and Kristian all battled it out in the CAT 4's for good placings in a larger field than usual from the Cap city races. Kelly Clem took a solid 16th place in front of Kristian and behind Brian and Daisuke. Jon Dy pulled out an awesome 9th place in the Elite race just behind Josh Prater and Gamm. Way to go Team!