Kirkland CX.

The first race in the NYCROSS.com series took place Sunday in Clinton, NY out by Utica. Put on by the Mohawk Valley Bike Club, it was a great course, with a challenging run up, great windy nature trails, a sand pit, traditional double barriers, and some sweet highspeed sweeping turns on slick grass. Overall, it was a blast.

Jimbo on the runup.

I was really, really motivated, for some reason, and went out like a madman on the first lap, winning the hole shot and being the first rider over the barriers about 1/3 of the way into the lap. Then, as expected by just about everyone other than me I blew up completely.

There was a great sandpit, as Danny Goodwin demonstrates here:

After the race Gary Toth came up to me and said "Great job on the first lap, because after that you really looked like crap." It was true. Laps 2 -6 were much more trying than the first one, and included such interesting events as me yard saleing the bike and myself in the middle of the trail on a highspeed 180 sandy downhill turn; getting run into by, and then knocking over Tim Jansen from RPI Cycling in the sand pit, and generally going slower and slower each lap.

Lesson from nycross number 1, don't kill the first lap so much!

Don't miss NYCROSS #2 this weekend in Schenectady - Dave Beals's course is a NY classic!