October 15, 2022I was the last competitor across the line in the Novice class of the Zombie Baby Walter Cross race. But a bunch of people had been lapped or did not finish, so I wasn’t actually in last place. It’s funny how that feels.
It’s not so funny how it feels to wipe out trying to turn while sliding down a grassy hill. Which I did. But I kept going, gritting my teeth while kids in my race were bunny-hopping the barriers.
October 2, 2022I loved the Devon Puncheur race. I also love that it got a writeup entitled The Best Grassroots Cyclocross Race You’ve Never Heard of1 I hadn’t been to Devon, which is just southwest of Edmonton, before this race, but Voyageur Park was a really nice example of this region’s river valley terrain. The course went through the trees, around a flat corkscrew feature, down by the river and was my introduction to sand on a ‘cross course.
September 17, 2022My second race of the 2022 cyclocross season was presented by the Juventus Cycling Club at the Argyll Velodrome. Not in the velodrome itself, but the park surrounding it. When I was looking at the map in the preceding days I wasn’t sure where the ups and downs and how it would work as a course. There was a toboggan hill. Were we going to have to up that? Down it?
September 2, 2022I returned to cyclocross in 2022, and went back to the same race in the same park. I’m not sure if that makes this a classic or not.
I’d tested this course beforehand. My house is just across the river from the “indestructible Strathcona Science Park”1 so this was where I’d been riding up and down hills and practicing my off-cambers the week before.
September 1, 2022Strathcona Science Park is a provincial park just outside Edmonton. It’s rutted and full of gopher holes and apparently has toxic seepage in places. There’s no sandy area but it does have a big downhill with long stairs for a runup.
This is my “home course” because I used to live just across the river, so it’s a convenient place to practice my cx race techniques, do laps to build my stamina and just generally rip around.
May 9, 2022My knee went pop in the last 7km of the ride and Mike who I’d been riding with left me behind. It was all right though. I was going to finish my first road race. And yes, I was slow, but that was okay.
43rd place (out of 50 in Category 5)
Average Speed 27.72 km/h
2:03:22 (2 Laps) 33:59 behind winner
