Pork Chop Challenge (St. Cloud) race report

This race always seems like the hardest race of the year. Whether that's because it's the first brutal reminder of how hard cyclocross is, or because it really is that hard, is difficult to say. This year is no different though. Like previous years, it was a technically easy peasy grassy crit. Unlike last year, though, they changed it up a bit more. Gone was the long snaking around the grass at the beginning, and we pretty much headed straight for the river via the tennis courts. The downhill to the river is fun, of course, but what goes down must come up! Basically we went up and down to the river twice, each time with a set of barriers at the bottom. The second ascent was such that you could ride up, and the first ascent had the barriers at the top, so two times up the bluff on the bike. Ouch! Good thing I didn't switch to a single-ring setup like I was considering.

Lots of people were in Wisconsin for the USGP race, but fellow Crossniac FPA was there, and we yo-yo'ed for the whole race. It was fast, but I avoided getting lapped (they were pulling lapped riders) until the very end, and no crashes or mechanicals. As always, it's good to hang out with fellow MN racers again.