CXMB Provincials Re-cap

I was driving to Windsor Park on Saturday thinking, "grass crit or something else, grass crit or something gnarlier, grass crit or something mean...". Well...it wasn't a Wildwood style grass crit, but I wasn't 100% certain of that before the second race on Sunday. I was hoping for snow, but in hindsight, it was good that it was a nice dry +15 degree day.

Citizen's race had disappointing turn out with only six riders. Citizen's didn't seem to have too much trouble negotiating the obstacles on the course. Kids race skipped the tough stuff alltogether so that went all smooth and there were some pretty fierce battles between the riders during that race. Masters +40/Women/U17 start showed the true face of the course throwing riders off their bikes, over the handlebars and generally beat riders and bikes up. Don "The Punisher" Sawatzky put the hammer down from the gun and the race was for second spot. Don even had time to cut his calve en route to victory and was sent to hospital for stitches. (mental note: add stitching supplies to medical kit). That guy is f*** 50! I think he should book his holiday next year so that he could do some masters racing in Europe. Last race was about to hit somewhat worn course but that didn't seem to slow things down much. Craig took the lead from the start being trailed by JP and Tristan. Tristan had given in to the temptation of shiftiness and was running gears. Craig started fading away a bit and Tristan launched his attack from 15 seconds behind passing JP and Craig and never looking back. The dark lords Craig and JP were battling it out for a while but at the end Craig pulled away. Less carnage during the last race so that was good.

And then my favorite photo of the event.

Tomek doing who knows what...photo stolen off Olympia Club Blog.

Next weekend. Minnesota Cross Champs in Minneapolis and mindless shopping at Mall of America and Ikea. Should be good times...I hope not to get lapped. Grand Forks guys are organizing some races too so if it works out OK, might stop there on my way home for a quick boot.