Blue sky or HOT AS HELL?

Sunday the 6th marked the first of the cross racing this year for NEOCX. and HOT AS HELL was the theme for the day. Team support was also the theme, but I'll get to that...

Amanda raced the woman's field in the cat 3/4s at around 10am, and it wasn't pretty. I saw the look on her face, the heat got to her. Stopping for a beer hand up is never good. never...but she carried on and finished the race. Not sure where she ended. None of us bothered to looked at the results.

Next up was Chris and I in the Masters 35+ cat. You know...the cat that pays for the fast guys. I might as well just handed those guys my money and went to drink a beer. I was in the back from the start (short story...I stopped racing the single speed cat this year), but I often am, and make up ground as I go. Well...that didn't happen too much. Either I didn't drink right before the race (I was on my normal fuel, and maybe it was too much, for by the second lap it was sitting in my gut), or the heat got to me quick. Seriously...by the second lap my gut was not feeling well.

This was the first time I rode with my Garmin, and my hear rate was up where it should be, but my legs were not. So I knew there was nothing I could do, except just ride; and I did. The good thing...I didn't stumble, I didn't fall, I did the barriers without fail. In fact that was the best part of my race.

Although...coming out of the baseball field, I was able to plow through and kick ass, but once the course twisted and turned, I was fighting to keep speed. Also, I never walked/ran the hill, so that's a plus as well. Although I did employ the zig/zag on it.

I did have two beer handups, one donut handup, and a water hand up; which was the best. I could have done without my bottle which had some stuff in it.

But cross is all about fun...right?

On the plus side of things...we had our youngest member of our team race her first race; my daughter Lydia did her first race this year. In pure dad fashion, I forgot her helmet (but remembered the cooler of beer), and she had to wear mine. It was a pretty close fit, and I knew that they wouldn't have a problem with it. A short little course for the Little Belgians, out about 20 yards to a cone and back. After the dip in the course, she took a fall, looked around and got back on, and took 3rd out of 5. So the team did walk away with a podium. Never mind that the two that beat her were older, and on actual cross bikes. Dad is proud for her gusto.

The "life saver" for the day was the ice cream truck. A well deserved snow cone and bomb pop was in order.

The big part of the day was the team comradery. Eric, Genaro, Damian, and Chris' wife (and the kids) were out to cheer us on even though they weren't racing. Now that's what I'm talking about. I want to send out a big thanks to them for braving the heat (drinking my beer, love you guys) and supporting what their teammates are doing. That's what we're about as well. Not only racing, but supporting our fellow teammates out there as well.  Thanks guys...

Next week is NEOCycle...we'll be doing a bunch of events, so come talk to us.