Hespler Slogfest CX Fun!

So I made the trek out to Cambridge for the CX season ending race put on by the Hub racing team.
Figured it would be a fun way to remember the season and get some extra suffering in to get me through the winter months.

Rain was in the forecast, so I thought it would be a mud bath. But I was wrong. There was a ton of snow still left on the ground when I rolled in to the Hespler Arena about 5 minutes before the 11:00 race.
The rain and snow made for a good combination of mostly granular slush. Nice and heavy. Not the easiest stuff to ride through. Add that to a turn filled CX course and you get 1 long day.

It wasn't too bad to race in, just not all that fast through the deeper drifty sections. Plenty of opportunity to show off everyone's runnin' skills.

Got a few shots of the 1st race. Which was won by none other that Dan Dakin. A little sand baggin' action there. But not really because up until the last lap he was duking it out with another rider.

Got a good shot of Justin Henri with the holeshot.

But that didn't last too long. The course was too hard for him to hold everyone off. But he still looked pretty good for a few minutes there!

Later in the race, I was havin' fun firing a barrage of snow balls at most of the guys from the Niagara area. But I new I'd be gettin' the same treatment in the later race.

Here's a shot or Rob Watt on a little stroll.

I only did 1 warm up lap to see the whole course and figured I'd be better off warming up inside the arena. So I went in and found a large set of steps and did about 50 repeats up and down to get warmed up. It worked surprisingly well. I was pretty winded and producing a good sweat. All at the same time as I was checkin' out most of the hot Hockey Moms watching their sons playin' hockey. Not bad scenery!

I lined up at the back of the field for the 1:00 race. Or should I say 2nd row! There was only 8 Guys signed up for the late race. Oh well I was only there to have some fun and get some good experiences.
I was also wearing my Digi cam on my chest so I got footage of the whole race. But it will take me a few hours to find all the highlights and make a short film. So I'll post that at a later date.
I would say that the Single Speed didn't hold me back too much because I still had a good race and I managed to finish in 5th place, and won a prize. A pretty sweet Axiom multi tool and a seat post anti slip clamp by Chase products.

For a while there I was battling with Jeff Moote for the bottom step beside the podium. But I was riding smoother through the crap and managed to gap him pretty good and tough it out for the rest of the race.
I think I did 5+1/2 laps, which was just the right amount for me at this time of the year. But the low lap count tells me that the course was totally set up too hard for the conditions. I can't complain, as I still had fun sloggin' it out. And I didn't get lapped until about 3 minutes before the end of the race.

All in all another great day on the CX bike for me and all the other Die Hard CX riders. The real riders, not the wimpy cx riders The REAL RIDERS.