I couldn’t think of a better way to end 2013 with a totally new experience! Cyclocross has always been on my list of things to dabble in during the offseason – and so I raced the Long Island Cyclocross event in Nissequogue State Park. This event is hosted by Kreb Cycle, one of the bike shops on Long Island.

When I got to the park, which is surrounded by empty buildings, I was skeptical about the course. I knew that the terrain would be mostly grass, but I didn’t know if there were any obstacles along the circuit. Once checked in, I did a quick 2 loop warmup. The course was actually quite simple – a few technical spots and 2 obstacles.

The race started a few minutes after 10am, with all categories in one mass start. The start wasn’t as hectic as I expected, and it was nothing as crazy as an Ironman mass swim start. Nonetheless, I put myself into ‘race mode’ once we all started. The course wasn’t tricky, but there were a couple of technical spots that really made me focus on my line and balance.

I started in the middle of the field, probably around 30th place out of the 51 racers. After the first lap, I had passed  a good number of racers, but could see that I was still far from the front. I knew that racing with a mountain bike would give me an instant disadvantage against those racing with much lighter cx bikes, so my goal was not to catch the leaders, but to catch anyone I could see in front of me. With that game plan, I pushed an averaged of 181 bpm throughout the 60 minutes; and lap after lap, I caught up with the guys in front of me, finishing in 16th place.

Here’s the ride data!

The following photos were taken by LimPuiu Photography. Be sure to check out his other albums!

Would I do CX races on a more regular basis? In a heartbeat.