MRC Midnight Ride

This was our club's first night race, and the kickoff to "Cross Holy/Hell Week". Being the first of 6 races in a week and half. I signed up for the single speed open, and decided not to double up, since I would volunteering for much of the race. I hitched a ride out to the venue with Matt, and we arrived on site at noon, to start the setup. It was a very warm day, and staking/taping the course for 4 hours in the sun, left me dehydrated and tired.The racers started arriving at the venue shortly after we finished setting it up. It was exciting to see that a number of the British, as well as the local pros were attending our little Grassroots race. Gary & Russ had done a great job promoting it, and put a lot of attention into the little details, including the www.midnightridecx.com site, and twitter feeds. 


Soon, I was lined up with the other single speed fanatics, and we were off. I was pretty wiped out from the course set up, and didn't really get in any kind of a warm up. The course was a very fast, reversed version of our day course from the prior year, and got my heart rate pegged in a hurry. I was excited to be racing under the lights, which provided an eerie twilight effect in the back part of the course. Running my 36x16 I felt under geared through the flat sections, but was happy that I could make it up the climbs on "Bunker Hill" . It was related to me that Adam Meyerson walked up to the course as our field madly spun their way through the start/finish straight, and asked, "What the hell are they doing? Why don't they shift? ...oh, single speeders." Based on my calculations post race, I figured I had to have hit about 170 RPM through that section. My fatigue really set in on the 3rd lap, and I was doing the slow slide back through the field. Despite this, I was able to pull off 28th out of 49. Not my best race, but it was sure was fun.


After our race, I got to see British national champ Helen Wyman, and fellow Brit Gabby Day kick the snot out of each other in a very exciting race. They literally attacked each other the entire race. In the men's elite race, British rider Ian Field, rode away from everyone, easily soloing to victory. So for our Paul Revere themed race, the British won.