WOW!!! What a day! Our first try at putting on a cyclocross race was a great success.
We tried to think of everything, everyone worked really hard, the weather was beautiful, and we had a lot of spectators. There were maybe 15 runners and 40 cyclocross racers but we had lots of competition–MS 150, Tour of MO, Bearcat Herman cross, Castlewood mtb race, and about eight other runs.
The runners and bikers appreciated our hard work: on Friday morning Jason laid out the course; Pat Sr., Pat Jr., Ric and Sam hammered stakes, stretched rope and tied it. Miraculously, it was all still there on Saturday morning. We finished laying out the course, set the traffic cones, set up the tent for the wheel pit and set out the barriers (after the run.) Pride set up registration and food concession. Justin W set up the sart/finish line, PA system, etc. http://stlbiking.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18612&st=30
The results haven’t been posted yet (See http://prideincorporated.org/) but the Wild Trak Team was well represented. Justin Holden, in his very first cyclocross race, won 2nd in Beginner/Cat 4. A heroic effort! Grant, Pete, and Scott W. were not far behind.
Holly got 2nd in Beginner/Cat 4 and Kate got 3rd. Two strong efforts. Leslie made a brave effort, too.
Cat 4 included Steve, who got 2nd, and Mark who made a strong showing in Cat 4 even though it was his first-ever cyclocross race.
The most exciting event of the day was the Cat 3/4. Hannon, Andy and Ian started back in the pack and it started to look pretty sketchy. Ian lost a chain on the run-up after the first barrier but made a determined effort to finish. Then Hannon started to do some work. He battled with a rider from Mesa, finally opened up a gap and finished a strong 2nd. Meanwhile, Andy was grinding away, moving up and, at about 500 meters, was in 4th and gaining. We were yelling like crazy; we didn’t believe he could do it but we were wrong! He caught the same Mesa rider on the last turn, sprinted all out and beat him by a wheel! Righteous!
Scooter changed classes several times but two guys finally showed up for him to race with. He finished a determined 3rd.
After the race we assembled our wrecking crew. Holly, Andy Hamilton, Scooter, Justin Holden, Debra and Patti from Pride, Chuck Mayden along with juniors, and even L.A. aka Pepperoni all helped with the tear down efforts. With most of us staying until dusk.
All in all, a great day for Wild Trak.