DClog

Conyers CX Race

The first race in the Georgia Cyclocross series was at the Georgia International Horse Park, site of the 1996 Olympic Mountain Bike event. There was a good turnout of strong riders, fine weather and the event ran smoothly.

The course was long and hard with a fair mix of fast and technical sections but a lot of climbing too. The Masters 35+ field started the day's racing with about 25 riders then about two minutes later 29 riders in the Masters 45+ started.

I got the hole shot and was first across the barriers. Checking to see who was coming behind me I spotted my teammate Gerard Remery, 52 years old from the Netherlands now residing in Andrews NC, slapping it into a big a gear and coming up the inside so I got on his wheel. By the end of the first lap the two of us had a substantial lead on the rest of the pack and had already caught and passed quite a few of the 35+ riders.

During lap four of five I took a risk in an eroding 180 turn and the front wheel slipped out from under me, so I took a tumble in the grass and soft dirt. No real harm done but Gerard was now gone so I just got back into my rhythm and continued picking off 35+ riders. In the end Gerard and I had caught and past most of the 35+ riders and secured the first and second place in the 45+ race.

There was pretty good battle for third place in the 45+ however my GTC teammate Torre Smitherman, 54 year old from Gainesville GA, beat the "youngsters" and completed the podium sweep for team GTC.

Masters 45+ Podium : Torre, Gerard, and Dan

Team GTC had a bunch of great results including Junior State RR champ Everett and his 12 year old brother, Jansen, totally put the hurt on the CX4 field. These boys are the sons of Shey Lindner, whom I coached for a while, and is now a semi-pro/Expert endurance mountain bike stud... but I think the boys get their talent from their Mom, Kari, or at least their good looks ;-)

More photos and results coming...

Posted by dancoy at October 21, 2007 06:30 PM