The Cross season kicked off for real this past weekend at the Nittany Cross race in Breiningsville, Pa.  This is the first UCI cross race of the season, in the world.  Jon T. and Cliff K.  made the 5 hour trip to PA for the chance to get in a hard, early season race before the New England Verge series begins this coming weekend.  They made the trip last year and the conditions couldn’t have been more different.  The course resembled a desert dust storm last year, while this years course had been hammered by two recent tropical storms.  For the most part the grassy course was just made greasy by the rains, but some portions of the course held significant water.  This standing water was quickly churned into a peanut butter like mud.  One large mud bog was on a slight uphill and remained rideable for the entire race.  the other however, was not rideable and consisted of a 75 yard run through 8 inch deep slop.  Needless to say, the mud quickly sapped their strength.  Cliff and Jon both had good starts and were in the first 5-6 places on the first lap, but the effects of the mud took it’s toll and both faded over the duration of the race.  Jon finished the 45+ race in 9th with Cliff in 10th for the 35+ field.  You can see in the picture of the mud bog that the race organizers move the course markings over to give the two pro fields a fresh strip of grass.  Our races charged through the middle of the slop.

Six Expowheelmen assembled at the base on Mt. Washington on a PERFECT Saturday morning in preparation for the day’s event, a race up the auto toll road to the summit.  .  The riders, Keith Hurley, David Dubos, Tom Hixson, Rob Recalde, Steve Yau & David Jacoboski, also brought together a large contingent of family and friends to cheer them on and celebrate their success at the top.

Only a couple of us had done the race previously.  The veterans regaled us with details of the pain we were about to endure.  As we watched our cheering squad begin the drive up the auto road, we hopped onto trainers or hit the road to warm up.

Let me set the scene: the race consists of 4,639 ft. of climbing over 7.6 miles! (0 ft. of downhill, yes, not one freakin’ foot!)

Warm up seemed quick, as the event organizers began to call the groups to the starting location, which is the toll house at the beginning of the auto road… BAM!  A cannon shot off and the first wave started racing up the mountain. Many, including myself were totally unprepared for the cannon and it almost caused a domino effect of cyclists falling down!

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