This report is from my 3rd and 4th UCI cross races of the season. The race was in Toronto at Centennial Park. This park was huge for a city park; it must have been about 1000 acres of land. I drove up to Toronto on Friday with Ernesto, and Jacob. We stayed at the host hotel. The weather was poor on the way up, it was raining and about 40, we were hoping that it would be dry for the race because we didn’t have anyone to help with in the pits with bike exchanges if it was nasty. We got a good night sleep, headed over to the course around 12:30. The first impression of the course was that it was going to be hard. The course that was going to be used on Sunday was on the side of a Ski slope, with lots of climbing.
Saturdays course was on the other side of the ski slope. It was hilly to but had good flow. We got about 4 laps of warm up then we were ready to start. We all started about last row, in a field of about 50. The start was on gravel then went in to a fun off camber section. The first lap was ok I missed a wreck and was in about 20th. I worked my way up to 15th by the end of the race. I felt ok and was able to race. This was a lot better than when I went to New York, 6 weeks ago.
Sundays race was on the Ski slope. This was a poor course for any cross race. There was no flow to the course. At the start a guy in the back row took out 5 guys about 15 feet into the race. The UCI commissar fined him! I got a bad start and didn’t ride very well till the last 2 laps when I passed 5 people. I was disappointed in my performance, but I was still 16th in a good field. The Next UCI will be in 2 weeks and hopefully I will be riding faster by then. Thanks for the Support.
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