Our team chat is an endless source of hysterical bike maintenance tips and ride plan ideas that toe the line between good and bad. Which is why it makes perfect sense that, with a bit of encouragement from the team, I decided that the perfect warm-up for Croton Cross was the 40 mile ride to the venue. And the perfect cool down was the return trip back to NYC. 80 miles of commuting, with a cyclocross race in the middle, why not?

Thankfully whenever those questionable ideas are borne in the TBD chat there is usually at least one other person foolish enough to join in the fun. Which is how Daghan came to be sitting outside our apartment at 5:55AM on a Saturday morning. We started by dropping Lisa off at Barb and Rod’s car for her ride up to the race, for sure the more sensible choice. Our journey through Harlem and the Bronx was dark and quiet on mostly empty streets. The sun finally started peeking over the horizon as we hit Van Cortland Park and continued on to the South County Trailway, that would be our main route North.

Unfortunately as soon as we left the city, the temperature that started brisk but pleasant also started to drop. Which is when we realized that we severely under-dressed for the conditions. Summer gloves and lack of toe covers were our gravest sins. We did our best to distract ourselves from the cold with endless storytelling, but by the time we rolled into the race venue, our extremities were frozen.

Our timing was such that I only had time for a partial hot lap to preview the course. This proved woefully insufficient for the slippery early morning conditions on a very turny, very off-cambery (definitely a word) and also very good course! The fact that I was riding low-tread gravel tires probably didn’t help either. But there was no time to second guess my decisions - before long the whistle was blown and off we went.

I made a few mistakes early in the race including following another rider off course into the start chute that wasn’t taped off (another instance where a proper pre-ride would have helped). Then somewhere around lap 3 or 4, I came upon Rod at the bottom of an off-camber, on the ground and in quite a bit of pain. That sealed my DNF as I abandoned in search of medics and teammates.

After we got Rod on his way to urgent care followed by some quality team hangs during the Women’s 1/2/3 race, we set about recruiting Lisa to join the ride home. Promises that the route was all downhill may have been made (spoiler alert, it was not). But before long we had a third companion for our ride home - which took place in truly perfect conditions with tons of beautiful fall color throughout. To top it all off, Barb met us for the second half of the ride and promptly set about having a sprint competition with Daghan that my legs certainly were not up for. After nearly 90 miles of riding and racing, we capped things off with a coffee and burrito.

All-in-all while it may not have been a recipe for racing success, I would do it again in a heartbeat - just with warmer gloves and a pair of toe warmers.

Stay tuned for more Croton Cross coverage later this week.

Photographs by Daghan

Photographs by Matt