Had my first CX race yesterday. Thanks to a couple of upgrades, I may actually do well this year. When I got into my accident back in May, the only thing that broke was my fork. Honesty, I'm glad it did! I didn't realize just how horrible that unlabeled carbon fork was until I put on an Easton EC90X. The old fork flexed so much in the corners that I was never confident in the turns, and it was horrible at absorbing the rough terrain. The EC90X feels solid in the turns, but is very forgiving on the rough terrain. I love it! I also decided to go tubeless with the Conti Cyclo X-King RaceSport tires I bought. I set them up with Stan's NoTubes sealant on my Mavic Ksyrium wheelset.
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| Muddy CX Bike |
The race course was a mixture of tacky, and muddy trail. It had rained all day, but luckily stopped a couple of hours before the race started. We had decent field size show for the race which always makes it more fun, and tougher. At the beginning of the race during the charge for the hole shot, I heard a loud noise under my bike that sounded like glass. I looked down to check that every thing was okay, and when I looked up I was in the back of the pack. I spent the first lap passing like a mad man. I got up to second place and hold it until the last lap were I was passed. I was gassed from my first lap, and I didn't want to turn myself inside out to chase since I still have an endurance to do on Saturday. I ended up getting 3rd place! Pretty happy with that result. Great start to the CX season!
UPDATE: Apparently that race cost me my bottom bracket! The bearing on the left side ceased completely. I serviced it, but it's still not that smooth. Bottom brackets aren't too pricey so I'm just going to replace it. Probably needs it anyway.
