Storm The Beach CX

A few pix from the cyclocross race I "competed" (to use the term lightly) in on Sunday.

Storm The Beach is held on Camp Pendleton's Red Beach. Not a very cyclocrossy venue, but beautiful nonetheless. I also did this race last year......

I'm on the left below, this other racer and I had a good battle going back and forth for a few laps. It all started when he tried to pass me in deep sand, deep enough to catch his front wheel and sending him over the bars into me. I didn't crash, but was just left with a greasy imprint of his chainring on my calf. We swapped positions a few times, but I finally succumbed to him on the fifth lap after tripping up in a sand pit. He pulled away and was able to put some distance on me.
I'm not in the image below, but it shows the stretch of Red Beach that was traversed. By the time my group went out, the tide was a bit lower, leaving us more real estate to race on.
In the end I paid $45 ($35 entry + $10 one-day UCI license) to suffer for 46 minutes and six seconds. At least it was less than a buck a minute. Still, I managed to finish in the top ten (well, 10th out of 14) in the Masters 35+ Cat 1/2/3. I thought the Masters category would be a bit easier than the open 1/2/3 that I raced last year. Not so, as I lined up against a few retired pro mountain bikers and a one-time national track champ.

Maybe I'll do better next year. Or not.

Second and third pix swiped from the SoCal Cross Flickr page.