Tacchino Ciclicross

3rd out of 90 in the CAT4 race.
I had this race on my calendar almost after I had done it in 2006. This cyclocross course is one of the most unique. This race has no pavement, has one longer hill than most. I also went with low gearing a 11-34 in back and 34-50 in front. I never used the 34 in back, did use the 28 though for the run up section. I decided with these conditions I would race my bike monster cross style! I had a 42mm Mythos CX in front and a 40mm in back. These tires roll well enough, and I could run them low to help with the bumps. I think I made the back a little too low because it felt like the tire was going to roll off the rim!
I get to the start and there are 90 people lined up for the CAT 4 race! I ask the guy if they have call ups, and he says yes so I get to jump to the front of the line, and am starting with Matt Parse.

Well the start goes off and I am off. I didn't get the best start had to try twice to get in my pedals. Then comes the barriers pretty much right after the start.

I get to the Run up/Ride hill which I rode every time, not that it was faster to do so but I didn't have to unclip.
I get to the back side of the course and I am in the lead after Steve Wahl flatted(bad luck cause I think he would have won) I am in the lead with Matt, and Mike (teamates) behind me I get to the tight turn and over cooked it and went straight into the tape. I should have just went nice and easy though there, and made the guys pass me. After this the two of them were in front of me the whole race. I would get closer to them and then fall back.

I did actually bridge up to them at one point, but I think I used up too much energy and then I could not stay with them. It was cool though having the announcer talk about you for 30 minutes! If sponsors were there they would have had their names announced big time. I could hear him saying things like:
-"Looks like Darren Biggs is losing ground to the tag team of Capital Hill Bikes"
-"The Rubber Band is stretching"
-"This CityBikes rider will not give up!"
-"He is clawing his way back"
-"Darren Biggs of DCMTB CityBikes has made contact with the leaders!"

the lap counter got screwed up so when it should have been 3 laps to go, it was the bell lap. I got kinda messed up there, cause I went into survival mode when I thought I had 3 more laps to go. At the last lap I eased up a bit, and the front guys battled for the win(with Chris beating Matt this week after Matt won last week's DC-DX),

luckily Ryan Bannon didn't catch me. Ryan would have been a hard man to beat, and he almost caught me and he crashed three times, while I had a pretty much solid race besides that one bobble. I had issues with my knee earlier in the week, but it didn't bother me race day so the question is do I continue to race? Also if Mabra counts cyclocross races as mass start races I could move up to CAT 4 for road if I do the rest of the races.



Here are a bunch of pics that I took of the Masters,CAT3/4, and Elite and Jon and Heather took of the Mens CAT 4 race.(Click on Slide Show to go to viewer)