College kids were out of town so the Cross kids took over the park. The course was awesome and different every day and is what really makes this event special. Mud, rocks (or were they marbles?), and a hill best known as Mt. Krumpit destroyed parts and legs rapidly and relentlessly. One of the mechanics said their count was at 30 derailleurs and the same amount of hangers mid way through the second day. That’s only the folks that came to him as some just grabbed their spare bike or went to the other shop that was there in support.

I raced the 2/3 each day. Friday started off with a bang, well...more of a crunch as my derailleur took a vacation in Wheelsville. A day and forever later I find the hanger for my Felt as they aren’t a popular brand. Bike was fixed two hours before my race the second day. In time for me to enjoy the muddiest day of playing (racing in this instance) on my bike since bombing down the quarries on the 20” when I was 17. Finished 35th-ish. For Sundays race I decided I was going to hang it all out and try to push impossibly hard right from the start. I had to start in the second to last row due to my late registration and it was proving to be really tough to make up all that ground with how slow the pace was when climbing up through the pack. Hammer it for a lap and nearly blow myself up, "nearly" being the key word there. The run up is searing my legs like meaty shish kabobs in Iran. Peak out of the pain locker for a moment and bing bong, Im in 10th and have passed about 50 guys since the start. I find my tempo and the guys faster then me slowly come by over the rest of the race. Cale Wenthur (Team Pegasus) and I finished off the race going back and forth a bit. On the final decent I went over the bars in a knarly little crash and Cale got by me but I was able to get around him to finish 19th. I felt like that was the best race Ive ever had. I left it all on the course. My bike handling and risk taking made up for the power I lacked.

To date no-one has anything on the heckle hounds of the Chi Cross Cup. We should be crazy prowd of the series we have.

Note to racers that plan on doing Jingle Cross: register as early as you can.

Big thanks to everyone that cheered and helped. Brian Morrissey, Courtney O'Neill

and Nkki Cyp proved to be great rommies and CX partners.