Chris Cross - St. Mary's U

If you ever saw Christian Hosoi fly his famous Christ Air 7 feet above the lip of a halfpipe back in the day then you know where my inspiration came from for this barrier leap.

The St. Mary’s campus is the most beautiful spot for cross. I’d imagine the hardest part about designing a course there is deciding which features to leave out. I’m glad there is still another race there this year.

Bad legs and clumsy: From the start, I couldn’t get it together and things just got worse as the race went on. I had a front line position for the uphill start but ended up going into the first turn in about 15-20th postion b/c I could not get clipped in. I was able to use the wide course to catch back up to the lead group quickly but I could feel that my legs weren’t there. I just didn’t feel like I could get any power and I actually got stiffer as the race wore on. It felt like trying to swim through honey. And to make matters worse, I felt clumsy and hesitant on the barriers. So I spent the whole race fighting myself but despite all my trouble I still managed to grab 3rd place.

It was lonely out there. The first 4 positions got sorted out after lap two and from then to the finish everyone held their position and the gaps between us all just kept growing. At one point Mark Cole stumbled on a barrier up ahead of me and I was able to catch him as he fumbled with his chain. But I seemed to be stuck in low gear and couldn’t get around him and he pulled back away. It was a frustrating race, but sometimes it just be’s that way. I still had fun and enjoyed the course immensly- I just wish I could’ve loosened up and found a rhythm. Looking forward to coming back soon.

It was great to see so many Manhattan faces out there. The best local result was Andy Wiens grabbing 2nd in a photo finish just ahead of Mike Ellis, a KSU rider. Awesome 3-up sprint finish in the cat.4 race!