Polska Puker

I was up Saturday at the crack of dawn to head to Milwaukee for the Polska cross race. Having done my first cross race last weekend I was excited to try and improve. I rode a little during the week and kept the calorie intake to solid foods, not liquids, so I thought I was ready.

The thing about cross, like everything else I do on a bike, it takes a while to figure things out. You always read about the starts and where guys line up ,apparently it is pretty important. In mtb racing its not such a big deal so I didn't put much thought into it, well in cross it is. I extended my warm up on Saturday. That is what I learned last week, warm up a little, spiking your heart rate in a cross race takes a while to come back down and by then the race is over. So I lallygag to the start and get stuck pretty far back. Not such a big deal I think. I will just sprint the start. That is what everyone else is thinking though. Whistle blows and I whiff my pedal not one but twice and everyone else in full sprint heads to the first corner with me dragging behind. By the time I get through the first set of chicanes there is a line of riders as far as I can see. I pick of a couple guys in the loose dirt that bobble and there I pretty much stay for the rest of the race. I get some time checks up to Brian Merklein during the laps and we hold a pretty even gap. He finished around 10th I finished 23rd. That shows me how important the start is. While I don't expect to finish top 10 if I can get my starts down a little better I have a pretty good chance at some improved results.

It was great having everyone out to the race. We had myself, Joe, Mike, Brian M, Jon H, Raging Ron, and Brian P all racing. Big Steve and littlest Sam were out plus the Merklein crew and the Curtes Mom were all Superfaning for us.

We had a great time with great weather and there were a bunch of pics taken. Check out Flikr "poska puker" and see for yourself.