Ham Lake Cyclocross Report

I beat the main rival peeps at Ham Lake so I will mention their names... When they beat me on the hillier courses, of course (no pun intended), their names will not be mentioned... Yes it's true, I like the Ham Lake course. Flat, fast and a nice asphalt section where time trialing skills can be an asset. I was with a large pack hanging on to the back when we were slowed by lapped riders. A lot of the guys slowed down but I went around them on the left and found myself riding behind Maria Stewart at the front. A couple of turns later, I heard a loud crash. That was the end of the rest of the pack. It slowed them down enough that they were not a factor again. A lap later, I used a proven method to beat Rob Belz. I used to ride around on the course and wait for him to have a mechanical. He got the bike fixed so that forced me to go for option two, ride around until Rob gets into a crash... He did and that's when I passed him... Rob and Jeff Colbeth were involved in a crash caused by one of the younger riders. They were right in front of me. Well, actually, Maria Stewart was right in front of me. She got slowed down by the crash but I was able to go around it. I used the asphalt section to put distance between me and the chase group. At the line, I got 48th out of 70 finishers in the B Race. Rob wound up a few guys behind me and Tom Bengel was about ten guys back. Loons in front of me included old guys like Dan Meyer and Bill Kuster. The young Loons ahead of me were Alex Atherton, Dan Cleary, Chad Macy, Andy Frye and Tom Manderfeld. My fellow Loon State peeps placing behind me were the above mentioned Rob Belz, Tim ? and Tim Power. I got in 18 1/2 miles. Thanks to Rob Halvorson for the finish line pic...