It was a crisp start to Mother's Day this morning for our volunteers who were out and set up early for the season opener of the 2019 Focus CrossFire Cup Series.
12 Little Crossers took to the course in the first race of the season. Those on pedal bikes completed 2 laps and strider bikes 1 lap of a modified course. Tears were avoided after a bit of a spill at the start and all riders finished the race. Next we had 18 Juniors (U9 - U13) who did a full lap of the course in blistering times. The older juniors will do well in the National CX series races in a couple of weeks' time.
The remainder of the races went to schedule with new and experienced riders taking on the fast and flowy course at Park 4, North Adelaide. After a week of heavy rain the cracks in the Ants' Nest Park had almost closed up and the conditions could only be described as 'hero dirt' with incredible grip on the old cricket oval particularly. The section of thick, damp, fresh pine needles on the back side of the reservoir was horrifyingly similar to riding in quicksand followed by a hard slog through soft loam making it a power rider's course.
Race of the day was the Women's race with 27 riders battling it out across 4 grades. Mums and daughters racing together and new mums and older mums enjoying riding, racing and spectating.
Consistency was key for Tom Chapman who took out the A Grade Men's race in front of his family and fans and ahead of last year's series winner Paul Byatt.
Full results are available at: http://results.pacc.org.au/2019/CrossFireCup/R1/ and CrossResults.com. If you created a photo album you'd like to share, upload the URL to crossresults!
Thanks to the team of officials and volunteers who help put up and pack down the course and do all the jobs that make the day run so smoothly. Thanks to the City of Adelaide and SA Water for the use of the park and Reservoir.
And of course, thanks to series sponsors Focus Bikes Australia and CrossFit East Adelaide, volunteer sponsor Zero Fiction Cycling club sponsors Scammell and Co, Seafaring Fools, and Seight Sports for your ongoing support.
Mark July 16 in your calendar for Round 2 of the series, and get your entries in for Adelaide's rounds of the National CycloCross Series rounds on 1 and 2 June here: https://entryboss.cc/calendar/ncxs
Photo: Happy Mothers' Day Lisa Jacobs. Credit: Mark Gregory
Results , Cyclocross