Another week, another cyclocross race! I sure will be sad when the season is over.

This week, we traveled to Rome to get our cross on. Unfortunately, this was only an hour drive to Rome, GA – not the day plane ride it would take to get to Rome, Italy. But can you imagine a cyclocross race in downtown Rome? Start at the top of the Colosseum, run/ride down the stairs, out through the street, shoot through the Forum…that would be insane! Anyway, the Georgia Cross series had never been to Rome before, and it was quite a course they had set up for us! It was a park right in the middle of downtown, and the big feature was a levee that we both rode on top of and rode the hills on the sides.

To start off, we had an off-camber section on the levee – a bunch of zig zags, followed by a straight away on the grass that led past the finish line. After a short hill, we hit the one and only barrier section on the course. Some riders tried to bunny hop the barrier, with varying degrees of success.

Immediately after the barriers was a hill. Following the hill was a long straightaway on a paved path atop the levee. This was a nice breather! Also, the cars on the highway beside us could see both the riders on top of the levee and those jumping the barriers. There were several confused people driving by that day. After the levee was some zigs and zags on the other side of the hill on the levee, followed by a long grass section with some curves. This eventually led back to a long grass path by the river. After the river, we hit 2 hills leading into a very short singletrack section in the woods. The first hill had only one good path it, and that path unfortunately led through a briar patch. The briars turned out to be too much for some riders. Immediately after the briars was another small hill, which some people were able to get air off of.

After getting out of the singletrack, we had to get back to the top of the levee. This was done with a steep uphill that many could not ride. Unfortunately, at the top, they had us go immediately back to the bottom of the hill, only to turn immediately around and go right back up! Dirty trick! After this was the off-camber section along the levee and the grass straightaway to the finish.

The course was fun and challenging, however, it wasn’t my day. I had been sick the past week (to the point where I took days off work) but was starting to come around by race day. Once I started I knew it wasn’t going to be my best showing, but I still went at it and had a blast. My splits came in approximately the same every lap, so I was happy with that! As is almost always the case, I got lapped so my day was a bit shorter than everyone else’s (in this case, I was happy to be done early so I could get my rest on).