Patrick Beeson

The weather forecast for Saturday, Dec. 8 was so wrong.

And for once, that was a good thing.

The final race of the 2007 Mud, Sweat and Gears cyclocross series was a 'cross aficionado's dream. Temperatures hovered in the 40s, and the clouds opened up throughout the day to make for a slick, sometimes muddy romp in the field at Winged Deer park in Johnson City, Tenn.

The course featured fast corners, a four-pack of barriers, steep run-up and a bitching bank turn. There was plenty of opportunity to make mistakes, and many did as shown by the number of muddy backsides visible after each race.

I managed to stay upright through the men's CX3 race and pulled a sixth place finish, which held me in fourth place overall.

This season was definitely a challenge for me. And having raced mountain, road and cyclocross off-and-on for some 12 years now, a challenge was indeed called for.

There are a few things I will do differently for next season -- racing a healthy number of mountain bike events before cyclocross season is a big one -- but I was happy to perform consistently in each race of the MSG series. I think my new gym membership to Ft. Sanders will also help.

I'm going to take a break from training for at least a week or two to recover mentally, then kick things back up for the Knoxiecross series taking place in early 2008.

And thanks to Eric Wondergem, Dwayne Letterman, and everyone else that helped put on this year's MSG series!

2007 Mud, Sweat and Gears results

• MSG No. 1 (10/13) -- 5th
• MSG No. 2 (10/20) -- 7th
• MSG No. 3 (11/03) -- 12th
• MSG No. 4 (11/10) -- 7th
• MSG No. 5 (12/01) -- 6th
• MSG No. 6 (12/08) -- 6th
• Overall for men's CX3 -- 4th