Patrick Beeson

Note: I've updated this entry to remove a paragraph encouraging fellow CX3 racer Chad Black to upgrade his license. He posted a comment pointing my flawed criticism. Apologies!

Note: It also seems the Frisbee golfers were told not to throw their discs while the race was going on. Except they didn't listen (insert stereotype about Frisbee golfers here). Thanks to Black for clearing that up.

I used to ride at Knoxville's Victor Ashe Park as part of my training for the Mud, Sweat and Gears cyclocross series in the Tri-Cities. But I'll be damned if training was ever this hard!

Despite a long course filled with rough, bone-jarring ground I managed to pull a fourth-place finish in Knoxiecross No. 2 mens' CX3, which is my best finish yet for this category. And I'm sitting pretty at fourth overall in the series.

The day began cold with a hard frost on the ground and later warmed to the upper 40s. The resulting melt made for a few slippery corners, but none of the slop of Knoxiecross No. 1.

The course felt long though I can't be certain it was any longer than other courses. I do know that the race itself lasted a few minutes longer than other CX3 races -- my 45 minute effort was actually 58 minutes and 33 seconds.

Victor Ashe is a large park with soccer fields, a walking path and a Frisbee-golf course. The cyclocross course took advantage of the latter with long straights and an interesting uphill switchback that was kinda fun.

It also featured a trip through the woods that dumped you out at the finish. This was followed by a miserable, bumpy trail beside the parking lot.

I was happy to see a double barrier set for this race since the previous Knoxiecross only had a trip around some playground equipment and a staircase run-up.

My competition were the usual suspects: Chad Black, Michael Biegalski, Jeremy Chandler and Caleb Ryan, the last of whom I managed to beat this time though he trounced me in the first Knoxiecross. Chad Black took the win in this category, beating Biegalski by a minute.

In fact, Black's lap times were almost all faster than Dirk Pohlman who won the CX1 category!

I was going to check my heart rate vitals against my effort from last week, but I forgot to turn on the manager. I do know that I felt like crud for the first few laps, which I'll blame on the good though buttery biscuits I had for breakfast.

On a side note, I was a bit peeved that during my first or second lap the folks keeping track of things read my number backwards. I know that 806 can easily be misinterpreted as 908, but that's why you avoid issuing confusing numbers in the first place!

Maybe I'll draw a line under my six for the next race to make it more readable.

Also, another peeve: There were several Frisbee-golf types attempting to play golf during the race. I also noticed a few walkers that were oblivious to us crazy cyclists.

All-in-all this was a good event, though I can't say it go down as a favorite.

As another addendum, I have yet to see any media coverage of the Knoxiecross series. I don't know if Highland Adventures has done any public relations, but any newspaper or magazine wanting to get a lot of Web traffic from the cycling community should get on this!