Virginia CX Finals at Forest Hill Park

I have been told for over a year now that I need to try cross racing. Of course this was quickly followed by a story about how much of a beat down it is. Well, both of these were right. I was missing something by not trying cross racing sooner.

Imagine riding at the limit of your anaerobic threshold for 45 minutes, yep it is tough. I have done a few power tests at Endorphin Fitness which includes a 20 minute max effort so I had an idea what I would be in for, but not certain what 45 minutes of this effort would do to me. I have heard of people throwing up during these power test, seen people hurling during the many endurance races I have entered, and now seen people hurling during CX races.

CX racing was very cool and I plan to enter several additional races next season. It isn't XC racing, but it is a nice place to test yourself during the off season. Anaerobic threshold is something I need to work on and I can't think of a better way to challenge my fitness.

Thanks to Jim Fisher for joining me as the only other DP rider out there. Hopefully there will be a few other team mates joining me next season.

Plassmans Tour of Richmond



So the idea was thrown out there, and before long a group had decided that a 100k trip around the local Richmond trails would be a good idea.  Six members of the team joined at Forest Hill Park to start the day.  I guess none of us were thinking about the parks farmers market when we picked this destination, we had to fight for parking spots and weave between cars to gather in a spot.



The route was planned by Plassman and was sure to include the best of JRPS and surrounding trails with as much singletrack as possible. We started with a loop around JRPS in traditional style.

Is that a grimace from Bleecher already??

We picked up a few additional team members swelling to a group of nine at one point.


Yes, that is our fearless leader Jason.  No, he hasn't lost his bike this season.



We then ventured to Powhite where Plassman was able to show us the best line around the spaghetti of trails over there.  This trip seemed to bring some of the impetus out of the group.  We began dropping members as we headed to Powhite and then more once we left Powhite.



Stijls representing





The men behind the Stijls

Our group headed on a journey to the flats of Pony Pasture, Laurus Park and back to JRPS before finishing with another loop of Forest Hill.  To tired for photos by the end, there were four of us who completed the ride logging just under 60 miles.  Not quite the 100k we were hoping for, but a great team training ride.