DICX '14
Five years... That's how long Jeff Wood has been putting on DICX. Five years... Five years of tequila shot shortcuts. Five years of kids chucking marshmallows. Five years of CX in Detroit. The DICX - on par with SSCXWC - in the D - and not just for hipsters... Race Reports for the DICX '14 are below.
Patrick McEnaney-
I'll get the race report ball rolling following today's fifth edition of Detroit Invitational Cyclocross going into the books. The Racing Greyhounds, Velvet Elvisesesesss (Thanks Terry!), Liberty Brewing, Tailwind Racing (Thanks Rebecca!), Motorless City Bicycles, et al., did a mighty fine job once again. No amount of boost taken by opting for the tequila shot shortcut helped me go fast, as the legs and body were just tired from the gun today. Congrats go to Brian Kearns for keeping the pressure on to take third in the "Overly Competitive Pricks" field (aka Cat123). The course was wicked challenging once again with a well-laid combination of flats, jogs up and down the Dorais Park rise, and of course, the vintage Dorais velodrome. With temps in the high 30F range at race time, everyone was treated to a heaping portion of mud on a off-camber downhill turn, this was followed shortly by a greazy and wicked steep run-up. The 5-pack of barriers followed by a snow mound put the hurt on everyone's quads after scrambling the run-up. As an added bonus, outside the shelter of the trees, the hillside and velodrome segments were wind-whipped enough to allow minimal recovery time. And if the spirals of death, mud pit, run-up, stairs, or barriers weren't enough, a chicane filled with barrels and exit chutes that were moved every-other lap put a severe challenge to my brain, which was substantially twisted after n - tequila shots.
It was an appropriately painful sunset to my 2014 cx season. Good luck to all headed to regionals in GR!
Even Patrick gets a shot "toward the win."
Terry Carpenter-
Good turn out, very muddy, fun, and painful. My derailleur is messed up so I had to do the whole thing in big front ring and/or run a lot. I think I was hallucinating by the end.
Jeff Wood puts on a great race! Michael Belanger designs a sick funny painful course. Madman CX design team Jeff, Bellringer and company! Had fun chasing Patrick around heckling him. Brian the Turkey Kearns and Ellie also kicked ass (as is expected). PS thanks to Ducky Detroit Natalie Jameson Kiesling and Motorless City Craig Koengsley for the gear to keep me warm (since I wore "normal" clothes to race, I forgot to pack dry normal clothes).
And Brian Kearns gobbled up third.