Lion Roar Race at Lions Park, Raleigh NCCX #2

Karen got to go with me to this race. another double race weekend for me! It all good though. Got there in plenty of time, parking rough, nice close to home race is very nice as well. Legs felt good, did a little recoonaissance of the course, didnt ride much just looked it over and then warmed up a little bit. Now this is the style we see in midatlantic. Music pumping, people having fun, racers and families enjoying all sites and sounds, a grand scheme of a monster cross is sometimes which makes it so enjoyable! Started this race on the road which is nice. started in the mid pack area. Whistle blow, fast startup slight incline to sweeping left on road to a sweeping right over ramped curb into the grass. followed a dirt(mostly loose) trail to go around a tree at a  left 90 deg angle. still have good position but will move up later. follow slight incline to grass again and then hop curb to go to street again, which is a fast 150-200 feet section then dives back into the grass with a sharp left and then 40 feet to a 180 deg switchback. this switchback you could either go wide and be in mud or go shallow and hug the tape and dodge some tree limbs and stay on solid ground. a sweeping left to a short fast downhill which had a a nice 180 deg  switchback and short climb (@12 feet) to another 180 switchback which led downhill to a left sweeping turn onto a ramped curb section. This led to the parking lot and then into a loose gravel fireroad, which the course went into the grass and then gravel and than grass again to make it interesting.

Back up on the fireroad, we do a sweeping slight incline to a grassy and drainage divet up a short hill through some loose sand to a left that led back to a gravel /dirt road section. This had a quick sharp right turn then and then through some slight drainage pit divits into the woods , to around some trees and then back out again. a few more turns and a gentle sweep led into the barrier scetion. go straight for another 20 feet and then left turn into a grassy section which winds about and then traverse a small wooden bridge to a sharp right  and then few feet to s sweeping left turn. a nice little downhill section that sweeps to the right ever so slightly. Then you come upon soem loosemulch and another drainage section to a mulch uphill which turns into a loose sand section on the steepest part. This section was fun. made it everytime but when someone knocked me over. no worries got up and kept going! a few s curves and some sharp turns up on the flat section and then come back down right near the last loose sand hill to a loose sand downhill section that sweeps to the left by the time you reach the bottom. . It sweeps to the left and then goes @ 150 feet back to mulch/grass and then the street , back to the finish stretch! This course suited me great, made every hill(except when I got knocked over) and rocked the barriers. Dry dusty day though but loved this course. did 3-4 laps, lost track. Made up quite a few places overall and came onto last stretch of road with a rider in front of me @ 10 feet, shifted to 46 chain ring and gunned it. He got me at the line just barely even after tossing my bike across the line, but it was almost a photo finish.

Still got 19th(or 20th depends which place you look at, but NCCX says 20th) place out of 70 riders, so my best result by far for sometime. I had signed up for Masters as well but went back to Cat 4 so, i got a DNP(38th out of 38th in that race). Oh well. Rode hard and felt great and definitely my style course. Had a blast here are a few pics to go along.