I’d never been to Logosland in Cobden before. In fact most of the communities which we’ve been visiting these past Sundays for the Eastern Ontario Cyclocross Series are new to me. Even though I’ve lived in Ottawa since 1990 I really don’t have a sense for the surrounding communities.

Naturally I was curious about Logosland… The name doesn’t tell you much but lets just say this large piece of property has everything – a restaurant built into a boat, water slides, walking/running trails, time shares, and a lot more that I likely didn’t get to see.

But best of all – it is a great place to hold a cyclocross race. Thanks to the very generous terrain that gave the organizers lots of room to be creative with we raced on definitely the longest cyclocross race course I’ve ever ridden – 6 kilometers of cyclocross fun. Yes, 6 kilometers… that was a long lap!

But it was a lap jam-packed with lots of action – two steep run/ride-ups, a small sand pit, a short patch of beach riding, fun twists and turns in the woods, fast descents, steep descents, and long grinding climbs. All in all, it was a cyclocross that had something for every type of rider regardless of skill level and fitness.

Sunday was a fantastic day for a cyclocross race – warmish and breezy – perfect skinsuit weather (mind you, we’ll be riding around in skinsuits when it is pouring rain and hovering above freezing…).

The race? Well, it was good. A mediocore start had me chasing from the beginning. After some time I was able to pass a good chunk of women and I had my sights on the trio of Cyclery riders just in front of me. I was being careful at moderating my energy – during my last race I went too hard early on and faded very badly on the last lap. At the start of the second lap I was pretty sure I would catch the trio – but then I made a mistake… I overshot a corner, got hooked up in the course tape and lost time and positions getting unwrapped… Sigh. Well, I put my head down and got busy trying to play the “chase, catch and pass” game – this ended up being a lot fun. Three of us ended up trading positions numerous times and it was fun to see how far I could deep.

I’ve noticed that this year my barrier technique is a bit lacking. Goes to show that practice really does lead to improvement. Normally I start practicing barrier dismounts/mounts and other “key” cyclocross skills in the spring and continue this through-out the season. Well, this year I haven’t been doing this and it shows… So one of my goals for this race was to try to improve my dismounts each time I came to a set of barriers. My other goal was to ride as “cleanly” as possibly – in other words to stay off my brakes as much as I could and to minimize mistakes.

I think both goals were achieved… There were times when I struggled but this is what makes goals so worthwhile – they are not easy to achieve but are achievable.

Many thanks to the organizers for another great Sunday spent outside riding around on bikes like little kids. Also big thanks to those who came out early to setup the course and to those who stayed afterwards to tear down the course. Another big thanks to the folks who were out cheering and snapping photos. Last but not least – a huge thanks to the massive number of women who came out to race on Sunday – it is super encouraging to see so many women coming out to race cyclocross – some who are seasoned racers, some who are new to racing, some who are doing it for the first time, and some who I’m sure will go on to race on the World Cup circuit…

Yes, lots of fun was had at Logosland in Cobden. Six kilometers of fun!