thanks for all the great comments, the event ended up being a blast even though the day started miserably (horizontal rain and 52 degrees when the first wave started).

jrw, I try to capture the emotion of the moment when I shoot sports, I feel it freezes the moment of action and the feeling of the moment as well.

dsiegel, I used a 1DMkII with 70-200 non-IS for these shots. We just shot our 2nd event, and although I got stuck doing the portraits at the end of the course for much of the time, I'll try to post a few of the good ones when they're ready.