DES MOINES—Dave Vander Horst and Jacob Oyen kicked off the cyclocross season at the Capital City Cross race in McRae park.

Oyen made the trip to Des Moines on Saturday for the first race of the year, and his first cyclocross race ever. The quick start on a relatively difficult course proved to be challenging however, Oyen finished seventh out of 21 racers.

Vander Horst joined Oyen for the race on Sunday. The technically challenging course provided a lot of excitement with some fast sections and some really slow technical sections. Vander Horst opted to race in the CX4 category instead of with the masters. After battling with some park equipment while crossing the sand pit, he placed 11th out of a 26 man field.

Oyen came in eighth after going toe-to-toe with Dave Mable (all9yards.com) for most of the race.

The team is headed to Newton next weekend for the Cross Out Chrons race.