Friday I headed out to the venue to get in a pre-ride. In the past, a pre-ride wasn't always possible. Now that I'm running singlespeed, it's pretty important, especially going into it with no info. on the course at all.
I ran into 3 guys(Doug,Denny and Dave) who were working on the venue and ready to hit up the course for a pre-ride themselves. I struck up a conversation and did the ol' tag along. It worked out real good. The course wasn't entirely marked yet for Sundays XC, so I would have been completely lost. One lap with them and one lap on my own was sufficient time to know the course and to know my gearing would be good(32x18).
Before I left, the guys showed me around Saturdays cyclocross course and heckled me enough to talk me into racing. I figured that I was going to get out and ride anyhow, why not throw down 'cross style for a bit.
After a quick overnight gear change to a 32x16,I lined up for my first ever 'cross race in the Masters 40+ class. We would be racing for 40 min.+/-. The gun went off and we immediately headed up a paved road climb for about 200yds to thin the field out. I dropped into 5th entering the 1st grassy section, happy to just set on and watch how things would unfold.
Once we hit the first section of barriers I made up a couple spots by bunny-hopping over rather than running them. Shortly thereafter, we hit a short single track section that the One9 absolutely floated through.There were a couple log barriers I just ate up, and found myself into 2nd about halfway through the 40 min. race.
From this point I had some serious time to make up though. 1st had about a 30sec gap on me, it was time to get to work. I chased pretty hard for the next 20 min. and steadily closed the gap, but in the end I was 10 sec. off the lead.
I collected $30 for my efforts,and loaded up to try and get some rest in before Sundays XC.
I woke the next a.m. feeling o.k. I was curious to see how my legs would respond to the previous days efforts. The area got hammered with t-storms Saturday night, so the whole venue was pretty sloppy. I could only imagine what the course was like.
....a little info. on the mtb course... a lot of rocky/rooty sections that dry were fairly challenging, being wet makes it real hard. It was your typical "east coast" style course where you need to be a good technical rider or get your arse handed to you.....
Well, it's a good thing I have some experience in these conditions, because the course was sketchy at best. There were multiple guys getting stitched up after this one.
All the Cat.1 group started together at the bottom of the hill again. I figured I better nudge my way towards the front unless I wanted to get held up in sloppy single track that was sure to meet us in about 1/4 mile.
The gun went off and I managed to keep pace with the front group and enter the single track in 6th. The initial section of trail wasn't too bad. The big wheels treated me well as the guys on mini-wheels started to struggle over the wet roots and rocks as we got farther into the first lap. I picked off a few guys as we encountered different obstacles that proved no match for the One9.
The back side of the loop was the most technical. There were multiple rocky,steep drops and climbs that enabled me to make up some time and join back up to the front two riders that gapped me a bit. Towards the end of loop one, I made a move into 2nd on a slick off-cambered rocky climb that we scouted a few times on Friday. I took the preferred line and the pass was made.
Heading out to do lap 2 I find myself in 2nd, feeling pretty comfortable, but knowing there's a lot of work to still be done. Within the next mile I come upon the leader.....with a flat. He's a local pro/cat.1 guy, so I know once he's back under way he'll be charging pretty quickly.
I spend all of lap 2(of 3) in the lead. Trying to ride smooth, but still pushing the envelope so as to try and not get caught. Through the start/finish area and out for the final lap I still find myself in the lead by less than a minute. 2nd is charging hard and making up some pretty big chunks of time(so I was told), so I motored on.
About half way through the final lap I was caught. As fast as he went by me I figured I had no chance, but as we moved to the technical sections I could still see him in front by only 15-20 seconds. A few encounters with lapped riders did me no favors, and by the time we were at the last little climb to the finish there was no sight of the lead. To be honest, I'm not sure I would have had anything left for him,but it would have been nice to try.
Marci and I hung out around the venue and met some really nice people post-race. I think I may have even nailed down a job at a shop once I get up there for good. Many thanks to Doug,Denny,Dave,Craig,Scott,Andy and Mark(the crew at BikeSource and 360 racing) who's hospitality made me really look forward to getting up to our new home. Post race brews flowed and podiums were ascended. I collected my pint glass and $100,loaded up and rolled on back to Marci's apt. knowing we're in a good place.
1 comment:
Nice work Farmer!
Post a Comment