Northampton

[swawersik]

Seems like we're all suffering from a bit of CX fatigue the last few weeks, as the race reports have been scant. However, I like hearing how everyone fared each week, so I'm going to set an example and hope that others will follow...

Day 1

It was cold and dark at 6:45am when I arrived at Look Park, only to find that the gates were still locked. I'd hoped for plenty of time to get ready and fully warmed up, but we weren't let in until 7ish. Oh well. Despite being more pressed for time than I'd like, I got in a good warm up on the course, which was, at the time, thick grass with a layer of frost on it. The course itself rewarded speed and power, and was all big ring.

Slotted in next to my friend and nemesis Tim Metzger at the start, having almost lined up behind the guy who killed me with a slow start at Gloucester, but realized the mistake and took the next lane over. Got a decent start, but was slowed in the first turn by a guy who slipped out a bit. I could see Tim up ahead and was making up some distance, then we hit the run up. Walk.

Felt a little off on the first few turns in the woods, but once I hit the power again after the first time down to the grass, I knew I was going to have a good day. I concentrated on taking turns smoothly and getting out of the saddle to accelerate after each one, and started passing guys. The frost had been melted by the sun, making the grass slick, and there were guys wiping out at regular intervals, but I managed to stay upright and get around them. I caught Tim somewhere in the second woods section, and he was on my wheel when we came back down to the grass the second time. The guy right in front of me went down in a turn, and I squeezed in between him and the tape to get around. I heard Tim say "nice save" as I hit the gas.

From there, I had a group of 6 in front of me - containing another one of my nemeses, Chris Trabulsie (Bike Barn) - that I spent much of the race trying to catch. For two laps, I'd close the gap slightly, get over excited then make a bobble 'cause I was pushing a little too hard, and be back to square one. But I knew I was riding well. I could see the front of the race, I was holding a gap to a Racer-X guy, Rob Bousquet, who I know is good, and every time I could see Tim behind me, the gap to him was getting bigger. I told myself to settle down, and on the last lap, I caught Chris and two other guys from the group (they'd fallen off the other 3). In the final grassy power sections after the barriers, I settled in to recover, confident I could win the sprint, when I realized that Bousquet had caught us too. "We're going too slow," I thought and I decided not to take my chances in a bunch sprint, so I put in a big dig going around the last couple of sweeping turns. On the last grassy section, I couldn't see anyone on my wheel, but could hear someone not too far back, so I pushed harder. By the time I hit the pavement, I had full on tunnel vision, but just kept going and held off Trabulsie and Bousquet for 28th/122.

Day 2

Thanks to the clock shift, we started an hour later relative to the sunshine. Despite being colder when we arrived, this meant that the sun had had more time to melt the frost and whoo boy! was the course ever slick by the time started. The officials made a big to do about not overlapping wheels at the start after a crash in the Cat 3 race on Day 1, but I think that mostly just put the idea of crashing into people's heads, as there were two or three big crashes in the first 400 m. I had to ride over someone's rear wheel to avoid one, but stayed upright.

The slick course took its toll, as there were guys sliding out everywhere on the first lap. I made a decision to be a bit more conservative, figuring that I was faster when not on my back. I got passed by a bunch of guys, but passed many of them back in short order as they wiped out. But I took it too far: I let the course conditions get into my head, and ended up taking inefficient lines because I was being too conservative. This was not a recipe for success on the more technical of the two days. I then compounded things by letting myself start thinking "I'm not having a good day," so I wasn't accelerating out of corners the way I did on Day 1. The net result was 45th/126, still not a terrible result, but I know I could have done much better.

Contrast my conservatism to Ray Brown's approach: despite lining up 5 rows behind me, he came around me on the pavement at the start (30 seconds into the race) and took off. I passed him 2 or 3 times on lap 1, each time after he crashed, but once he got sorted, he rode like a bat out of hell and finished well ahead of me (34th, I think). Nice job, Ray!

[atomkin]

Day 1 report at http://mudstache.blogspot.com/2011/11/c ... day-1.html

Day 2 report at http://mudstache.blogspot.com/2011/11/c ... day-2.html

[taudep]

If anyone hasn't noticed, when Abel isn't getting crashed out on the start, he's absolutely gotten fast. If there were some award for most-improved Club CXer, I'd nominate him. Congrats on a solid race on Sunday. Matt and I have to go back to the drawing boards and some more covert training...

[brownie28]

Good race report, Stefan, and great racing this weekend. I think day two was a more interesting and fun course but because of the slick sections around the baseball diamonds it made for a much trickier race. There were crashes all over the place, from lap one until the final lap it was just a minefield of downed riders.

I had a miserable start on day 1 because for the second week in a row I showed up late to staging and found myself 3 rows from the back, in about 100th place. After a real strong start I was mid-pack and managed to stay upright the whole race, pace myself well and managed to eek out at top-40 placement. I was happy with the result given where I started but I couldn't help but think that had I been on time to staging I might have been top-20. Lesson learned (hopefully!).

I got to the park early on Sunday--daylight savings is a wonderful thing, it felt like sleeping in when my alarm went off at 6am--and I begrudgingly threw the kit on knowing how cold it would be during warmups (my car was reading 24 degrees when I got to the course). Solid warmup, though, and my legs felt great. After hanging around staging (I wasn't missing it today) I took my spot about 7 rows deep on the left side, which is where I felt the most could be gained in the early going. It was a real hectic start as Stefan said, two big pileups on slick corners within the first few minutes and having kept myself upright I was loving the race...then it got interesting. On lap 2 I had two seperate groups of two rides go down right in front of my wheel; I managed to not run anyone over or go down myself but it killed my momentum. I pulled back some time on lap three but then had a rear wheel wipeout myself and went down hard. I knocked the wind out of myself but regrouped pretty quick and decided to just hang in on the last lap, I didn't feel like hitting that frozen ground again. Finished 34th, which once again made me happy but feeling I had alot of room for improvement.


All that said I really, really like Northampton; the course, the location (just a fwe towns over from my parents house); real fun racing.