Musings of a Newbie Pt. 2: Canton Cup! (the short version)

[treeswayers]

So I spent the better part of the last hour and a half typing up another "musings of a newbie", but it turns out that in that time period the forum decided to log me out. When I wanted to preview my post, it said to log back in, and upon doing so, returned me to a blank "post a new topic" page. And so here we are, with a 5 minute version of the original MoaN.

My second cx race and, in fact, my second race ever. I decided to use platform pedals, which seemed like a better option than using my road shoes. Benefits were debatable, but nevertheless I plan on getting a pair of mtb shoes soon.

I warmed up too early, and so by the start time I was nice and cool. At the end of the starting sprint, I was 7th our of 8th. The juniors started 1 minute ahead of the Master race, so soon i was being overtaken by a multitude of riders. In fact, I would slowly bleed positions throughout the whole race (though the riders passing me weren't actually in my category), and by the third lap I would be lapped by the leaders. It was painful, to say the least. The course was fairly fast and quite dry, better than the MRC race where it was so muddy I had to pretty much run the entire hill sections and take each corner at a snail's pace. During the 2nd or 3rd lap I got my wheel tangled with someone else's during the run-up, but nothing serious.

In the end, I got 7th out of the 8 riders in the juniors category. Could have been better, I could have run off the course and crashed into a tree, but no blood was shed from me today, though I don't doubt that it won't happen soon.

EDIT 8th out of 8. I guess that other guy passed me at some point (though I could have sworn I passed him (and consequently, thought I lapped him) in the last stretch)

EDIT 2: due to unforeseen circumstances, Cycle-Smart International is a no-go for me

[rusto]

Nice Matt!

Good to see that you are taking every race is part of the refinement process, whether directly affecting your technique or the little things that indirectly make a difference in your race (like timing your warmup well). Posting your experiences here will allow those with more expertise to help you avoid reinventing the wheel in every case.

Getting set up w/proper pedals/shoes will go a long way to helping you have a more consistent race, for sure. Note that being overtaken by a faster field is not all bad: you can latch onto some of those faster wheels for a time and get a free "tow" for as long as you can hang on. But always keep your wits about you as there is likely another faster rider that just wants to get around you, be respectful but keep racing your race.

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FORUM PRO TIPS: either check "Log me in automatically each visit" when you log in to the forums and your login won't time out OR (as I do) compose your race report in a text editor THEN copy/paste it into your post (this also avoids losing your carefully written report because of a browser crash).

[scott_sweeney]

Matt it was great to see both you and Mason out there riding hard! Keep at it, you're young and strong and will only get better with repetition.

You must get some MTB shoes and pedals ASAP. The performance improvement you'll experience will be a profound.

See you in NoHo!