Cat 3/4 1st/50-ish
I started on the front and was around 10th at the holeshot. Up until half way through, I was with a couple other guys while 5 guys were out front. I made it over to the leaders who were now reduced to 3. I was surprised at how slow the pace was on the "power" sections. I hung around with the leaders for maybe half a lap and then went off the front solo for 2 laps for the win! 2nd place was 11 seconds back. It was a great course with a mix of technical and power sections, you had to be both a good bike handler and good at putting out the watts. This is my first win in any cycling discipline.
Scott C also had a great day, I'll let him report for himself.
Last edited by pcollins on Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks Chris! Not yet, I'm going to wait until I upgrade to Cat 2.
I forgot to mention that I woke up with a cold this morning and didn't really want to race... glad I did. I've gotten a cold on this very weekend every year for the past 10 years of my life... weird.
For those who didn't do it (which is quite a few), this was a great venue with a mix of power sections and some nicely tricky technical stuff. The course designer clearly loves off camber features, and used the available terrain really well.
The only issue was the use of a timing company that clearly didn't really know much about bike racing. Despite the use of chip timing, the masters race took ~45 minutes to post results, and when they did, there were tons of mistakes. That's why it makes sense to use JD. Despite these snafus, I highly recommend putting this race on your calendar for next year.
As for racing, I think I got 25th/38(?) in the 40+ (I was actually listed as an unknown rider, so we'll see if this result actually gets recorded). I'm happy with this given that I totally shagged the remount on the first barriers. I forgot they were there until I came round the corner at high speed - I made it over but was all wonky when I tried to get back on and ended up DFL about 2 minutes into the race.
I traveled to the race with family an hour earlier than planned because the SS race is at noon and I'd pre-reg'd for the 3/4. Its and easy drive and got there with plenty of time to find parking, switch from 3/4 to SS and do partial course inspection just before the master's went off. Got to watch Stefan's group and the 50s and 60s. There were abour 200 pre-regs and a lot of day of's which was apparent in the size of the masters fields.
Given this venue is in its first year, I second Stefan's recommendation to put this one on next year's race calendar. Great mix of fast, flowy stuff with tricky off camber, river bank fast path, 3 sets of barriers, a monster run-up, tech down hill, to fast path back through woods back to start/finish. Wood chips and soft dirt on the power sections really kept you honest about your line and challenged passers and even caused a few wash outs.
SS race was kind of a joke. Me and 2 other dudes, which rounded out the podium before the race began. Really had hoped for more of a crowd, but gunned it at the whistle and road as if I was racing a bunch of others. Lap times were all very consistent as I never let up and lapped the 2-man field mid-way through lap 3. Finished lap 4 without any issues and found magic line through 2 of the turns and cursed that run-up as the 42-18t was hard to turn.
Felt pretty cooked after the race, but got some fluids and a banana in me really quick and took an easy spin around the lot. With 10 minutes to 3/4 go time, I started thinking that the course was pretty well setup up for SS and I was now feeling moderately better. Grabbed 10 bucks from the van and went to registration 3 minutes before go-time. They penciled me in with same number and off I went - a double up on my original race.
Staged at the back and drank 20oz of water and shot a caffeinated GU. Whistle blew and the biggest field of the day was off. Its a quick field sprint to some pavement, then a sand pit and sharp turn to barriers and open grass to a gazebo. Upon exiting the sand and rounding the turn, I could see the leaders already 30s up the course at the gazebo, so it was really in maintenance mode - don't let people pass and try to move up. Fandangod some stuff learned from previous race and felt like things were going well after lap 1. Much of the same on lap 2 and things just started to feel painful. After crossing the line that lap, I saw 3 to go and wanted to quit, but am glad I didn't. One of the reasons I love cross so much is because there is a race-within-a-race almost every race. A few guys are jockeying for position and duke it out each lap. Some move up and some fade. I managed to maintain and not race backwards and kept picking places off each lap. A B2C2 rider was my pacer and brought me through to the end, which I gladly let win for 18th and I finished 19th. Pretty tired right now, but really glad to double up and build fitness for Gloucester.
Just a comment to Stefan and all on the chip timer / results: I definitely learned what it is like from the Silk City one which I assume is the same guy for the results. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure the results from my race are not right from the Silk City race. They had me at 17th and I am pretty sure I was 11th or 12th. I remember being in about 9th or 10th as I could see the 4th place guy and the guys in front of me probably 3 laps in. I was thinking I might be able to catch a few of them but never did and was passed by 2 guys. So somehow they have 5 guys wrong in there, a number of which I never saw in the race. I think it is because we lapped a bunch of guys so the results got screwed up. Oh well.
