Minuteman Road Club

Cat 4, 9 a.m. start

Arrived nice and early to Blunt Park with my newly installed 11-28 cassette, new chain and Challenge Grifos ready to take on the world. Well, one chink in my armor was knowing I'd have to face my wife later for leaving the fridge door ajar all night, spoiling a load of just-purchased perishables (including a beef tenderloin).

Took two pokey inspection laps and found my eyeglasses in my jersey pocket so I went to put them back in the car before taking a 3rd, peppier lap. This detour was just enough to cause me to line up one row from the back in a field of nearly 50.

I shrugged this off as I hoped it would ensure that I would pass a few people for a change instead of spending the whole race bleeding positions if I'd lined up in the 1st row.

The race starts and I clip in right away (thx to extra practice yesterday with Stefan and Coley) and proceed to pass 10-11 people on the start straight and into the 1st left hander that took me off the pavement and into the single track. Seemed like everyone went way too hot and was dragging their rear wheel slow down enough not to crash into the guy in front of him.

Laps 1 and 2 were spent trying to get by people who overcooked it too early, no easy task on this course. About 1/3 of the way in, there was a pile of logs and with my single chainring up front combined with a good summer of MTB skill-acquisition, I had no fears going right over it and past others who fumbled or ran it. A little later, about 1/2 through the lap, there was a bit of pavement we crossed after which the course got a little wider and I was able to jump past people there as well. The hill-and-dale turns after the triple barrier was another place I found success in passing.

I was winded, of course, but I felt very much in command of managing my effort so far.

Cut to lap 3: I approached the logs and started over like I did on the previous two laps but as my front wheel crested the top, to my horror, I saw that the log that was previously nestled snugly in the backside of pile had rolled a couple of feet away - right to the spot where my front wheel landed. Over I went and landed in the grey, soft soil that was almost like a combination of sand and ash.

When I stood up, my right leg was tangled in the drop of my handlebar and as I sort it out, at least 5 people went by me. Bleh. Jump back on, and give chase to this new group that was only moments before a few seconds behind me.

Laps 4 & 5: by this time, I knew that apart from the lead group (if they were even a group) everyone else was strung out. That's just how things play out at Blunt Park. So, after I spent the rest of lap 3 getting my mojo back after dumping it, I set back to the task of keeping steady pressure on the pedals, spinning as much as I could, and trying to pick off who ever was next in front of me. In the end, though, I figure I passed 3 guys, two of which passed me back by the end of the race. I knew my bike handling skills were headed for the dumper as I kept grazing the tape on the exit of turns and doing more and more dabs as time went on.

I finished 24th of about 48, 6 positions back from what the race predictor had me.

PLUS

- The change to the 11-28 was overdue (I run a 42 up front): on some turns where I would have been grinding out at a very low cadence, I was now able to spin up much faster.
- I felt like I had very good control of my effort, my laps were

07:12
07:01
07:08
07:08
07:15

so only a 14 second range over 5 laps - steady!

MINUS (aka, the excuse list)

- a week's vacation with no riding did not help with my fitness. Last year at this time I think I had 4-6 CX specific workouts under my belt plus more miles in general
- overweight, but then, I've not been to concerned with hitting race weight all summer
- poor bike handling - same as with the fitness, just not enough practice going in.

WHERE TO NOW - going to focus on doing what Ryan Trebon supposedly does: "repeated accelerations regularly while at or near his FTP"

Does anyone know if we did seven or eight laps in the masters race?

Nice report Russ - sounds like you did well and it makes me want to dust off my X bike. Hopefully you can continue making good progress throughout the season. I spent 2+ hours hurting myself at the Treasure Valley Rally.

Garmin says 35+ was 7 laps and the 3/4 was (mercifully) 6 laps.

My report:

I had the bright idea that August 'cross was all about shaking down the bike, getting some training in, and (maybe) getting some decent crossresults points logged for the later season "A" races. I accomplished the first 2, but the third? Well......

The mechanicals came fast and furious right from the warm up lap. I didn't get there early enough in the day so the 45+ were already racing and I couldn't get in a pre-ride. I rode around on the pavement until the race ended, then figured I could get in one hot lap before my race. The hot lap lasted about 30 seconds before I hit the first root and my bars rotated down about 4 inches. Oops. I should mentioned that I rebuilt the cockpit of my cross bike in the spring to make it more like my road bike, and it hasn't been off road until today. Double oops. So I aborted the pre-ride lap with my now low-boy bars and hightailed it back to the car. Loosened, re-adjusted, and tightened the *heck* out of the handlebar bolts (aluminum on aluminum so I cranked 'em). Just enough time to line up for my first race (35+), let's go!

The race started well enough, the early pace was manageable, I found myself in a group of four with 1st and 2nd place about 5-10 seconds up. This is good I think to myself as someone yells, let's go Chris! -- that's your group! -- stay on 'em! That was actually hugely helpful because it calmed me down and put my race into focus. Then the S--- started to hit the fan. In rapid succession over the next half lap, I managed to: 1) Rotate my bars down again after smashing another root --only about an inch this time though, 2) Have my brake pretensioners go away, meaning my front brakes lost all the spring holding them off the rim and all the free play so the lever was rock solid and the pads were touching the rim (i adjusted these brakes this morning, who knew you had to CRANK down on those little spring keepers (Shorty Ultimates...), 3) Drop my chain inside my chain catcher, 4) Get totally flustered and start making mistakes, resulting in 5) a stupid crash which dislodged my front wheel skewer. After that I backed it down and cruised the final 3ish laps. Excuses? Not really, since these were all self inflicted stupid mistakes so I can only blame myself.

So that covered Objective #1, shake the bike down, and after a brief (and frantic) stop at the pit (thanks Mark, ie. Bicycle support by...) I had the bike ready to go and lined up second-ish row for the next race, the 3/4 combined, to start in on Objective #2. In the scrum between races I never managed to get back to my car where I had a cold bottle of Cytomax and some gels, oops again, I guess we'll start this race thirsty. The 3/4 race went much better than the first except for the whole tired legs/heart/lungs thing and thirst. The pace was (surprisingly) much quicker at the start, probably because there were 50+ guys in this race vs 15 or so in the 35+. It was hard, but the bike held together and even though I started with some fatigue I actually felt a whole lot stronger in this second race, and more so as the race wore on. We only did 6 laps in this race vs 7 in the 35+, but my lap times were around 20 seconds per lap faster which was a nice post-race discovery. Not sure why we only did 6 laps since I finished in 39:30 and it was supposed to be a 45 minute race, but I wasn't complaining....

I think I finished around 12th place in both races, but in front of a few more bodies in the second race. Also met my main objectives and hopefully learned some valuable lessons

Reader's Digest version (for Jeremy): I raced. I need to work on turning. I got better by the end. Mid-pack finish. CX season is here.

I lined up mid pack on purpose, in an effort to get used to starting from the back (I just moved up to Cat3, so it's going to take a while for my Crossresults points to get me anywhere near the front).

Got a solid start and found myself within sight of the front of the race. Having heard Russ's story about (mis)hopping the woodpile, I made the decision to dismount and got gapped a little here, but closed back on the power section right afterwards and was on a wheel going into the first tight turny section.

Tight turns are something I need to work on, as every time through these sections (there were two, with a third that was still tight, but a bit more flowy) I got gapped, bleeding off a few spots.

Anyway, I closed the first gap on the flat section by the road. No easy feat, as this section was so bumpy that my rear wheel kept losing traction and my arms and hands were in agony. Then I hit the second turny section, and more gaps opened. And I couldn't close them this time.

I began to worry that I was "that guy." You know, the one with the awful handling who you keep getting caught behind as you watch your group ride away. Which, I think, just made me make even stupider turns. More spots bleed away, with all-out hemorrhage looming.

After the 180 turn off the start finish stright, I could see Abel and Mark Van Liere behind me. I know they're both good riders, so I figured I couldn't be doing that bad. I set about trying to hammer the power sections to give myself some buffer in the turns. But the power sections were all either super bumpy, or getting really loose, limiting the effectiveness of this technique. Abel caught me, like a mustachioed grim reaper.

I bobbled in a soft dirt turn and got passed by Roger Cadman. He was someone I usually battled in the 4's. I'd seen him at the line and figured he was a good measuring stick. OK, time to calm down and get going. I started to work the turny sections better. Not great, but better. I could see MVL and another guy behind me, but they were only gaining slightly in the turns. I caught the wheel of a tatooed guy from Competitive Edge guy who'd passed me earlier, then Roger crashed and I passed him.

Last half lap, following tattoo guy, holding off MVL. Tattoo crashes on the (only) off camber turn, and while flailing on the ground tries to block me from passing by putting his bike in my way. I got around, but this slowed me enough that MVL and the other guy (an Expo, I think) are now on my wheel. I made the turns reasonably clean, sliding a bit in the last sandy left hander (but stayed up) and hit the finish straight. Sprint! This opened a big gap and I finished... somewhere in the mid thirties, I think. It took them too long to get results posted for me to find out exactly.