Lots of cycling going on in NY State and PA this weekend and it seems like all the heavy hitters headed into Pennsylvania for Iron Cross. I opted for a weekend at home and chose to do SwanDrome Cross. With the venue not even 3 miles from home, how could I not. I expected a small field given the number of people who were doing Iron Cross, but perhaps with the heavy hitters gone those of us who are mere mortals at the sport felt more comfortable coming out to play. At what by all accounts was a small local event, we had a 12 women!!! What a great turn out! Several of the women were giving cross a go for the first time as well.
The first timers and the rest of us chose a perfect day to play. It was sunny, the trees were absolutely on fire in their fall finery, and the course was long and challenging, though not as muddy as feared given the mid week rains. That is, of course, not to say that there was no mud on the course.
The day kicked off with two kids races - one for the youngest youngsters - those with push bikes and bikes with tiny wheels. They did an impressive loop around the house and the pond. A very impressive showing by those little ones. The second kids race doubled the fun and did two laps of the little race. It was an exciting finish with first and second place neck in neck coming into the line. The winner took the honors by less than a wheel.
After the youngsters had their fun it was time for the "adults" to duke it out. The men took off and the women were told that when there was a "reasonable gap" in the men's field we would be set loose - instantly mingling with the men's field and allowing a single lap counter to take care of both races. The first 6 guys came into site with a decent gap behind them. That gaps seemed to shrink as they took the sag around the pond, and it appeared perilously small when we were told to join the mix. The guys who all of a sudden found themselves having to make their way through a gaggle of gals seemed to take it in stride and with good cheer.
The course started in some wet grass and then went onto a double track in the woods, where we slalomed around some logs, made a few turns and climbed up a short hill. Then it was back down the hill on a mix of double track and single track, up the other side of the hill and into the border of the lawn and the woods where we did a series of zig zags before diving back into the woods, down a short steep pitch and back up to the field after a short piece of single track. Once back up on field level we went around some fields, including some down hill and one bumpy and wet uphill with a single barrier at the top where it was tough to get enough momentum for a quick remount. Then it was into a zig zag, around an off camber turn that meant swimming in the pond if you didn't make it, and around the pond. From the pond we hopped on the gravel driveway came into a 180, faced off with a double barrier, did another 180 and were on the start line.
Right from the gun, three of us emerged from the front of the pack with LiLynn up front then me in second for a short time and Sarah behind me until she found a good place to pass. Starting lap three all three of us were right together. Somewhere in there Sarah snuck by LiLynn, but we were pretty tight. That is until I utterly flubbed the remount of the single barrier. I had very little momentum and when I "jumped" back on the bike, my foot completely missed the pedal. With no forward momentum on the slight up and bumpy ground I had to put a foot down again and essentially started from a dead stop... with Sarah and LiLynn long gone in front of me. I lost a little more time to the two of them on each of the remaining 3 laps as I just could not get that remount down. Happily I was not as much of a disaster on getting back on the bike at the double barrier in the start finish area - where all the spectators were hanging out. My effort was good for a 3/12, about a minute behind Sarah and LiLynn who stayed together the whole race. The men lapped those two just meters before the end of their 6th lap. We were initially told we would be doing 7 laps, but in cross when you get lapped you do fewer laps since the race is run for a certain amount of time rather than for a specified distance. Since the men lapped Sarah and LiLynn just before they (the men finished), the two women were told they were done when just seconds later they finished their 6th lap. LiLynn had been planning to attack Sarah on the 7th lap and go for a win. As it was, Sarah managed the win. I was pretty much in no man's land so all of a sudden finding myself done didn't affect my race at all. Fourth place was about a minute behind me.
A fun day on a tough course. A huge thanks to Glenn and Marcia Swan for hosting the race.
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