CX Race 9: Power Cross

Final race of the 2010 season! It was our coldest race of the season - upper 30's and windy, but the sun was shining. The shining sun did not mean there was no mud. The course started in the park driveway and then turned us into a large flat field. It looked like it should be a power section, but was supper wet and soupy. That soupy with water became soupy with mud as the laps passed. From there we had a dry power section that led into a super steep climb with barriers placed smack dab in the middle. We had a couple of zigs and zags at the top before we had a rough fast down hill into an almost 180 turn a small climb, another descent, a jump off the lip of a driveway we crossed, some turns into a second set of barriers, followed by some road before we went back into that soupy mess that was the lower field. The laps felt long, but that was because there was little rest due to the mud. Those with only one bike were definitely not firing on all gears in their later laps. those who had two bikes were doing bike swaps every lap and they didn't get quite the resistance training the rest of us got.

When they started the master's men and open women the lap counter showed something absurd like 9 laps. Half of those lined up were ready to pull out right there before the start whistle blew saying there was no way their bodies or bikes could handle 9 laps. We were assured that after our first lap the lap cards would be adjusted, and right they were. The lead ladies only did 5 laps. I managed not to get lapped by any women. they did get the results wrong. LiLynn actually finished in front of me - they missed her on one lap. LiLynn and I were riding together for most of the race. The results have me down as 4th but I should be down in 5th.

Results are at Bike Reg.

CX Race 8: Dave Panella Memorial Cross

The Dave Panella Memorial race took us back to Greene for another weekend of cross racing. This time at a park rather than a school. The whole course was out in the open in fields with a couple of parking lot crossings. Not a lot of elevation loss/gain this week. I found that made it more difficult for for me to keep up with those in front of me. After the main races, there was a fun relay with 2 person teams. Our team mates were randomly assigned and we were left to decide between us who would ride the first leg and who would do the seconds leg. I rode first leg. Each leg involved doing one lap of the course. I did my one lap and then had to down a cup of beer, jump rope 10 times, and then tag off to my partner. She then drank a beer, jumped rope, and rode a lap. There were only two jump ropes for the 10 or so teams to share so some folks opted to do push-ups instead. It really looked funny with folks in full on bike kit jumping rope and doing push-ups with empty beer cups around them on the grass and a few people on bikes. Pictures were posted all over Facebook.

Results of the "serious" racing are at Bike Reg.com

Some video footage of the men's A race is on YouTube. I have also posted video from several other cross races as well, including Syracuse Grand Prix, and Red Cross.

CX Race 7: Greene Cross

Greene cross was held at a school in Greene, NY. The course featured a lot of grassy riding including some great off camber and side hill turns, some teeth rattling fast riding through the woods, a nice run-up in the forest, and one of those super hypnotic and surprisingly difficult to ride spirals. The spirals were tough to ride because the course was marked with little surveyor flags and I found it difficult to see the path while riding. The effect looked really fun when watching other fields go through it though.

Results are up at Bike Reg.com.

Marsha and Pat Kapinus took lots of pictures and posted them here at shutterfly. You can click on the "view album" link from this site and see the pictures without creating an account.

CX Race 6: Chenango Forks CROSSFire

Despite somewhat sore arms from RedCross I got up Sunday morning ready for more fun with the bike... but first I had to clean the darned thing since it was super covered with mud. KrossFire was a friendly low key event hosted by Marsha and Pat Kapinus on their property. There were a few places where riders had a choice - over some good muddy whoops or through a zigzag, and over the barriers or through a different zig zag. There was also one spot where we could go over a second set of barriers or take the sew saws over them. There was also a fun tree hug inducing set of muddy tight turns through the trees, a climb that got harder each lap due to increased mud, and some tough riding through soggy grass. Unlike Saturday, there were several section where you could just power through rather than the constant state of transition we had on Saturday. The highlight of the race was the amazing potluck after the race.

Results are up at BikeReg.com.

CX Races 5: Red Cross 2.0

Ouch!

Super physical course that was almost all transition. For me that translated into very technical. The warm up lapped kicked my butt and held some surprises - the uphill whoops had a pedal smacking risk if your pedal stroke was mistimed, the tunnel was full of mud - quite the surprise on the warm up lap, the flat whoops were really tough to maintain velocity on without getting air on the first two and pedaling through the rest. The run up was a good challenge, the "big downhill" was super scary and the loss of momentum on the way up the other side was quite the stomach flip-flopper.

Ruth and I entered the 35+ masters race which we started with the masters men. In the race I must have taken every line through every technical-to-me section of the course. They all seemed to be the wrong lines. Despite one lap in which I seemed to have completely forgotten to how to ride a bike, I managed to keep the rubber side down.

Approximately 10 minutes after I finished the 35+ race, the open women took off. I had time to run to the rest room and poke a bunch of mud out of the brakes and fork and get started again. The second race was no easier than the first though the course had dried out a bit. That made some of the snottier spots easier to ride but the thicker mud dried up more; making the ruts harder to deal with.

It was a tough day of racing, but probably good for me. By the end of the second race the "big downhill" with it's short steep climb afterwards was starting to make me feel a bit motion sick. I stayed for the open men's race afterwards and took some video footage. That is posted on YouTube.

Jim Danvers was out and he got me in shot 4445. Jim's pictures are at Jim Danvers Photography.

Links to the results are up at the FLCC webpage.

Quick Trip to MT

No race this weekend. Instead I was off to Bozeman to photograph a wedding and see a few of my Bozeman friends. I had thought about trying to do a local Bozeman race, and Bill even offered to scare me up a bike to use. Unfortunately (or is that fortunately?) the race overlapped with the wedding by about half an hour, so no racing. It was nice to have a weekend off the bike.

I arrived in Bozeman late Friday night and Saturday was taken up with wedding set up and photography and post party clean up. Sunday was a lazy day with Laurie. I provided comments from the peanut gallery as Laurie did a cabinet cleanup and reorganization. We then went for a nice walk on the Sourdough Trail. Supper on the 31st was with Laurie and the Rognlie clan. An amazing meal and lots of fun watching Matt and the girls transform themselves for Halloween. After supper Laurie and I stopped in for a quick visit with Mollie and Tyler.

Monday I convinced Laurie to play hookie from work and we went to Yellowstone. Not a spectacular wildlife day, but we did have a couple of firsts for me in the park. The first first was we actually went for a hike rather than just staying in the pull out parking lots. It was nice to get off the road and it felt like we were the only people in the park with the tourist season over. The other first happened on the walk when we were challenged and then followed by a lone bull bison. We were well over the "do not approach within" distance outlined by the park, but I laughed at the bull as he rolled in a dust bath with his skinny legs waving in the air and both Laurie and I were wearing red. Either way, we were discussing whether we should go past him on the trail or go off trail to get around him when we decided to move a little further down the trail to see where the trail actually went with regards to the dust wallow when he turned towards us and did a short charge, halving the distance between us. We immediately headed off trail (a park no-no) and headed for some sparse tree cover. As we moved away from our friend the bull, he started walking after us. Happily he was just ambling in our wake rather than renewing his charge. We elected to circle a long way back to the trail and head back towards the car. We made it back with no harm done and continued on to Cook City before turning around and heading back to Bozeman. That night Jared and Anna took me to dinner.

Tuesday morning I got up early and met Bill for coffee/breakfast at Rockford before I headed back to the airport for the long trip home. I spent my airport and plane time working on the following week's Bio lecture and grading exams.

CX Race 4: Syracuse Grand Prix

Jeremy, Jack, and I loaded up and headed out of Ithaca at 8:30 AM along with several pieces of apple pie and a bin full of cookies. After a bit of confusion with the construction at the 81/690W interchange we got to Long Branch Park, the venue for the day's muddy fun.

We arrived just after 10 and had time to pick up our numbers, get dressed and take in a lap or two for warm up and course recon. Hrm. Not that many tight turns and only 2 or three at a time. Lots of strait aways. Two mud pits. Long muddy strait away leading into a very soggy and slow grassy stretch leading into a hill with some pitch to it and some sand with a couple turns thrown in the mix.A side hill with s turns. A few sections of gravel. A whoop de whoop that you could get air off of. Looked like a tough course and a tough group of women to face off with.

On my first trip around I found some of the lines, had trouble with some, and found the side hill s turns rather terrifying.I couldn't ride the sandy hill the first time through, but I did manage it the second practice trip. Second time around David talked me through those same s turns and showed me a line through the muck and later while i was getting nervous at the start, explained a good line for the climb. Then it was time to go.

A group of 7 immediately gapped the rest of us... then there was me... and a bit behind me was the rest of the field. No man's land. Well at least that meant I didn't have to worry about bottle necks. At least until about half way through the first lap when I caught up to a few folks on the climb. Despite being around others, I was still able to get up the hill and ride the line I wanted. After that I slowly started passing some of the men and then one of the women. Eventually I passed several more women and a few of the men looked familiar. At this point I was pretty sure a couple of the men and women I had passed were riders I was lapping. Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) the lead men lapped me on my 5th lap - the lead guy was on his final lap when he caught me just before the mud pits. That meant I was also on my last lap. I am not sure where the 2nd guy lapped me - I was trying to focus on what was going on in front of me rather than what was coming around me from behind. The third place guy caught me at the bottom of the hill though. I was a little bummed about finding out half what through the lap I though was my second to last lap that I was really on my last lap. I had been closing in slowly but surely on some more women - women I was pretty sure I was catching rather than lapping and I was confident that barring any surprises I would have passed at least one of them with an additional lap. I managed a 5th out of 11 women in the open category and 7th out of 15 if you include the 4 women who raced in the masters category but started at the same time as the open women.

I found the course a challenge. The side hill S was not as tough as I had been afraid it would be. I was even OK on the passes where the left foot was on the downhill side. The side hill pass by the tree was a little awkward, but I managed that as well. The big soupy double track at the bottom of the course wasn't bad along the left most side in the trees and the soup along the lake was slow but ridable along a number of lines and I passed people there almost every lap. I did have trouble with mud pits each time and it wasn't until I finished and was on a warm down lap that I realized through the middle of the puddle was the least squirrelly route through. You learn something every race I guess.

I started catching men who started a minute before me early and steadily passing more as the race went on, and being in a position late in the race of catching women and lapping women. The twisty nature of the course also made for short sight lines and difficulty in knowing where the folks in front of me were. I was expecting the men to lap me at some point, but I had no idea they were bearing down on me when I did get passed. All this not knowing where I was during the race, or what was happening around the next bend made me realize that for a mid to back field rider like me it is best to focus energy on getting around that next bend, or over the rough terrain in front of me rather than on worrying over where how many riders are ahead or behind. I realized that for me the best mindset to be in was that for a time trial. Using the riders ahead as rabbits to help keep the intensity high, but focusing on the moving forward, on getting over the terrain ten feet in front of me.

I took several short video clips of the open men who raced after my race ended. I strung those clips together into a single 10 minute video which I posted on YouTube.

Results are up on the Onondaga Cycling Club website and at BikeReg.com.