Cyclocross!

thy name equals pain. I had no idea what to expect and with all of 12 miles on my cross bike prior to the Harbin Park training Wednesday night, I had little expectations. It was good to see a few familiar faces as April took me around the course prior to the start of the training. Then training started soon after!

We all did a warm up lap (lap = a mile or so??) and took a rest. Two laps were next and my brakes failed on the steep (for me) downhill section of lap one. Kept going and, uh, lap two was faster since I had no rear brake. Back to the start for a 5 minute rest and I fixed my brakes. Three laps were now on the agenda.

The route goes past a picnic shelter right into the dismount for jumping over the barriers. This went ok, but it was on an uphill and I had to push my bike to a flat section to jump back on. Then we weave through trees and a hit a false flat section where due to my single speed I had to stand the whole time.......my bike starts making a hideous popping noise. Up the paved uphill, through the frisbee golf course, down the hill, through the woods, pop pop pop. Tried a second lap and made it to the false flat. Pushed the bike to my car and my rear wheel had come loose (horizontal dropouts and track bolts not tightened enough). Fixed and back on for lap three. No further issues.

Next up was two laps, handicapped. First were us beginners. One minute later, advanced. One minute later, expert. Other than not being good at clipping in just yet on the Candies, I was able to hang with the other beginners...kind of. I suck at right turns and had to make time up elsewhere.

After that, lightning set in and I headed back to the office while the others practiced starts or something.

Cyclocross riding makes me feel like a little kid. Jumping on and off, riding through grass, etc. It's a bit nicer than the uptight roadie scene and the even more uptight time trial scene. Don't get me wrong, I love the road, but I never feel like a kid when I'm staring down a power meter wondering why it's off by 100 watts... ;-)

#30 Speedy Feet August

The wheels are falling off! Second straight time trial with a power average around 270 and a speed of 24.5. Last night I came in second place. There was a decent amount of headwind going out and at one point I had to come to a complete stop as to not hit a Goose! The return trip wasn't much to write home about, but with the tailwind I averaged 26. Meaning my "going out" average was about 23. Yuck.

#29 Colavita TT August

Due to lack of riding, I opted to skip the "Nationals" part of the time trial and just ride the time trial series. Plus it was $17 cheaper. Plus, I wanted to try to maintain and/or build on my series lead. Warming up was easy due to the heat and I spent the better part of an hour on the trainer getting ready.

Off goes my start time, and I immediately have my highest 20 second power of the entire season right out of the gate! There was the slightest bit of head wind going out so it was a struggle and I only averaged 23.9 at the turn. Coming back was a struggle because of lack of riding at that sort of pace lately...well or at any pace as far as that goes. I averaged around 25 on the back stretch for an overall average of 24.4.

My time was good enough for the win in the 30-39 age group. Like I said in my last post though, the 40-49'ers were fast. I would have been 8th (if memory serves).

Had I chosen to do "Nationals" I would have been 2nd, because there was only one guy in that field. I would have been pissed had I beat his time, but he smoked me by 2.5 minutes so no worries.

That makes 8 wins on the year.

This week I may (may) get to ride a little. Tuesday is the bike path time trial. Wednesday is cross training at Harbin and Thursday is cross training at John Bryan. No riding over the weekend though, unfortunately. That is for sure.

Make or break

Next year is going to be a make or break year for racing. It's pretty apparent that I've been able to skate through the 30-39 age group relatively unscathed. The 40-49 won't be as easy and starting January 1st, I am 40 years old as far as USA Cycling is concerned. Whether it's the local events or the higher caliber ones, the 40+ guys can ride.

Here is a partial hit list of 40-49 locals who eat me up, and if I forget someone, don't worry, you'll kick my ass soon enough!:
Francis Manfred
Peter Wimberg
Mike Abney
Vince Clune
Shayne Dillinger
Todd Woehler
Kurt Spoerle
Jamie Raddin

The first two guys on the list are regular 27-28mph guys and it doesn't get easier from there.

So now that I'll be forced to "cat up" in age group, it will put quite a bit of pressure on me to keep working on power (AND THAT STUPID POWER TO WEIGHT RATIO) over the winter. The power and my position are cool, but it's the whole w/kg that needs work. Luckily, good lord willing and creek don't rise, the days of sitting in the car for 2+ hours per day are nearing a close. Trading an hour car commute (on a good day, it's been a three hour one way drive before) for a 15 minute BIKE commute should help me mentally and physically. If it doesn't, well that's something best left for professionals to handle. Maybe then I can get back to riding a little more than two to three days per week. It's put an awful strain on my brain and my waistband.

#28 Pur tour cat 4

A Saturday race that takes me until Wednesday to have the 10 minutes to write about it?

There were 50 starters to the race, but on this course it could handle much more. A couple of years ago the 3/4 race I was in had 79 riders if memory serves. The course, counterclockwise, has only one turn then the rest is sweeping curves. My object was this, be in the front at the base of the climb and fall back by the top. Recover the downhill and work my way back to the front on the flat.

Well, reality is different.

Not knocking anyone in particular, and not saying I know jack squat about racing (which I don't), but cat 4's have a habit of not attacking, not working and start stopping until the bunch sprint. I don't sprint, I know I don't sprint so I just go into races and do just the opposite of everyone else in the race. It causes me to get dropped, but I don't like paying that kind of money to have a dangerous and boring group ride.

10 seconds into the very first lap, no one decides to pull so I go to the front and pull the first 1.75 laps to the 2nd climb. THEN I start my objective. It worked just fine for the 5-6 laps, until some guy who was on the front slows down and swerves way right and cutting off half the field. If we all weren't paying attention, half of the field could have gone down in the heap. Luckily, the other half was going quite slow as we were at the top of the hill. By this point I was gassed from the hill, but frustrated from the "racing", I pulled out my old school anger card and went to the front and pulled...

Mistake.

I used to have the ability to attack or pull hard and recover quick. That's not working this year, so the end result was only to destroy myself with the pull. I couldn't stay with the field the next time up the hill so I rode the last 3 laps solo as hard as I could. Finished dead last, with two people dnf'ing, in 48th place.

The good news is, is that the cross bike is scheduled for delivery today! Actually it was here yesterday but I wasn't so I could not sign for it.