Lining
up with 60 plus guys is always better than lining up with 120. However
the challenges remain, lots of pedals, shifters, elbows, gritting of
teeth, tongues hanging out, grunts, shifting noises and swear words.
However, the difference is the 35 and 45 plus categories have a tendency
to be very competitive. Many entrants, who train hard, who set goals
each season to improve their fitness, watts, overall speed on a given
course and improve their results to a new place among the masses each
week, each season. Sounds easy right?
Well,
it’s not that easy if everyone you are racing against has been putting
in more hours, more time, more training, maybe some of them have a
coach? Maybe some of them are a few years younger? Maybe some of them
have a job, where they can get out in the Fall as the days shorten
earlier than you? Maybe they lost their job and have been able to go out
and spend lots of time on the bike? Maybe they just might have the
gift, a better watt output at a given 20 minute effort? Maybe they have a
higher VO2 max and can sustain 45 minutes at a breakneck speed longer
than you? Some people you race with each week, talk post race each week
with ‘excuses’. I discount these, we all have them. I believe it’s more
so about all the above questions and differences between us as bike
riders and athletes.
With
that, I got registered, grabbed my free awesome giant cowbell provided
by the main race sponsor, got my helmet set up for the race chip system,
that would track our lap times as well as our finish time and filled
out my free raffle ticket for the Reynolds Carbon wheelset.
I
headed back to the car to pin up my number, usually the BWE takes care
of this as part of my good luck process, however, she was on a social
and cowbell marketing mission. Crap I forgot pins. Ahh found some spares
in the hatch of the car.
Number
pin’d, it’s time for some pre-race drink and some warm up on the bike.
The last race was finished so I sneak out onto the course looking for
places I can excel, places that suit my skills, areas and corners I can
handle faster than others.
The
course is long, I mean long, did I say long? I like a long course, but I
also like to travel to cross races for the full 45 minutes of racing. I
don’t like being short changed by 5 minutes either. Am I bitching?
Maybe, but I traveled to your race, paid your entry fee and I want my 45
minutes, not 40, not 42, Forty Fucking Five Minutes. Odd about 10% of
the Elite field got to race an hour, then the other 90% got to race an
hour and 5 min. plus. Let us all race for 30, 45 and an hour please.
The
course is awesome, as usual, TJ and the crew at JB always throw some
great stuff out there and did so this round. Karen and Doug Hamilton
volunteer a ton of time at this park, building and maintaining the
mountain bike trails, they also regularly keeps us informed about the
condition of the trails at the park via Facebook. I say thanks to those that put this together and for CapCity to help sponsor this fine event.
Usually
this JB race is in November around Thanksgiving and the ground is cold
as well as the temperature. This day however, the temperature during my
race would hover around 60 some degrees and sunny. The fortunate part
for most of us racing later in the day is the sun and other racers were
drying out the course with each race. It rained most of the week of the
race, which proved to soften a few sections of the course, including the
section from the start. It was a false flat as some say, but basically
it’s a 3 to 5% hill with some super bumpy grass and some life sucking
soggy, saturated ground. Lots of guys in my race were really going
backwards on this section, my plan during my race was shift down a few
gears, stand up, tell the legs to shut up and throttle myself all the
way up each time. Once we got up to the ‘top’, we rounded a new wildflower field that was quite awesome and smelled great each lap, then
back down a bit into some twisty’s, over two tree/logs, and then back up
that same false flat hill just on the other side of the flower field.
The logs were not really a factor I don’t think in the race per say of
separating the field one way or another in my race at least. They were
just big enough that they could be crossed without stepping off the
bike, if you had some skills and were willing to take the risk, however,
I choose the conservative method and got off my bike. There was one
other set of barriers, a double set, over by the popular twisty bits
near the park Gazebo. This area is always a fun set of turns and
slickery grass, where you must find the balance of speed, pedaling,
driving your bike, leaning while pedaling, upper body position and the
like. It’s always one of my favorite areas of the cross races at JB.
We
get our call ups according to who’s leading the OVCX series, not one
f’ing mention of CapCity, and then line up according to registration. I
am about 3rd or 4th
row, and snag a spot right behind my buddy Matt Stierwalt. He’s a
badass, I figure if I can stick on his wheel for a majority of the race
or at least keep him in sight, I will have a good day. We’re off, I am
sitting in about top 15 maybe into the first turn and surprised where I
am as we round the flower field. Guys are racing like it’s the world
championship and cutting others off, running into course stakes, course
tape, etc.
My
heart rate was up there, but I was able to recover as sections of the
course got stacked up in certain areas with racers and as the pecking
order was formed. I knew we’d only be racing a few laps and each one had
to count. I went after my goal of shifting down two gears, standing up
and throttling it up the false hill each lap, passing racers and putting
distance on those behind me. Scott Young a few other guys I knew were
going to be giving me a run for my money. Scott was easy to spot,
Stierwalt was gone, James Turner was still in my sights but gaining time
on me here and there in front of me. The toughest thing to do I’ve
found during these races is keep your brain going, keep thinking, keep
focusing on who is in ‘your race’ who you need to go after and when to
put in an effort to distance those behind you…The guy in the specialized
kit, Michael Seaman and Scott Bond came around me near the double
barriers I think and just kept distancing themselves from my front
wheel. Uggg. I pushed hard to stick with them on the third lap, and by
the time I got to the Gazebo, I almost threw up.
I
guess I had done some damage, since looking at the timing, my fourth
lap was my slowest at 9:27. I recovered for my final and fifth lap for a
9:21.
Sad
to know, I faded a bit in the last two laps, from my best lap of 9:15
which was Lap2’s time and my Lap3 time being within .01 second of Lap2
at 9:16. If I had ridden more consistently with a bunch of 9:15 laps, I
might have won my race or at least been podium material, so lets hope my
fitness improves as it should each week of racing.
With
my calve issues at hand I was pretty worried about running full speed
over the logs or over the barriers. As I got to lap 4, the legs/calve
seemed to be responding to faster and faster dismounts back by the
gazebo. This was a confidence booster, so, with the bell lap, I put the
afterburners on and fought hard to keep some distance between myself and
Scott Young and the other guy with him, who I had no clue if he was in
my race or not, however, that’s not a bad thing when you don’t know, it
pushes you, forces you to go hard and maintain a hard pace. One last
time up the false flat, the legs felt good, so I gave it one last super
hard effort to try to maintain my gap. I think I got passed around the
sand pit and right before the finish line, I just have no idea if he was
a 35 or 45 guy. I didn’t bother sprinting for it, he had already done
the damage, I looked back to make sure no one was there and rode across
the computer finish line for 7th place in the 45+.
I finished 17th out of 64 total racers.
For
my third-race of the season and a week-break since my second race, I
think it’s a sign things (fitness and power) are on track to have some
fun this season.
So,
lets just chat a bit about the timing and what the lap results show via OVCX.
The Top 10-15 of the CAT 4 race all need to move up. The Top-10 of the
CAT 3 Open races also need to move up. The winner of the CAT 3/35+ has
lap times early in his race, to compete in the Elite race for sure, however, his last two
laps he was going backwards.
Yes, I have been completely absent from blogiscyclesphere. The reasons are many, the largest, my employment situation - I am positive it will change soon.
Up Next on the survival chopping block was the last Cap City Cross race at Smith Farms. In contributing back to the sport, I volunteered to help set up the course the day prior and have some influence into dishing out some pain for race day. It worked, I was able to convince Mason, Spencer and Andy to let me bring back the "Death Spiral" as it was named on the day. I hadn't ridden much or had much sleep and was stressed all week. I guess sometimes not worrying about your race can do you justice. I had amazing legs, amazing fitness and stood on the podium for a 1st place finish - My first for 2011. I was super proud of this finish and it was a big boost to my overall morale that was really in the gutter. 
And Finally - My tribute and hats off to the Americans (Powers, Trebon and Drew Dillman(Jr. From Kentucky) racing at CX Worlds. The sandy beach sections got the best of the US riders it seems. 
