It started with a tagging on Facebook. I feel a lot of stuff happens that way these
days. I got tagged in this post from
Warren Angell.
I said what the hell.
And I ended up signing up for my first cyclocross race. This is odd, because I have been wanting to
do one for about 5 years, since the first time I saw a cyclocross race in Roger
Williams Park. I have looked at bikes
over the years, I would then forget for a year and then go to another event and
want to do it again, but it would be the end of the season, so why do it now
etc. This pattern went on and on. So, after all that all it took was the words
Donut Relay.
I only had 3 weeks to find a bike. Warren had a spare bike that was too big for
him…but it would be a bit small for me.
I tried to find a bike through a few different avenues, but in the end I
ended up grabbing Warren’s bike from him the week before the race at the Lil
Rhody Runaround. His bike size is 53 CM,
my road bike is a 56. I was able to make
a few adjustments to make the bike not feel too small. In the end I think it worked out fine.
I rode the bike two times before race day, both short 3 mile
jaunts to see how the adjustments I made felt and the day before the race to
test out the clipless pedals that I have never used before. What could go wrong?
Race day. We were
racing at 10:30am, so we got there at 8:15 to do a course ride through. This is always a good thing to do, so you can
see where the obstacles are etc. I rode
one loop with Warren and even though the course was not stupid technical, I was
like “oh fuck” I was breathing heavy already, my quads already hurt. What did I get myself into?
We went back to the car and got stuff together and road part
of the course one more time, this proved essential since the cleats on my shoes
were coming lose, leaving it so I could not get out of my pedals. When I went to get out, the cleats would just
rotate and pop out. So, after some hard
love to my shoe and pedal, I got the shoe off and then had to find a new screw
for one of the cleats as it fell out!!
That would have been a disaster on the course.
All that aside, I was ready?
They start cyclocross races based on rank and since I have never done a
race I was starting on the back row of a 100 person race.
And here is the short version of the race itself. 100 meters, stop for the bottleneck at the 90
degree turn, 100 meters, stop for the bottle neck at the neck turn. This is what happens when you start last.
After that there is some grass to open up on, 2 barriers to
jump over then a flat very rideable section, I would say around ¼ mile. I passed some people here, but since I do not
bike, this was probably my weakest section later. I rode well, but I lost time here compared to
others. After that stretch, there was a
pretty solid quad burning uphill. I rode
up this every time, many people around me dismounted. Short down, around a corner and another up to
another steeped down and then the sandy run up.
I did well on this section later in the race; I do run….so running in
the cycling race works for me.
After that section there was a short down and up to a fire
road that was rolly, but rolly in a good way.
After that you popped out to the “other side” of the course, both sides
were very different, this was more technical and wooded; roots and another
bitch of a climb, followed by roots and a down and roots and an up. Two logs to jump over, some more roots and a
drop off. Wind your way around the final
little stretch and through some sand and back to the start finish line! Phew….now do that 3 more times.
The loop was around 2 miles.
I definitely got stronger and more confident with each loop. The fun part was picking people off and
getting in a little bit of a battle with one guy, in which I beat.
My quads were like jello, but it was fun…and also
horrible.
So, that was over, but the day was not. I replenished with two Mayflower IPAs. I asked the beer guy why he did not bring the
Porter. He said, they thought people
would like a refreshing beer, like the IPA or their Golden Ale. I said “I would have liked a nice refreshing
Porter!” Haha It was in good fun…but I really did want that
damn Porter! After grabbing my first
beer I got a chourico and pepper sandwich, all solid food choices before racing
again. We had like 4 hours to
waster. So, we hung around watched the
other races and enjoyed the 55 degree day.
Now, for the reason I got roped into this in the first
place. The Donut Relay. This was all for fun and I was not ready to
ride again. Basically it was a half mile
loop. Warren ate a donut and then headed
out to ride the loop. While he rode I
ate a donut and then I rode and he ate a donut.
We both consumed 3 donuts and he rode three times and I rode twice. We finished 12th out of 22 teams.
After the races were over and the sun was setting, I stopped
at 2 Jerks BBQ for some dinner and you know what they had? The Mayflower Porter.
So, cyclocross. It is
tough, it is very different from running, but it sways closer to snowshoe
racing, when the courses had a lot of variety.
The nuance of having to work up in categories to be better placement at
the start is cool. It gives you something
to shoot for. The
crossresult.com site
also makes you want to race more. There
are stats, predictors, ratings, rankings stalking, you name it, it is there!
So, will I do any more cyclocross? Well, not until this coming Saturday! I will be at the
NBX Grand Prix of Cyclocross
in Goddard Park. I am only doing the
Saturday race, so I can get in a long run on Sunday. My race is at 8 in the morning and there are
currently 136 riders!! The race is also
15 mins shorter in time. So, I guess I need
to be more aggressive!
Check out some media from the Secret Squirrel, there was
plenty of it!
