Bloomer Park CX - My Streak Continues

Photo courtesy of Curt Potocki

This was going to be the race. The one where it all starts to come together and I'd see some improvement in my standings. So it was with high hopes but low expectations that I toed the line on this foggy Sunday.

This course is pretty flat overall. There's a downhill section of single track with a sharp little climb after it and another climb on a grassy hill followed by a two off-camber turns, just to make it suspenseful. Throw in two barrier sections with 90 degree approaches and you've got the course highlights. In other words, it's pretty much up my alley.

From the start, I knew it wasn't in the cards. My start was terrible. I tried to clip in not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES before my feeble muscle memory allowed my cleat to find the pedal. That put me at the back of the group by the time we hit the first grass section. Now I had some serious work to do. As everyone started to string out single file, I started passing. I managed to bridge a gap near the middle of lap one and settled in with a group of three. We didn't really work together, I just moved to the front and rode at a tempo just on edge of my threshold. I was feeling great! My legs were there today, no shortage of power and my lungs felt better than they had in about a month. That shitty start must have killed it for me. Our grupetto stuck together until lap 4 or 5 and then I started to pull away.

And that was all she wrote - 11th place. In the last 4 races, I have finished in either 11th or 12th place. Now, I finally feel like my form is coming around, and there's only one race left on the calendar, the State Championship. I've run out of runway...


Photo courtesy of Curt Potocki

Props go out to:

• Dan G. - another second place! Nice work. Clint better be shaking in his compression socks...
• Mark C. - for running Bloomer with no brakes (essentially). You are one crazy sonofabitch!!
• Curt P. - for the nice photo work, making us B racers look better than we actually are...
  
• Dude riding the velodrome (I believe your name was Bruce)- you sold me. Next summer, I'm gonna give track riding a shot. Maybe it will be good for the CX...
• Anne S. - Welcome back, and first place nonetheless!
• Zdenek Stybar - nope, he wasn't at the race... but just wanted to give him props for his back to back victories this weekend!
  

Working on Our Night Moves...

Thought a borrowed line from a great Seger tune would be a fitting title to recap my first night cyclocross race.


The PRO sheen...

A night race involves a whole different preparatory mindset than the usual day races. Racing in B, races usually start around 11 AM. So race day morning is usually spent packing the car and driving to the race. Well, when you're start time isn't until 7 PM, that leaves a lot of time thinking about the race. It's kinda like a mosquito bite, you may forget about it for a bit, but that nagging itch is never totally out of mind.

That "itch" was there all day (and the nerves to go with it) so I was definitely relieved to car-pool with my buddy Steve to race. The drive was a little over an hour so the conversation provided a great distraction.

If I had to think of stereotypical cyclocross conditions, Saturday would have been it. Overcast and rainy with temps in the 50s. I love that kind of weather. I get overheated pretty easily and those conditions just suit me. Plus, any good excuse to pull out the Mad Alchemy and embrocate up is just fine by me... I love that stuff so much I could eat it.

Back to the race - The course was set up in a city park in Monroe. It's pretty damn flat, with a solitary mound on one end of the course. This hill featured the typical run up and a short climb. This course definitely favored the power rider with lots of straights and not a lot of technical stuff.

For a warm up, me, Steve and Brian Love (gotta say Brian's full name cuz I dig it) did a short ride around a neighborhood near the park. I headed back to the car and laid the embro on extra thick (my legs looked like George Hamilton with jaundice), then it was onto the course to check it out. I did about 1 1/2 laps when I noticed that the starting line was already full of riders. I hustled over there and had to line up in back.

The race went decently for me. I felt better than I have in a long time, like my strength is finally coming back. I crashed once in the last lap (a remount mishap) but held on to my position, which ended up being 12th place. Not bad. The form is coming around.

After cooling down, Steve and I grabbed the cowbells and set up camp on the mound to cheer on our fellow crossers doing the single speed, masters and elite races. Here's what I learned - it is an amazing amount of fun cheering on your com padres as they put themselves through hell. I'm so hoarse today I can barely speak. Amazingly fun - I gotta stick around more often.

A huge thanks to Tailwind and Jack's Bicycle for putting on the race and to Andrea Tucker and Hans Nyberg for capturing our suffering for posterity.