“It never gets any easier; you just get better at suffering.” Someone once told me this and after today I have something to add, “You might never forget how to ride a bike, but you can definitely forget how to ride it while suffering.” That being said, it’s been over a month since my last cyclocross race. In between that time I took a week easy to taper for a 6 hr race, raced a 6hr race, got injured and spent 10 days out of training, and ate way too much over thanksgiving while not riding that much. Through all that it seems I got worse at suffering because today’s race was a good helping of pain with an extra side of suffering.
The course was a great layout. It was run over the historical site of Sloss Furnace, which is an old steel mill from long ago but now is a park and covered in rust. Laced with old railroad beds, tons of gravel, stairs, barriers, and a step up, the course was fast and bumpy that kept you on your toes, literally, I spent a lot of time out of the saddle negotiating these features. Long straights gave way to a vicious head wind that made you want to give in but the saving grace was the beer fairy that made it all worth the suffering, several sanook sections slowed things down on the back side but overall it was a fast course with wide corners and long straights.
From the start I was a mess, realized at the 10 second countdown I was in the wrong gear, wasn’t even in the big ring so when the start went off I went to shift over and nothing, couldn’t get it to shift and all but about 5 or 6 guys passed me putting me at around 22-25th I would guess. This lead to a slow first lap and several aggressive passes on lines that were little to tight for comfort but made it through everything cleanly without causing any problems. Second lap I picked off a couple more and eventually worked my way back to the top 10; I think best was maybe 7th or 8th. Kept a good pace and worked with a couple guys, staying in a pack of 4 most of the 3rd and 4th laps and then they began to walk away from me, the legs just didn’t have it. Also began to feel like I was going to vomit trying to hold on to the back of that group so let up to gather myself and readjust.
I chased hard for the rest of the 4th lap then started to feel cramps in both hamstrings coming on so I really let up and looked around, I had a good gap on anyone behind me while several of the guys in front were starting to slow down and fall off the pace as well. At this point attacking meant I might cramp up and not finish at all so I sat nicely for most of lap 5, took a hand up, or toss up really, of bacon from I think Zach, which missed my mouth but lifted my spirits none the less. I also took my first ever beer up from the beer fairy and can say I have been missing out, going to have to start taking them in the future I think, at least in the last couple laps. Then I started attacking again on lap 6 as I got the 2 lap count when I passed the starting line. Attacked several times then recovered but could never seem to make up any ground on the front two groups. Bell lap and I stood and mashed as I passed the starting line and set out to attack hard the first half of the last lap and then ride it in if I could catch anyone, well even though Andrew had a mechanical and I was gaining ground, I just didn’t have any power left in the legs, the legs were just soft and there was nothing I could do.
Finished 9th on the day and top 10 was a pre-race goal so I’m happy overall but really tired and sore. Hopefully I can get my shit together this week and put in some hard intervals to get my mojo back before Gadsden next week.
On a side note got to say congratulations to John Newsom on his win in the ss class and props to Borris on catting up to the 2’s.
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