Mud, Sweat, and Barriers

Today I raced in Gadsden, AL for Bamacross #7.  It was cold, muddy, overcast, and just overall an ugly day, or a great day for cyclocross.  The temperatures were in the mid 40’s and the course was fairly flat with two log crossings, several nasty mud bogs, and a set of barriers.  This was also one of the longest courses I’ve raced with lap times at about 9 ½ mins.  The fields were smaller in general with 12 in the 3’s and 9 in single speed.  This was my first attempt at racing in the single speed class, Brent allowed me to zip tie my shifters and race single speed with my geared bike but now I’ve done it I really want to get a sscx bike. 

The single speed class went off at 10am and the temps were still in the 30’s, the course was still somewhat dry at this point, except of course for the bog areas.  The start was a long paved road of about 250 yards that dove off onto the grass.  I was able to take the hole shot with one of the best starts of the year, got my cleat in immediately on the first revolution and was off.  I was able to keep the lead for the first couple minutes and then gave it up to John and another guy from Chattanooga.  I gave a good lead out for John and 3^rd place, putting 50+ yards on the rest of the field, but then sat up and tried to hold on John’s wheel.  I managed to make my way around the first lap keeping with the lead group of 3, but then started to lose about 10-15 seconds a lap for the rest of the race.  From this point on, I sat in 3^rd until the finish. 

I was able to ride both log crossings, one being a set of railroad ties lying across the course, and the other being a large tree lying across the course right before a drainage ditch.  I was kind of nervous about jumping stuff on carbon wheels, but cleared everything and by the second race was really smooth over them and actually bunny hoping them at speed.  There were several mud bogs on the back side of the course, the longest being roughly 50yds long and ankle deep mud with standing water.  I was able to ride it ever lap for the first race but by the 1,2,3 race, so many people had ran it that it was nothing but 6-8 inch deep footholes and was impossible to hold a line.  At this point it was faster to run but the stubborn mountain biker in me views walking anything during a bike race as, let me say weak, in so many words.  I managed to finish the race at 5 laps, all at about 9:45/ lap and got my first podium in cyclocross with a 3^rd place finish.

For the 3s I lined up knowing that I was going to hurt a lot since I had already suffered for 50 minutes 2 hours earlier so I took a spot in the second row as not to contest the hole shot or lead out.  I took 5^th wheel for the hole shot and held onto the lead group for about ½ a lap, with Andrew going off the front like a mad man and putting a big gap on everyone.  I fell off the front group and managed to lead a group of 4 for the next two laps with no one attacking or coming to the front to do work I was getting upset.  On my 3^rd lap after the first log crossing, I jumped it while all 3 of the other guys behind me dismounted, I attacked and tried to gap them hoping at least one of them would come with me.  Well they all 3 just sat in and maintained and eventually on the long paved sections pulled me back.  After I finished my 3^rd lap I was caught so I stopped attacking, gave up 5^th and moved to the back to recover and was now in 8^th.  I guess I’ve got a lot to learn about racing because as soon as I gave up the lead the group of 3 attacked.  I was able to hold for about a ½ a lap but they were constantly attacking and I was having a hard time dangling off the back.  At this point I finished the 4^th lap in 8^th and got the 2 to go from the officials so I sat up to recover and try to get ready for my last lap attack.  I rode most of the 5^th lap by myself with the 5^th,6^th,7^th never getting more than 100 yards in front of me but after two races, I just didn’t have it in the legs to attack anymore and still have a strong finish. 

I tried to attack at the end of the 5^th lap because I was getting caught by 9^th but could only go for about 10 seconds or so and my power was way low, not even able to get into my big ring on the flats anymore at this point.  Mid way through the last lap I got caught by a BBC guy and when he attacked, he went hard, putting about 50 yards on me then sitting up.  I saw he was not riding hard and was just trying to hold on until the end but I didn’t have it.  I was one match too short for this race.  Overall I had a great race and was happy with 3^rd in single speed and 9^th in the 3’s.  Next weekend I’m racing in Brookside, AL and plan on doing the ss and 3s races again even though I know it’s going to hurt a lot.