Sunday October 2, 2011 I participated in my first ever sanctioned cyclocross race. It was in Brookside, AL and on a sunny cool morning that was perfect for racing. The course was fast with crushed gravel being the majority of the course, one set of barriers, and one sand pit that was nasty to say the least. I raced with the 3’s and being it was my first race, I pulled up to the start at the rear of the field as to not interfere with the actual “racers.” Well the race started and off I went. Being at the back it was a slow start as I waited for everyone to get going and then started to hammer. I passed 4 or 5 people immediately and attacked to get in a good position before the hill that had the possibility for a nice dismount pile up. Got a couple more spots up and then everyone started to pile up at the hill so I dove to the inside and went up through the bushes to take a line that wasn’t blocked. Cleared the hill and dropped several more people. Once I got through that section the field had put a gap on most the slower starters and I was 50 meters back with nothing but open track ahead. I caught my breath and attacked again over the back section of the course as to not lose too much ground to the field. I got through the barriers and two downhill sections smoothly and made my way to the sand pit. I had previously ridden the pit 3 of the 10 times I had attempted it but now it was race time and I had to man up. I approached it and cranked hard out of the saddle, downshifted to my low gears, gripped the bars tight to hold on for dear life, and plowed into the 8 inches of sand. Hit a good line and carried momentum about half way then started mashing. My new tires, Michelin Mud 2’s, really pulled and helped out tremendously getting traction in the sand. I made it all the way through the pit and actually carried too much speed so as I approached the immediate uphill/ run-up at 90 degrees exiting the pit, I had to go against my instinct and hit the brakes. Made the turn and grinded to the top of the run-up only to look at my heart rate and notice I was 20 beats above my LT, yeah, so I sat up and gave my cardio a break for 30 seconds or so. Hit the back section of pavement and on to the baseball field with good speed and legs. Made my way back to the start/finish sitting about mid-pack. Fell into a good tempo and began to prepare mentally for that same amount of suffering for 7 more laps, think happy thoughts….
For the rest of the race I maintained a good pace, cleared all the barriers and made it through the sand pit every time only having to dismount on one run-up because two guys had it blocked dragging ass up the hill. After the last time through the sand pit, I came out hard with two guys sitting in front of me who I had been chasing all day. They both dismounted in the sand and were running up the run-up. I cleared the run-up and immediately attacked as they were remounting. At this point I was about 800 meters from the finish so I stood up and went hard not looking back to see if they would chase or not. They did, as I got to the baseball field I had put about 10 meters on them and passed another guy, but the two behind me were working together and we were on pavement. I went into the grass field and attacked again, legs and lungs were on fire and I was getting light headed, still about 400 meters to go. I went hard through the field and into the last 180 turn catching one more guy and looking over my shoulder to see I had put about 50 meters on the two chasers. I went hard into the finish and finished at 1:02:00 for 8 laps. Didn’t stay around to see how I finished but guessing somewhere around mid pack for a field of 25-30. Overall great day, learned a lot, now to get ready for Dead Dog Race at Trussville next weekend.
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