Saturday, September 17, 2011, I raced in my first ever cx race at Heardmont Park here in Birmingham. The temperatures were on the brisky side for the pre-race warm-ups so needless to say I didn’t attempt any of the creek crossings until the last warm-up lap before the race started. I met up with Jason for some pre-race laps where we analyzed the course and tested the lines through the muddy and wet sections. The course was soft in several sections but was hard packed and smooth for the most part. It had one hill that followed a creek crossing, which made it easier to run than ride, four creek crossings, and one muddy bog that was close to a 8”-12” deep of mud and 6-8 ft long.
The race course started out with a 200 yard long pavement sprint that dropped back onto the grass course followed immediately with an s curve. It then looped back around the baseball fields and was fairly smooth and dry for the next couple minutes, which provided a good area to either attack or recover. Then came the first creek crossing, which was approached from an off camber turn then a good 12” jump down into the water which started out at about knee high and by the end of the second race was approaching mid thigh high. Out of the water for a 30 foot hike a bike then back across the creek, not as deep here but still knee high, to an immediate 180 then back across the creek followed by a 20 yard run up the hill before I could remount. The trail looped back up the hill to a steep switchback off camber s corner with a nice 5x10 ft sand pit right in the middle before the turn just to make things more interesting. After that it was smooth sailing until the last creek crossing, this was the worst of them. A good 18” drop straight off the side to the water then thigh high water with a rocky unstable bottom that left my legs looking like something from Terminator. Out of the water for the last time and 90 degrees to the right for 50 yards before a monster bog that was nothing but a foot deep of silk mud and required enough speed and momentum to carry you all the way though because there was no way to pedal though that stuff without losing all traction. That put you back out at the start/ finish. I think I was averaging about 5 minute laps for a course length reference.
C Race:
For this race Jason Lackey and I battled it out until he unfortunately had a flat in last part of the 2nd to last lap. The start was a 200 yard pavement path that dropped into the course and within 50 yards hit an immediate s curve that was damp to begin with but quickly ended up becoming a nice bog that was faster to run than bike by the end of the race. I realized in pre-riding that getting a good start was vital as the s curve was certain to be a pile up of races on the first lap and didn’t want to get stuck losing time waiting on them. I started off strong with no one challenging the start and held of Jason until mid 2nd lap, in which he put a good 150 yards on me while I tried to recover a bit. In lap 3 I started to get my legs back and began to up the pace pulling him back to 100 yards, then 75 in lap 4, then in lap 5 began to attack knowing that this would be a 6 lap race after the officials gave us a 3 lap count down. Managed to pull him back to around 50 yards and could now see him exiting the 3rd creek crossing as I was approaching the 1st one. I ran as hard as I could through the creeks and hit a perfect remount, I could start to smell blood and got to the top of the hill to notice that Jason was having mechanical issues. He remounted and took off as I came up behind him by about 20 yards and then while rounding the next corner, I noticed he was off the bike and stopped. I slowed to make sure he was okay and he said that he had flatted out. At this point we were both almost to the end of the 2nd to last lap and I realized he wasn’t going to be able to fix it and rejoin the race. I hit the bell lap with no one in sight behind me and sat up the last lap, trying not to do anything stupid and flat out myself or even worse wreck. I finished strong and got first. I really hated seeing Jason flat out but I have a feeling he’ll be attacking twice as hard next race to get that win back.
B Race:
This race was less interesting. I missed the start by about 2 minutes because I was trying to take in some fluids and wash all the mud off my bike while making sure everything was working the way it should on my bike. I think I had about 25 minutes to recover and clean my bike before the race started. I came up to the start from the parking lot seeing everyone already a good 300-400 yards out on the trail so I gave a nod to the starter, said my name, and took off. This race was the same course, just the creek crossings were deeper now, the bogs were more muddy, and the length was 15 minutes longer for a total of 45 minutes. I didn’t really attack nor had a strategy for this race other than just doing it for more conditioning than anything. I think I passed about 6 or 7 people on the first lap, then another 2 or 3 in the next 2 laps, then the legs began to turn to jello and the lungs were on fire so I settled into a good pace to maintain until the bell lap. Didn’t get passed by anyone but didn’t have the legs to pass anyone either and on the bell lap stood and mashed until there was nothing left finishing I think mid pack a couple minutes back from the winners, haven’t actually seen any results so don’t know for sure. Overall it was a good day of racing and had a blast, can’t wait for the next one October 2nd at Brookside Park for the Bamacross series opener.
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