South Plymouth Cross, cat 4

Made a last-minute decision to race at Plymouth South on Sunday. The weather was forecasted to be awesome and I’d heard that it was a fun course.

I never really have any set goals for any of these cross races. After taking a bunch of time off after road season I’m way behind the fitness curve and there’s not much hope of catching up now. It seems best to go into these races with no expectations and just enjoy the course.

Luckily it’s pretty easy to find ways to have fun on the cross courses and Plymouth South was no exception. The course had two parts to it: woods and fields. The woods were technical and the fields were just powereaters. It was pretty wet out during my warmup lap which made for some really tough turns, but it dried out fast and was much easier for the race.

We staged up in the parking lot without any sort of order and I was determined to get on the front row. I got there 10 mintues early but apparently that’s not nearly early enough and I ended up somewhere in the middle of the second row. Still, it wasn’t TOO bad because there was a third and fourth row by the time we started.

As I sat there waiting for the race to start it dawned on me just how chaotic this start would probably be. There were about 70 of us lined up in 3.5 rows, so that’s about 20 people per row. Not 100 meters onto the course was a 90-degree left hander. Another 30 seconds later comes a series of back-to-back 180° turns that are severely off-camber on the side of a hill. I was doing approximately 1 mph around these turns during warmup. The course opens up quite a bit after that, but I couldn’t imagine how the 70 of us would squeeze through.

The race starts and of course I can’t clip in. Went on a long road ride the day before and I was feeling around for my road pedals. I didn’t really lose any positions in fumbling around but I could have gained a lot. I went around the 90-degree turn ~20 people wide without any problems. Amazing.

The off-camber 180’s did not go so smoothly. In fact, people were already clipped out on the little dip. Other people were being pro trying to either do a track stand or balance at 1 mph. Luckily I’m now an experienced cross dude and know how to handle this type of situation. Just like the CL Noonan juniors did to me at Wrentham this year, I just hopped off my bike and ran around everyone. It was awesome. Unfortunately for me this was the highlight of my race and it was all downhill from there.

After my super elite running moving I go to remount and get pushed by some other guy that was flying by me. This forced me to clip out and I end up nearly falling over. As I stumbled around trying to get back on pretty much everyone that I had just passed got me back.

By the time I finally got out of the woods the race was super stretched out. I could see the leaders way ahead on the fields and I’m sure I was already a minute down. Seems to be a common theme at these things. As we powered over the fields I could see Tony Maietta something like 20 seconds up on me and shortly after Brian Anderson (IBC) went rocketing by me.

The fields had some fast dry spots, but also had some soaking wet spots that ate up your tires. I was absolutely crawling through these wet spots. It felt like I was riding through a shallow sand pit.

Back in the woods was a descent with stairs made out of 4x4’s in the middle of the path. During warmup I had gone over the middle of these things but in the race the obvious line was to stay to the side and avoid them. I was in a line of people staying to the side of the trail and some big dude that I had passed on the fields came crushing down over the middle of the stairs. He powered up the following hill and then proceeded to go 1 mph over the mud at the top. I went by and didn’t see him again.

After the mud we re-enter the woods for a very brief section that includes a sharp and loose left-hander before a very short but steep incline. During warmup I totally messed this up and wasn’t able to ride it. On the first lap I crashed here. I went on to run up it on the second and third laps before crashing again on the final lap. Pitiful but luckily there were no hecklers here.

The course had one final feature before the end of the lap. The course exits the fields for the last time on a very tight off-camber turn leading into a steep single track downhill which is also slightly off-camber. At the bottom of the short descent the course turns straight up the hill you just came down, makes two back-to-back 90 degree turns with steep off-camber stuff in between (kinda like a quarter pipe), and finally descends for the final time. After that it’s just a brief powerclimb back up to the finish.

During warmup this feature was soaking wet and I definitely was not able to ride it. At staging there was an announcement that there had already been multiple crashes here during warmup and to be careful. Luckily, it dried out a bunch before we started and it was a lot easier on the first lap.

By the end of the first lap I was starving for oxygen and overall felt pretty much horrible. I could still see Tony and Brian not too far up, but couldn’t seem to get to them. I kept pushing myself into the red whether powering over hills or through wet fields. It seemed like every time I started to get into a groove I’d end up back in the red again. I watched Tony and Brian disappear ahead of me over the next laps.

On the last lap a Bicycle Barn guy passed me as we turned onto the fields. This was a great place to get passed and I had someone to draft across this long windy section. We came to the short incline after the muddy section and I went crashing into the tires on the outside of the turn. I was able to run up the hill and sprint back up to him before the barriers, and even made a pass while remounting.

Not long after making the pass I got slowed down in the wet field by the pit and he went cruising by me again. I tried to hold his wheel as we went through the final technical feature of the course, but got totally owned. He was going much faster than I had been going in the previous laps, and trying to maintain his speed nearly sent me into the trees and forced me to clip out. I barely rode up and over the “quarter-pipe.” I figured he was long gone by the time by the time I made it back up to the pavement, but I saw him a good 50 meters ahead looking back at me just sitting there soft pedaling. Obviously I couldn’t just let him soft pedal without a contest, so I tried to beat him with a sprint. It was close but I think I came up just short in the end. Oh well. Results were listed by number, and I wasn’t sure what number I was, so I’m not sure yet what place I ended up in. Unless the race paid 50 deep to the cat4’s, I don’t think it mattered!

Great photos by Geoff here.

Cycle-Smart International (Northampton) Cross Race, cat 4

After last week’s disaster of having my headset come loose mid-race, I made sure to get my bike working properly for once. Having a loose headset is a stupid problem to be having. Got out a little early from work on Monday to thrash on my cross bike doing some very tame mt bike trails. Couldn’t knock the headset loose or get the saddle to shift around and everything seemed good. Even the cantilever brakes were quiet. Amazing.

That was about it for anything resembling training though. I didn’t make it to the training race down by Harvard because it was cold. I did make it to the gym twice but just lifting makes it even easier to blow myself up when I finally do ride. Not good.

Day 1

We headed out to Northampton on Friday night to stay with my brother just 5 minutes from Look Park. That was huge given the 8:30 AM start time. Despite being so close to the race, I still didn’t get out on the course to warm up until 8:15. I can’t take this early morning stuff, it’s just like being a cat 5 all over again.

After riding 75% of the course I went over to the start for staging. I was about #74 and not really anywhere near the front. Somehow all the people from the row behind me managed to squeeze their way in right next to me. Cross staging is always competitive I guess.

The gun goes off and it’s a mad sprint at the front for the first turn. Luckily that’s no where near were I am so it’s more like soft pedaling until all the brakes start screeching for the first corner. As always someone ran into someone on that first turn causing a mass pileup and a ton of confusion. Unlike last week I was totally ready for this so I squeezed through and put the hammer down. Game on!

We come down to the lower section of the course where there are lots of switchbacks on the grass field. I figured this was my best place to pass so I pretty much sprinted out of every single corner making up as many positions as possible. The plan worked great and over the first half of the lap I think I passed at least 20, maybe even 30 people. All I have to do is keep this up for another 35 minutes and maybe I will end up in the top 20!

Somewhere in the middle of the first lap reality sunk in and I started to hurt, a lot. Not training much (or at all) really seems to make my breathing a total disaster. On the upper rooty section of the course I was wheezing for air and getting tossed all over the place not even trying to pick a good line.

The rest of the race was pure pain and I was never really able to recover. Somewhere around the middle of the race I washed out going around one of the slick hairpin turns (the grass was wet) and I dropped my chain. This just made me go even slower. By the time I started the last lap the leaders were right behind me. I continued to lose places right up until the finish when Arthur Moran (Wentworth) came sprinting around me to take away 73^rd place (ouch!). I finished 74/93 starters, 7:26 back.

Despite being pitifully far back, the course was still fun. The first runup was brutal due to the ground being torn up. The second runup was very rideable if no one was in your way, but that was rare with most people dismounting in the cat 4 race. Riding up 90% of the way seemed to be faster than just running the entire way up. I had a clear shot on a few laps and was able to ride it twice. I didn’t even bother trying to ride the sand pit.

Day 2

lap 1 pileup

After day 1 race I swore I wasn’t going to race day 2, thinking I wasn’t in good enough shape to be racing. However, after sitting around watching other fields race I felt like I learned a thing or two and decided to give day 2 a go. I would change up my strategy to maintain a more consistent pace and try to make more passes over the last 35 minutes of the race instead of the first 5 minutes of the race. In addition, I would make more of an effort to recover wherever possible. This meant no sprinting only to brake for technical sections and to maintain my speed better without pedaling after downhills.

I got two full laps of warmup for day 2, much better. The course also seemed to have a rhythm to it that I liked much more. There was only one runup on this course (going up the downhill from day 1), and it was very very rideable. We actually went down the runup from day 1, which launched us right over the train tracks and into a sweeping left-hander. You were pretty much guaranteed to get air going over the tracks. To make things even more exciting, this section was placed less than a minute into the course. That meant we’d be going over the tracks elbow to elbow.

Once again I was staged around 70^th, so without the help of some serious superman legs I was pretty much guaranteed not to win. Just like on day 1, there was a crash just after the first turn. As I tried to squeeze my way through the wreck, some knucklehead tries to pass me on the inside of the next turn. You could say I put him into the fence, and you’d probably be right, but I really didn’t have much of a choice. I don’t know what happened to him, but I know that he didn’t end up in front of me.

I came to the descent of the day 1 runup in a very thick group of crash 4’s. I was terrified and so was everyone around me. Someone next to me yelled out not to touch your brakes and we’ll make it safely. Approaching the top of the descent felt like being at the top of a roller coaster. I rolled down about 5 feet behind the guy in front of me side by side another guy to my left. We caught air over the tracks and cruised around the turn. No problems. In fact I don’t think anyone at all in our field crashed. Amazing!

On the first lap runup there was a massive pileup. I could see it starting well before I got there. It looked like some crashed on the way up, then people kept trying to ride up anyways without realizing that the course was blocked. By the time I got there the pile was at least 10 people large, maybe even 15. Bikes were all tangled up and nobody was moving. I dismounted right before the crash and ran right through the middle of the disaster, passing at least 10 people. It was awesome. I wasn’t even going hard and I was passing almost as many people as the day before.

The first lap was awesome. Maybe even the entire first 2 laps. I wasn’t even trying to go hard, just maintaining a nice steady pace. I was also barely pedaling through the technical sections, and just taking a good line. Suddenly cross was fun again.

By the third lap I found myself on the wheel of Arthur Moran, the same guy that sprinted by me at the finish on day 1. He was setting a good pace, especially on the straightaways, so I stuck behind him. Slow and steady, we passed people on laps 3, 4, and 5. Again, so much better than day 1. I could even see some rivals from the cat 4 road season not far ahead.

On lap 5 I started to sense that Moran was tiring. He had been towing me around for two full laps now, but he was slowing down a fair amount in the technical corners taking the majority of them very wide. On the 180°+ turn around a pine tree he went especially wide, so I decided to go by. I hated to lose the drafting benefit and his good pacing.

After that I was pretty much in no-man’s land. There was no one very close in front of me to chase, so I just sort of set my own pace. This did give me two good shots at riding the runup. Every previous lap there was someone in front of me and I didn’t really have a chance. Oscar was at the top and in good heckling form, and I wanted to appease him. I got close my first time up but ripped my foot out of my cleat just before getting to the top. On the second attempt I got to the top, which got me some cheers, but then I hit a root sideways and ended up clipping out anyways. Doh.

On the final turns before the finish I had no one to chase, but the gap behind me was closing down. Weaving over the bumpy roots section I was only 5 seconds up or so. Turns out it was Moran trying to chase me down for the second time this weekend, but he came up just one second short this time. I finished in 44^th out of 97 starters, and 4:02 back. Still not good but at least it’s not totally embarrassing.