As I woke up this morning, excited to try my first
cyclocross race, I walked out the door to frost on the yard and on my windows. As I scraped my windows off, I contemplated what I was going to go do... Ride a bike in the cold on wet grass at max effort for 30 mins!? Sounds like fun right!? I arrived early and rode the course... the frost on the grass was collecting on my tires like I was riding in snow and I was having a hard time following the course. Once on the right track, I had it in my head what I needed to do to get through it in once piece. As I rolled up to the line it was somewhat what I expect, but not what I expected. Based on what I was told, I was expecting to see more than a couple of mountain bikes in the C-Men group. There were 2 or 3.... out of 27 in my class. I was feeling like I had brought a knife to a gun fight. Before I knew it we were off and I was struggling to keep up with the front pack.
Once I settled in, we came up to the first set of barriers and I made it through. Now mind you that that I have only practiced a few times in my back yard... I was having a hard time committing as it is not natural to want to exit the bike while moving. As we worked our way through the course I buzz a few tires and drifted a few corner calling out my passes. I haven't used my HR monitor for most of the season as it is normally a distraction, but thought it might be useful during this race... every time I looked down at it, it was around 180-185 bpm. I wasn't going to ease up, so I quit looking. As I was finishing up my second lap I started to catch another group of riders which inspired me and I pushed as hard as I could to catch them. I worked my way through and gapped them by the time we made it to the beach. Due to my poor running ability, the next guy that I was chasing gapped me so I pedaled through to a 12 place finish. Hopefully with some barrier practice and some skinny tires, I can bridge the gap to the front of the field! What a great way to spend a beautiful fall day.
cyclocross race, I walked out the door to frost on the yard and on my windows. As I scraped my windows off, I contemplated what I was going to go do... Ride a bike in the cold on wet grass at max effort for 30 mins!? Sounds like fun right!? I arrived early and rode the course... the frost on the grass was collecting on my tires like I was riding in snow and I was having a hard time following the course. Once on the right track, I had it in my head what I needed to do to get through it in once piece. As I rolled up to the line it was somewhat what I expect, but not what I expected. Based on what I was told, I was expecting to see more than a couple of mountain bikes in the C-Men group. There were 2 or 3.... out of 27 in my class. I was feeling like I had brought a knife to a gun fight. Before I knew it we were off and I was struggling to keep up with the front pack. 
Once I settled in, we came up to the first set of barriers and I made it through. Now mind you that that I have only practiced a few times in my back yard... I was having a hard time committing as it is not natural to want to exit the bike while moving. As we worked our way through the course I buzz a few tires and drifted a few corner calling out my passes. I haven't used my HR monitor for most of the season as it is normally a distraction, but thought it might be useful during this race... every time I looked down at it, it was around 180-185 bpm. I wasn't going to ease up, so I quit looking. As I was finishing up my second lap I started to catch another group of riders which inspired me and I pushed as hard as I could to catch them. I worked my way through and gapped them by the time we made it to the beach. Due to my poor running ability, the next guy that I was chasing gapped me so I pedaled through to a 12 place finish. Hopefully with some barrier practice and some skinny tires, I can bridge the gap to the front of the field! What a great way to spend a beautiful fall day.
4 comments:
A mtb works fine, just get some skinnier tires. A lighter bike would help also.
Glad to see you made it out. You did great for your first time. Skinnier tires, like Steve had mentioned, would help. ...or a new bike! (:
The bike is 23lbs as raced... skinny tires would drop that a bit. I am thinking that the rolling resistance was kill me more than anything. The geometry of a cross bike would help with acceleration. I'm just having fun... I can get serious next year!
Wow! Frost already? Still in the high 80s down here. But I did get a little jealous when you mentioned the beautiful fall day. I miss the leaves turning colors.
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