Kirtland cross

I showed up early and actually got to do a few laps on the course.  Lake Effect is doing a great job putting together the courses.  I practiced the amphitheater hill a few times and the hill with steps.  The course was setup more for my style: hills, fast flats instead of slow/soft fields, and no barriers.  I knew this was my last BACX series race due to work schedule so I wanted to make sure it was fun.


I did a 90 minute moderate/hard road ride on Saturday and realized how much fitness I have lost.  I really have only been doing one other ride a week in addition to the CX races, not enough.  I do think that ride helped today as I was able to sustain the effort for the first time instead of losing power half way through the race.


The first lap started and I was in about 20th place when the group hit the first hill.  I stayed to the right on the hill which worked out well with a group bunching up the left so I was able to make up a spot or 2 and get a little gap.  I then passed a few on the steps hill.  I was able to pass a few people going up the amphitheater hill and in the field.  I had a few pass me before the baseball field and got caught behind some lapped riders that resulted in others passing me.   I then lost the wheel in front of me and used a rider about 100ft behind to keep pushing me for the last 2-3 laps.  Overall I think I finished 14-18th place, results weren't available.  Had some treats and chocolate milk post-race, what could be better.


Thanks to Lake Effect/Bike Authority for putting on the series and the great courses.  Looking forward to Winter CX in Akron to extend the season a bit and then back to the road! 


Tour of the Valley announced this week, I will be setting up my rough training plan again around this race.  Already looking forward to it!  Hope they leave the TT prologue in for this year.

Who didn't ride today?

If you didn't ride your bike today something must be wrong with you. Not sure if it was a record temp for today but I can't remember the day before my bday that it was this warm. A group of 8 of us went out from Chagrin Falls for a 'easy' ride. I miss getting out on the road, hopefully I can take a half day vaca tomorrow and enjoy the last bit of decent weather.

Chagrin River CX recap

I practiced on this course on one of Bret's open ride Wednesdays prior to the race weekend. I found some techniques in the woods that I felt would give me a advantage over some others, specifically attacking going through the whoop section on the clockwise rotation (Saturday) all through exiting the woods. It brought back the motion reflexes of my days spending 6-7 days a week riding ATVs and Dirtbikes in the woods. Well my speed areas and plan all went south once arriving and doing a practice lap on Saturday. The area was slippery from the rain. My plan was about 7 hard kicks and then maintaining momentum through the first woods section, instead it was going to be a moderate power pace to keep the rear wheel from spinning. I then made the horrible decision that my Small-Block 8 35cm tires might work well on this course instead of the Mud Shark 2 30cm. Dumb.

Kevin and I line up in the B field and I am pretty excited due to the atmosphere and the course. I have a poor start and end up somewhere in the last 1/2 of the field at the beginning. I ride the race fairly well through the technical areas but feel like I am getting slower and slower. With about 3 laps to go I realize it isn't just my leg's lack of stamina, but the area between my bottom bracket and wheel is becoming a large block of compressed mud. I get to a point where I have to stand just to move the bike on flat surfaces. I end having to jog with the bike while lifting the rear wheel to change the wheel and knock out all of the mud preventing the wheel from turning. Another newbie mistake on tire selection.

I join back the race at the tail-end and decide to continue riding just for the fun of it even though I got lapped by a blazing Robert and others chasing him so I finish a lap down.

On Sunday I didn't even bring the Small block tires and ran the Mud Shark 2s. The combination of those tires and a drier course resulted in a faster event for me. The first lap quickly involved a standstill waiting to climb by the telephone pole in which somehow I tangled my shoe on Kevin's brake lever. Luckily I didn't go down but on the first ditch crossing I fell while trying to avoid someone else who had fallen. I then get back up and I am following Samantha and then run into the back of her at the next ditch crossing. By this point I start laughing as this is just a comedy of errors. Throughout the race I picked up some places but didn't feel real strong. My lower back really started hurting about half way through, much like it did at Wendy Park for some reason. I finish with my sights on one more rider but he senses me behind me and holds me off with a strong last lap.

Not sure what my result was on Sunday but I would guess there was 10 people behind me in the B race. I had a blast this weekend and wish we had a few more consecutive Saturday/Sunday CX weekends around. Looking forward to Kent State race in 2 weeks. Maybe I will actually do some decent training before then...but doubt it as I am not too motivated to ride in the dark.

30 miles = 3 hours

I spent another weekend in Ligonier PA and decided to take the Cross bike and explore some offroad trails in the Laurel Highlands. I plotted a 30 mile route that included 10 miles of pavement, 10 miles of fine gravel/silt road, and then 10 miles of off road terrain including climb up to 2800 ft. I figured it would take at most 2 hours for the complete loop on the cyclocross bike. I had no idea how long it takes to ride on off road trails through the hills of PA. I completed the 30 miles in 3 hours, about 1 hours longer than I expected. Here are some pics from the ride.

I am glad I took the Cyclocross bike and picked this route. I got a little bit of everything:

- 5 miles of continuous climbing up a soft silty road (hard 30 minute effort)

- A view from 1000 ft above of a turnpike that was cut through a mountain

- Almost 2 hours in the woods without seeing 1 person

- Some good technical practice on the CX bike

- A substantial amount of climbing on mixed terrain

I will be at the ND - USC game this Saturday and miss the Willoughby CX race but will be going to the Beaver Valley CX race on the 25th and hopefully both of the Chagrin River Cyclocross races around Halloween. I am feeling much better on this bike and think a top 10 CX B race finish might be a possibility soon.

CX

2 races under my bibs so far on CX and about 10 hours total on my CX bike. I'll list what I have learned below but first review yesterday's race at KSU - Stark.

I pulled up the Wunderground radar before leaving the house and it didn't show rain hitting Canton or the area until late in the day. So I didn't pack any race specific gear, or even an umbrella for my wife who was coming to watch. We get no further than gates mills and the road was only passable in the passing lane coming up the hill after the construction due to the amount of water coming down the drain/right lane. Why even look at weather radars?

Arrive at the race and I can tell right away this course is going to be a classic:

1. You can see the race happening with the barriers right from 77 S

2. Decent uphill stretch that follows University St leading to the entrance

3. The technical use of the grass bowl by the entrace

Pre-ride most of the course to see what to look out for and how fast it is possible to take some of the technical stuff. Line up about mid-pack in what appeared to be another 55+ group of B racers. The 'gun goes off' and can't clip in. I immediately fall to last place, but since its CX I just laugh. First lap goes well with no crashes for me but many for others. Nice change to see crashes and not think 'wow that road rash is going to suck!!!'. By the end of lap 1 I was able to probably pass 10-15 riders.

On lap 2 I am feeling good and move up a few more spots and then hit a wall. I was able to pass a few riders, but my slow dismount, run, clip back in skills would enable them to pass me again. This forward/backward movement continued for the next lap or 2 until I got word after hearing the thunder that we were on our last lap. I had 1 guy about 75 Meters in front of me as we came around the corner near the start line. Since we were ending the race 15 min early, I decided to use him as motivation to force a max level effort. I did not sprint but just kept ramping up to win at the line by half bike to take home probably 645th spot!

Overall - I didn't think a course around here could be better than Wendy park but this one might have taken that, or at least matched it. Thanks to Stark Velo and all volunteers for putting it on. Hopefully KSU doesn't mind the marks in the field and allows this to be an annual race.

Learned so far:

- CX is a blast. If you are not doing it, get a bike immediately and start. Thanks Kevin for getting me into this!

- No crashes = good, but probably also means I could be taking more chances

- Need to figure out my clipping in problem. I think it is mostly mental but I can solve that with practice

- Takes a much different effort than road or TT races, probably closer match to Crits which I was not great at

- Momentum appears to be key. In watching the A race, I see quite a bit of kicks out of the seat. I will keep that in the mind for the next race as I feel I spent 99.9% of the time on the seat.

- I don't care about my results but do want to get better the more I race which = fun not stress

Hopefully we have a turnout like Wendy and Stark for Leroy next weekend.

Not possible

I have now tried 3 times and don't believe it is possible - ride the hill on the Buckeye Connection in Girdled Reservation on a cyclocross bike with standard CX tires (35cm max). I imagine the hill is possible on a Mountain bike with the right tires and gearing, but not sure a CX bike can make it.

I will keep trying, but curious if anyone has attempted this and if they were successful. The combination of grade, lack of traction, and length makes it difficult and maybe impossible but worth trying.

Getting ready for 'cross

Picked up my '10 TCX from Mountain Road on Sunday. After helping with the Leroy cyclocross race last year I knew this is something I wanted to get into this year. I decided against building a bike up, so instead did a bit of research and talking with Jacob at MRC. Kevin and I plan to get some cross riding in this weekend at Wendy Park in anticipation of the 1st Bike Athority race. No goals for cross season this year except to have fun, get some new bike skills practiced, and help with off season work in preparation for next year's road race season.