UTCX #4 - This is getting hard

Do you know what happens when you do a race after not training for a month?

Answer: you dothe hardest race of you can remember and only end up in 30th place.

Note: none of these photos are me, just photos I took of the other races.

This is probably the best planned race that I've ridden. I warmed up on my trainer, making sure to get in some hard sprints to open up the legs. I stopped with enough time to hit the loo and get to the start line to have a first row start. I was ready to go in my new Team Clammy Chamois jersey. We were told to go and everyone went... right around me. Not sure what happened, but it was some combination of being in the wrong gear and an inability to get clipped into my pedal. My front row start turned into an instant 20th place. No problem, roll with the punches. Things got a bit squirrely through the first turn as the pack got funned through a 180 degree turn. After that I settled into a good pace, fast but something I could maintain. We wound through the course, which was being run in the opposite direction as last time. I felt good as we came through the triple set of barriers, the first two right in a row, then you had to turn a tight corner and finish with the last; I didn't like this section as it always seemed rather cumbersome and nothing seemed fast enough. As we headed toward the horse race track I was sure to grab a wheel and run a pace line with 4 other guys. It was nice to have a small amount of recovery time. I managed to race about half the time, keeping people at bay.

Riders would try to pass, but I'd put on the gas and keep them back. That is, until Clammy Chamois captain Josh McCarrel slapped my butt as he flew past me. I wasn't about to let that attack go unpunished so I jumped on the pedals, got past the rider in front of me and barely managed to get behind Josh just before the race track. I maintained the connection for about a lap, then started getting attacked from behind, first one, then another until another Clammy Chamois teammate, Ryan Coburn, came by. I had enough so I pushed through the pain for the next 3 laps and kept close to him. I'd like to personally thank Ryan for towing me around the course for 15 minutes.

As we neared the finish line it was clear Ryan still had something left, whereas I was just hanging on for dear life. He popped ahead about 30 yards to finish ahead of me. Just as I was getting close to the line another rider came up next to me, I tried again, but failed, and he got past me just as we crossed the line.

I coasted to a stop near my team, dropped my bike, and laid on the ground. I feel like I'm starting to get this cyclocross thing figured out. Perhaps it's not a good idea to quit training just as the season starts. With my legs still hurting I vow to get on the stupid trainer tonight and make myself fast(or at least faster) again.

UTCX #2

I'm doing some writing for CyclingUtah.com now, specifically covering cyclocross and some other thing later. Here is the write-up I did for the website, complete with pictures by Jen. UTCX #2 The race was held at the Weber County Fairgrounds.

The race for me went pretty well. As usual I was a solid mid-pack finisher, which is really my only goal. When I finish a race I'm happy if I've accomplished two things: Finished, placed in the 20's. So my 25th place finish sealed the deal for me. I may have done a little better. After last week I was going to make sure I lined up near the front this time, especially knowing that the course quickly narrows and the back of the pack gets bunched up pretty quickly. I finished my warm-up and had about 10 minutes before the start of the race, plenty of time to do a last minute pit-stop and get to the line. I found the bathrooms and discovered they were locked with a sign indicating to use the bathrooms in another building. I rode around for a minute and found the right building, took care of business and got to the starting area. The C class must be more ambitious this year because with 5 minutes to go everyone was already at the line an I was all the way in the back. Crap.

After being reminded that sandbaggers would be moved to B's next week and they would be watching people who cut the course this week, we were ready to go

Editorial note: There are at least 3 or 4 people that were top 10 all last year in the C class and racing C's again, it's time to move up to the B's and be big boys now. The 1st place finisher this week finished a good 3 minutes before anyone else, move on big feller.

Apparently a few racers cut under the course tape last week in race #1 so they ended up half way up the long finishing climb. Seriously? Cheating in an amateur cycling race? Is there anything stupider?! Congratulations, you placed well in the slowest category of the local cyclocross race. I pros are stupid for cheating and amateurs are even stupider. Just race and have fun okay.

The count went down and we went off. I immediately looked for some holes in the pack and worked my way to mid pack. At the first drop in to the fast grassy corner I nailed the inside line and made up a few more places. I was racing and having fun. Aside from doing a good job of choosing some good lines and getting ahead of most of the slower riders I totally forgot about executing any sort of race strategy. I just pedaled hard and had some fun. Part of the course took us out on a horse race track, with packed sand, making for a relatively fast riding surface. This is the only place I managed to ride smart during the race. I make sure that I got to the race course just behind 2 or 3 other people each lap then tucked in behind them and made good use of the draft. While the guy in front was pedaling hard, I was soft pedaling and getting a bit of a recovery.

As soon as we got back to the main part of the course I drove inside and hit the barrier section with speed and usually got past the guys that had been riding in front of me. I managed to bobble and not get clipped into my pedals once or twice and lost a place or two, but nothing serious.

One thing about this course that always bothers me is the lack of course tape as the course winds back and forth on itself around various logs, dips and gravel sections. Inevitably at least once I end up going the wrong way as I exit a turn and am faced with a series of cones that don't really indicate a clear path. It might seem obvious when their making the course or even pre-riding. But, in the middle of a race when you're exhausted, with your heart pounding in your head and the constant panting that drowns out any other audible sound, it's hard to make a snap decision and remember where the course goes. The race organizers must have figured this out because on the last couple of laps there were people out on the course directing traffic in the right direction.

I ended up on the last lap with 2 other guys who seemed to racing at about the same level as I. I made the decision to pick them off before the end of the lap by getting them on the barriers. That didn't work, they were just as fast. Then I tried to get past on some of the corners, but they stole my lines (I guess they were theirs too so I can't be too bothered). I had been eating up precious energy trying to pass them for the last half of the lap and as we inched toward the finish line they chased each other down and left me in the dust. Oh well, there's always next time. Check out the cyclingutah.com article for photos. I'm skipping next week's race for family vacation time, so my next race will be right back in Ogden.

UTCX #1

I made two mistakes today. I've been looking forward to today since January. Utah Cyclocross race #1 in Draper. The course in at the Draper equestrian park is pretty fun. Most of the course is made up of single-track. There are two sections that are not so much fun. The U shaped loop into the sandy horse corral isn't any fun because you can't push to hard without spinning out your wheels, then as soon as your legs are tired of churning you are faced with a hill would be a run-up if it were any steeper, but it's not so you put it in a low gear and ride. You reach the top just as your legs feel like they are about to stop, at least it's that way in the last couple of laps.

The other area is where I made my mistake number 1. The long paved climb that both starts and ends the race; the race starts at the bottom but finishes at the top. My game plan for the day was to let everyone that was hopped up and raring to go speed up the hill and blow themselves up while I rode at moderate pace and picked them off over the course of the first lap. By the top of the hill I was literally in 2nd to last place, my friend Andrew playing it safe right behind me. The problem is everyone still had enough juice in them to stay in front of me until we hit the single-track. That's where I caught a bunch of people but didn't have any place to pass them. I got past a couple on the first lap and a couple on the 2nd lap, but by then everyone else was so far ahead because of the delay that I didn't have much of a chance to catch up. I slowly passed about a dozen people over the course of the race and had my sights on two guys that I had a good chance of beating before the last lap ended. We were just about to the end of the single-track and I knew if I was going to beat them I'd have to get it done here and maintain my lead on the climb to the finish line. I saw my gap and turned on the gas. I got past them just before the semi-steep, but rutted and loose drop to the road. I was going pretty fast so I jammed on the brakes and had things under control, or so I thought. Before I knew it I careening off the right of the course. I started getting back in control, made it through a couple of sketchy sections, avoiding some small boulders and was almost home free. That's when two more boulders appeared right in front of me. I did my best to keep it together, but before I knew it the world started spinning and I was hitting the ground. The good part of this was the very soft thick grass that padded my fall. The bad part was I hit those rocks really hard and my front tire was dead flat. I was a little out of it so I laid down on the grass for a moment contemplating my DNF when I realized I was only 500 yards from the finish and I had lapped a couple of guys so I was still in it. I got up, shouldered the bike and started the long climb ahead. All of the 12 guys that I had worked so hard to pass made it past me and I was the last one to finish the race. I managed to get across the finish line just as they doing the podium presentation. I raised my arms in triumph and got some good natured applause from the lady at the finish line.

Because I had lapped a few people and finished a lap ahead of them I managed to get 35th of 39 even though I walked across the finish line. Although I was hurting during the race, I was pretty happy with how I was riding. I figure I could have finished around 20- 25th if I hadn't gotten stuck in the beginning of the race...and of course stayed upright through the end. Josh tells me we should have our new Clammy Chamois jerseys before the race next week, so we'll look official and certainly have a number of people clamouring to be a part of team Clammy Chamois.

p.s To Coop and anyone else who cares to see visual evidence of my cyclocross exploits, I fully intended on taking pictures this week and even had my camera, but I didn't have a rideable bike to ride around on to get to the photo opps. You'll have to wait until next week when Jen and the kids will be around to snap a few.