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.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment