Sadly I missed the first of the Sep. races due to scheduling conflicts but I'm making sure the rest of my schedule is clear. The races are held in Midway/Heber, not exactly sure in which city limits the course resides. The races are sponsored by Euclid Outdoors and are held on their property. Makes me jealous for the people that work there, they have a standing 'cross course on which to practice. I'd much rather spend my lunch hour doing interval hot laps on a 'cross course than in a gym listening to some meat-head grunting out one last squat rep.
I got to the venue and found it was a pretty mellow affair, $10 and no number plate needed. I found my good friend Kyle, the owner of the SBR bike shop up the road from my house. He was getting ready to do his first cyclocross race ever and he had a brand-spanking-new bike (Bianchi). I got to chatting with a guy that I usually finish near in the Utah Cyclocross Series (UTCX) and decided I'd just stick on his tail and see how things go.
I decided to race the B category, even though I usually race C's in the UTCX, because I figured the C class here really would be beginners unlike UTCX where the top guys are really fast and should be racing B's. Though the course of the race I found this to be a good decision. After a couple of warm up laps I was waved over by Kyle who was about to pump more air into his tires and asked me what psi I was running, he and I were using the same tubular tires. He had 38 psi and thought he should put more in. I told him to suppress the roadie in him and drop the pressure. In 'cross and mountain biking lower is better (faster). I convinced him to go down to around 30-32.
At 6:30 we lined up at the start line. First were the A's, about 8 or 10 of them lined up and went off at the GO. Next were the B's, I think there were about 10-12 of us. We hit the pedals and shot forward on the gravel stretch of road ahead of us. I was feeling good in 2nd place (and had enough in the tank to take 1st if I wanted to) as we rounded the corner, two wheel sliding through the gravel; it was awesome! I held my place though the short steep run-up but just about dropped the guy behind me. I stepped on the big log that had been placed in front of the run-up and it rolled, I was fine, but he almost dumped it. Sorry dude. After that we hit a very fast rocky downhill section, about 60 yards long. I was really glad I had the tubular tires at this point. If I had clinchers at this psi I would have surely gotten a pinch flat, when I felt my wheel bottom out numerous times.
Next up some fast singletrack through the sage brush, the turns were just shallow enough to carry some speed. A short time later some short turns set me up for a quick drop into and back out of a ditch. Coming out of that section the course routed us around the main building on the property then down the paved drive to the northern dirt section of the course. This is where things got hard. This area probably made up 75% of the course and was full of extremely tight turns and loose dirt. This meant I couldn't carry any speed at all through turns. So it was on the pedals, brake and lose all momentum, then full power back on the pedals. I don't know how many laps we did but by the end I was really feeling the effects of this on again off again power suck. As you got close to the finish line the course heads strait through some gravel toward a fence and tight left hand turn blocked by a large 18" piece of wood. The scrap lumber at this venue was used rather effectively. From here it was 50 yards to the start/finish line.
I was going through the race just fine. I had lost a couple of places and was now in 4th place or so. I was taking some pretty good lines and doing my best to maintain momentum through turns when it became clear that that the guy behind me that I was trying to shake was moving up on me. I thought, "this guy must be following my lines because there's no other way for him to stick with me." A few moments later he passed me, it was then that I saw he was one of the A racers. I didn't feel so bad about getting passed and felt silly for thinking he must have been stealing my lines. Before the race started the promoter told us that all classes would be racing for 45 minutes so when the first A races came through after 40 minutes he'd call for 1 more lap. After innumerable laps and endless suffering I kept waiting for the 1 lap to do call. I came through the Finish area where more people were standing around and mentally begging the promoter to call for one last lap. He said something that I couldn't quite understand, it must have been the panting and heart pounding in my ears that blocked it out. I didn't sound like "one lap to go", but for the next half lap all I could do was go over what he said again and again, "could it have been one more lap?"
I suffered through the next lap and came through the Finish area where I was now sure I was going to be told we were done. He waved me through telling me one more lap, "this guy is trying to kill me." Somehow I always have a little gas left on the last lap to go just a little faster. I think it's a mental thing, knowing that I don't have to save anything else for the race. I finally made it to the finish line proud of the race I'd just ridden. In talking with the promoter I found out that the first A racers had come through the finish line earlier at the 39 minute mark, just shy of 40 so that meant we were all going to do 2 more laps. I think I raced for 55 minutes, 5 - 10 more than usual. I think total lap count was 8, maybe 10-12 miles.
All in all it was a good race. I was covered in dirt and dust and ready to do it again next week. Sorry no pictures. By the time the race ended it was getting dark and my camera phone doesn't shoot well in the dark. I'll get some next week.
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