Cyclocross

Mark went to Missoula last week and competed in a cyclocross race for the first time.  He did a write-up for the local bike shop where he is a team member. He is the one in photo on the right.  Thanks to Melinda Barnes for taking the photo.

After some prodding from some of our teammates I finally decided it was time to give cyclocross racing a try. I watched a couple of YouTube videos to get an idea of what to expect and a few days later I was in Missoula for the Rolling Thunder cyclocross races with fellow teammates Jesús and Melinda.

My first dilemma was deciding which bike of mine would get me around the course the fastest. I loaded both and hauled them to the race so I could make a game time decision. I have a full-suspension Giant Trance. It's a great mountain bike that hammers tough descents. It was overkill and overweight for this race. My other mountain bike is an older hardtail Gary Fisher Marlin that I put road slicks on a couple of years ago and use for commuting. It's slightly lighter than the Giant, but with the road tires on the bike I was worried about traction and flatting out. I consulted a few different people on which bike they thought would be the better option and I wasn't above asking some random dude that looked like he had done the cyclocross thing many times before. The consensus was either one would do just fine. I pre-rode the course on the Gary Fisher and felt good. With the skinny tires on there I thought it looked more like the real cyclocross bikes which made me feel less out of place. Just in case something didn't go as planned I placed my Giant and a water bottle in the pit area.

22
OCT

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  All of the cat 4 riders gathered excitedly at the start line. I was wearing the team jersey and my underoos. At least that's what it felt like. I always where some baggy shorts over my riding shorts so I'm not so…exposed. Tight shorts are flattering on some folks, many of you I'm sure, and then there are the rest of us. The decision to go with just riding shorts was made a couple days prior to the race while I was showing my girls my new technique for jumping off and back on my bike just like in the YouTube videos. They were less than impressed when I not just once, but twice, caught the front of my saggy shorts on the seat and never made it back on the bike. Decision made, no baggies.

  So at the starting line all 50 or so racers listened anxiously as the announcers called certain stud riders to the front. I listened carefully for my name and my proud walk to my place before lesser riders. It never came. Must have been a typo or something, so I started last. The course starts off on a paved straight away, around a parking lot and then enters the outfield of the baseball diamond. You ride the warning track from left field to right and as you round the right field corner you go through the bullpen and out onto the gravel section. After playing baseball and softball for so many years there was a weird satisfaction to riding through the field and then catching air off the pitching mound in the bullpen as I left the stadium.

  The gravel section was the worst. There was a u-turn in the rocks that slowed me down to almost a standstill and I had to put a foot down a couple of times after spinning out a bit. The course had a couple of sections of winding dirt track that weren't too bad, but I was wishing I had some knobby tires. There were two downhills, one was grassy and the other was a quick drop, banked and pretty smooth. The one climb was unrideable and it got harder and harder to drag my bike up that thing.

  A few laps in I was middle of the pack and yo-yoing a couple different riders, I passed them, they caught me. I did see Ed from team GDC out in front of me in his Metallica jersey. My new goal was to catch him within the next lap or so. I pushed a little but wasn't making much ground. Until I came to the downhill and the spectators were shouting, rider down, rider down. I proceeded down slowly and saw Ed dusting off and picking up his bike. He looked okay so I eased by and looked for my next pass. Ed was looking pretty strong and I'm not sure I would've passed if it hadn't been for the crash. The pace throughout the race was fast with some tight corners and Ed wasn't the only rider I saw go down.

  As I came around the corner towards the start of my last lap, within a hundred yards or so of the line, I got passed by the race winner. I assumed I still had a lap to go so I kept going and eventually finished. I didn't know the race results would actually say that I finished 1 lap behind. Ouch. The race results might as well have added, "1 lap back, was this guy walking?" Next time I'll know that if some young kid that I haven't seen since they called him out to take his special spot at the start of the race tries to pass me and lap me, do not let it happen. That's my goal for the next race, don't get lapped and maybe figure out a way to wear my baggies.

  I finished tired, happy and satisfied. The race was better than expected and I'll be back in the future. The support from the team and their families and other Helenan's at the race was great. The specifics—I finished 28 out of 49 and according to the Garmin I road just over 11 miles in about 51 minutes. Jesús Salazar was right there with me. Wish I could have stayed and watched all the races and supported the other riders, it was a great atmosphere.