Bicycle Races Are Coming Your Way

• ‘Tis the Season to be ‘Crossy

  9/14/2008

  

  Racing road since march has started to take its toll on me. after 6 months of silly cat 4 crashes, watching people sprint for 30th place, and not eating bacon, I’m ready to take a break from skinny tire racing for a few months. I know I’m not the only one. It seems like Green mountain sucked the life out of most road racers (myself included) and now everyone wants to relax, drink a few beers, and enjoy the fall.

  By “enjoy the fall”, of course, i mean take a zipcar to New England every weekend, ride a cross bike in circles until you can’t see straight, get covered in mud and blood, drink belgian beer, and ring cowbells.

  After the green mountain fiasco (that’s going to need it’s own entry), i didn’t even want to look at my road bike. what better time to take out the ‘cross bike, bring it over to cadence, buy some new parts, and have it ready to go for the upcoming season? call it cat 4 retail therapy.

  

  I wanted to give some new canti’s a try, since my avid shorty 4’s did as good a job at slowing me down as Britney Spears did at parenting. Jed @ cadence recommended the new TRP Eurox’s; they’re traditional canti’s that look like Empella Frogs legs. I slapped on some green swiss stop pads, and I’ve been really happy with how they stop and control speed. That being said, they were squealin’ like pigs when i first got them mounted. Traditional Canti’s are a pain to toe in correctly…

  the guys at Cadence also wanted me to try out the new teflon-coated cables. they’re super slick and really reduce friction- We’ll see how they hold up through the season.

  This week marked the start of training for ‘cross; We hit up a Dave Jordan coaching session on Wednesday, and then a teammate and I decided to organize a cross “boot camp” Saturday morning. It was either that or crashing in a prospect park field sprint…

  

  Boiko, myself, and two Sid’s guys showed up at 6:45 am hit up the riverside park just south of the GWB. at that hour no one is around, and there’s a fantastic circuit you can do that emulates a ‘cross course really well. Boiko also brought the PVC barriers he made. We did some mounting and dismounting drills, barriers, stair run ups, and a few race pace simulations. we all had a blast and it really pumped us up for what’s to come in the next few weeks. It also gave me a chance to hone my wicked barrier jumping technique. (hint- always go for style points)

  

  We’ll probably be holding another ‘cross boot camp in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. By the way, I’m really pumped at how more people are getting into ‘cross.

  On Sunday I either had the choice of doing a Time trial in 90 degree heat, or doing a ‘cross race in 90 degree heat. either way, win-win right? If i had to equate my TT’ing to a martial art style it would probably be the formidable “flatulent sloth.” I’ve quickly realized that the only reason i do TT’s is due to the guilt i feel for having bought a TT bike. that, and the sadist in me likes scaring the public by donning skin suits…

  Boiko and i drove over to good ole’ Macungie, PA for the 2nd round of the Bear Creek CX race. i had heard from Jed that yesterday’s course was SUPER muddy and technical. the mud was peanut butter, and the race organizers had really outdone themselves with this hard, technical course. did i mention it was 90 degrees for some reason? i didn’t get the memo.

  This course had everything- deep mud traps, super-tight switchbacks, lots of loose gravel, a muddy run up over a huge pipe, and of course barrier that was meanly placed in the middle of a small mud trap. glorious.

  I made sure to have a good starting position. when the whistle blew, i clipped in quickly, and stuck with the top 3 right off the front. It’s hard, but getting that good initial position is really essential to doing well- especially in a technical course. It’s also important to always ride straight through puddles at fulls speed.

  

  I stuck with the top 3 for most of the race. I almost forgot how fun and painful it is to go all out for 40 minutes. your body is maxed out- all you can think about is breathing and pedaling. TT’s may be an all out effort, but its a linear, progressive effort. the effort put out in a cross race is much more erratic- there’s no recovery. If you’re catching your breath, you’re not going fast enough. there’s also that whole running and turning bit. half of a ‘cross race is avoiding obstacles. some races almost feel like the temple of doom. Maybe they should start using huge boulders at races to mix it up a bit…

  on the final lap, i was going head to head with one guy for 4th position. we went back and forth- and i had a good feeling that i could beat him. after the final barrier jump i was ahead, and wanted to keep the speed up. there was a small mud trap right before we hit the asphalt. i went through it too fast and ended up making out with the asphalt. Score!

  i somehow managed to bend one of the front brake arms below the rim of the wheel- if effectively jammed the front wheel, so i started running. After about 30 seconds of running, i was able to rip the brake back out and i rode to the finish. I still finished 8th and was pretty happy with that.

  

  Eventually I noticed one guy roll into the finish with his saddle and seatpost in his hands. apparently it had snapped off mid-race and he FINISHED THE RACE WITHOUT A SEATPOST. That man deserves an award. Or at least a massage with a happy ending.

  Boiko rolled through the finish- his facial expression was a mix of pain and awe. He’d just done his first ‘cross race and got totally shelled. and you know what? He had a blast. And that’s just the beginning.

  

  Mud, blood, barriers, Run-ups, Beer Tents, Belgian beer, new jersey diners, and Cowbells are here for the next three months, and I couldn’t be happier.

  

  

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