Local racing in Blacksburg Virgina at it’s best. Last weekend November 7th and 8th on Virginia Tech Campus. Two days of cyclocross including night time racing under the lights. I entered the masters 35+ races on both days. It was a live and learn experience for me. It’s amazing how after racing cyclocross for 6 years now I still learn something from every race. Saturday night start time was 5PM. Still plenty of light throughout our race though the stadium lights kicked on toward the end. The field size was a decent 20 or more and then combined with the 45+ made for an interesting crowd. Having volunteered for this race I was busy all day setting up the course. I managed to sneak in a 30 minute power nap which was very refreshing and I did about a 30 minute warm up for the race. My start was not very good but then, my starts are never really good. I saw the break away go and knew I would have to make some passes before I could bridge up. I started making the passes and launched an attack. Trying to make this attack stick meant I really needed to nail all the corners hard. Coming around one corner that transfers from off camber to a level ground around a pine tree I over cooked it and went down. All the folks I passed went right by me so I had a lot more work to do. I managed to get with the chase group again and start to bridge up. The lead group of three was now splintered. Once again I went down in a tight corner around a sapling on another off camber section. I had to laugh because I couldn’t figure out what happened. I simply got launched over the bars. I think I may have hit a root or some object but it was wildly unexpected. I was alone at that point so no one passed me but I lost anther 15 seconds or so. Once again I began charging forward. With two laps to go I could see the 3rd place rider inching up on the 2nd place rider as I was catching them both. My only hope was to keep the pressure on and see if one of them goes down or cracks. I finally bridged up with about 50M to go but when we bumped up onto the final paved stretch to the finish line and after all the exertion to bridge up I couldn’t sprint around anyone and ended up in 4th place.
Sunday’s race when off at 10AM but was delayed till 11AM which helped a lot since I was scrambling to rearrange the course. The course design was slightly changed and run in reverse which makes it like a totally new course really. I got in a descent warm up and got up front on the start line. I am not a very good starter in cyclocross so being up front helps a lot. After the gun I was probably 6th through the whole shot which is a long straight along some pine trees. The leader got too close to the trees and a branch grabbed his bars and he went down taking some one else out. I squeezed through and quickly a group of 5 formed with one guy off the front. I sat in with this group for one lap trying to determine if this was the speed the group was capable of or wondering if they are all just sort of sitting in and waiting. I decided to test it and attacked on the second lap. I pu in a hard effort to get away and bridge up to the solo leader. I rode with him for almost another lap and decided to attack again and see if I could get away. It worked. Those two attacks hurt bad so I settled into a time trial mode watching the group behind me and trying to keep them away. After recovering and getting the rhythm for the course I was able to make more gains especially in the fast sweeping corners and the long single track to the log piles. There were two log piles that were ridable and you could carry a lot of speed right up to them then jam the brakes on and bunny hop the piles. With two laps to go I was certain I had the race. The chase group had broken up with Ignacio Moore off the front. I kept watching him and was holding him at bay but I know he was putting in a tremendous effort to bridge up. Thinking that I might race the Pro/1/2 race later that day and being certain I would win this race I eased off the pace. Ignacio was gaining but was never closer then 50 meters which is a huge difference on the last lap of a cyclocross race. I wasn’t planning on letting him get any closer and even if he did manage to bridge up he would have been so cooked as I was recovered he wouldn’t stand a chance on the finish sprint.
This was my mistake and my lesson learned from the weekend. On the final lap with maybe ¼ lap to go I flatted. I have no idea what I hit but the sidewall blew out. Racing on tubulars I can still at least ride the bike but with no where the efficiency obviously. Ignacio gained on me. I was riding right by the pit but I knew if I went in for a wheel change I would be passed so I went on riding the flat. Ignacio passed me just before the paved finish and it was all I could do to stay on his wheel for second place. Moral of the story and lesson learned is never ever think you have the race in the bag. Always push yourself to the very end. If I had, then I would have been able to ride the flat in or would have had the time to make the wheel change.
