Day 1:
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It's a good idea to keep your mouth shut through the mud bog. Photo originally posted by claremontcyclist. |
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One of the few times I was in front of Wade. © Jesus Ortega (gochuygo.com). |
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Suffering. © Jesus Ortega (gochuygo.com). |
Dino and the girls decided to skip today's race so I ventured up to San Dimas alone. I missed having them at the race but after seeing the course conditions, I was glad that I wasn't going to have to clean several layers of mud off another bike that evening (not to mention another helmet, shoes, kit, preschooler, etc.)
What a great course! I enjoyed the Bonelli courses last year (both Bonelli north and south) but today's race was a big step up. As can be seen above, the course included a feature of utmost rarity in SoCal cross: a mud bog. (Okay...it was really just a muddy patch but give me some poetic license here.) The bog itself wasn't very challenging and didn't impact the race - though it added an artificial feel of authenticity to the proceedings that was only slightly diminished by the summer temperatures (~90 F). The bog had a downhill approach so you could keep your speed up. With a straight run through the bog, the only challenge was trying to make the following turn with no depth perception because there was almost always mud in one eye or the other. The course had great flow and was well balanced between technical and power sections.Some stairs and two barrier sets - one with a high speed approach and one after a chicane - rounded out the obstacles.
Thirty-one of us lined up behind the Masters 1/23's and the non-UCI 1/2/3's. No call up for me based on last weeks results so I relied on my weasel-like scrumming skills to find an unoccupied spot on the front line. At the whistle, I tried for a hole shot but didn't quite have the juice. I ended up somewhere between the 5th and 10th position only to be taken out by a guy on a mountain bike who overcooked a turn at the base of a steep uphill section early into the lap. I ended up in ~20th place and started moving up with a vengeance. I eventually caught up Wade (LA Velocity) and Sean (Team Velocity). Sean was with us for a while then faded back. I hung on for dear life as Wade pulled us up to the mountain biker who had caused the first lap mishap.Wade lost contact and I thought he was blown so I just hung on the MTBer's wheel. On the long , bumpy straight after the mud bog, I attacked and thought I had some space. I kept the pace pegged, never looking back, through the last half lap and into the final barrier set where I performed a less than perfect remount. Unbeknown to me, Wade had caught back on at some point after the mud bog and, unlike me, was perfect over the barriers. He sprinted away from me on the sidewalk section like a scalded cat with a Gruber Assist motor. I was well and properly beaten but nonetheless happy with my 10th place.
Watching the UCI men's field on Saturday was rather awe inspiring. Having raced the course earlier in the day and knowing how fast I covering the various sections, seeing the pros fly through at mach 5 (yes, the sonic boom was audible) just goes to show how big the gap is between the weekend warriors and the guys who do this for a living.Well, some of them do it for a living....believe it or not, Joachim Parbo, Danish national champion and winner of Saturday's race, has a job surveying and inspecting the 500 km (or is it 525 km?) of bike trails in and around the city of Aarhus in Denmark. If you want to get a feel for the speed and spirit of the elite races, make sure to check out the fantastic video below by the Colton brothers.
Day 2:
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Up the stairs. © Jesus Ortega (gochuygo.com). |
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In no man's land. © Jesus Ortega (gochuygo.com). |
On Sunday morning, we headed north with our full load-out of kids, bikes, tents, and coolers for the second day of the double header. The course was moved slightly east relative to Saturday and much more closely resembled last year's Bonelli North courses. With less caution tape spaghetti, Sunday's course favored fitness over technique. Interestingly, the small patch of tacky mud that was included was much more challenging than the larger mud bog of Day 1. Mud in a turn is always a bit exciting and this was no exception. It was positioned at the bottom of the dip and in the middle of a turn so you had to either square off before the turn - which was awkward - or square off after the turn - which came with the penalty of hitting a tree if you misjudged. An uphill and a downhill barrier set along with a reuse of the stairs from day 1 (though with a much higher speed approach) added to the fun.
There were a lot more people in many of the field but just a few more in ours: thirty-eight on the start line. I was indecisive about how I should start. An ugly, downhill, decreasing radius, paved turn (with a speedbump in the middle of it) made me unsure if I wanted to be in the front or the back. The whistle blew and the decision was made for me...
Tweeeet! Crap! I missed clipping in. Fumble with pedals. Finally clip in cleanly. Um, where am I? Ah ha - I'm getting swarmed. Damn, now I'm boxed in. Break out. Done. Start moving up. Ummm, legs, did you hear me? I said, "Start moving up!" Uh oh, legs not listening. Fade back some more - we're not even off the pavement. Not good. Hit the grass. Fade back some more. Legs where are you? Hit the mud section. Carnage. Somebody screwed up - looks like a PAA rider. Ease through the mud - try to avoid becoming a casualty. Okay, time to catch up. Aha, a communique from the legs: "We've decided to take the day off. Have fun racing without us. Love, Your Legs."
Yep, the rest of the race was just riding around the course trying not to look too stupid. After much suffering, I ended up 22nd. To be clear, the suffering was more mental than physical. My body just wasn't going but the evil self-doubt demon in my mind was working overtime - mostly revolving around the theme of, "Why am I so much slower than last year? Discuss."
At the end of the race, Dino met me with a bottle of Clif Shot Electrolyte that I gulped down. After chatting for a few minutes, it was time to line up for the Singlespeed race. The logical part of my mind was screaming, "Go back to the car, change, and drink lots of water!" The stubborn part was murmuring, "You signed up for this race so you damn well better race it." Stubbornness won. I lined up. Because of the UCI races, we weren't following the normal SCPS schedule and were racing with the Singlespeed B's and Singlespeed Women categories (usually we race with the elite men). I lined up at the back of the A's. After the B's and Women lined up, the whistle blew and off we went en masse. I immediately went into survival mode - just riding along. That was probably a good thing since the course had been tweaked relative to the race I'd just finished. The tricky mud section had been taken out to preserve the grass and one of the barrier sets was removed to comply with UCI course design rules. The barriers were replaced with a tricky, low speed, double chicane on a loose side slope - more technical but easier on the body. If I would have been riding these section at normal first lap speed, I would have been in for a rather nasty surprise.
Yep, the rest of the race was just riding around the course trying not to look too stupid. After much suffering, I ended up 22nd. To be clear, the suffering was more mental than physical. My body just wasn't going but the evil self-doubt demon in my mind was working overtime - mostly revolving around the theme of, "Why am I so much slower than last year? Discuss."
At the end of the race, Dino met me with a bottle of Clif Shot Electrolyte that I gulped down. After chatting for a few minutes, it was time to line up for the Singlespeed race. The logical part of my mind was screaming, "Go back to the car, change, and drink lots of water!" The stubborn part was murmuring, "You signed up for this race so you damn well better race it." Stubbornness won. I lined up. Because of the UCI races, we weren't following the normal SCPS schedule and were racing with the Singlespeed B's and Singlespeed Women categories (usually we race with the elite men). I lined up at the back of the A's. After the B's and Women lined up, the whistle blew and off we went en masse. I immediately went into survival mode - just riding along. That was probably a good thing since the course had been tweaked relative to the race I'd just finished. The tricky mud section had been taken out to preserve the grass and one of the barrier sets was removed to comply with UCI course design rules. The barriers were replaced with a tricky, low speed, double chicane on a loose side slope - more technical but easier on the body. If I would have been riding these section at normal first lap speed, I would have been in for a rather nasty surprise.
About halfway around the first lap, something clicked. I started racing for the first time that day. It must have been related to having the B's around - many of which were going close to my speed. Whatever the reason, I started notching up the intensity and picking off riders who had previously passed me. As the race went on, I seemed to be going better and better. On the last lap I caught and passed a few riders and ended the race in a sprint (it was against a B but I couldn't be sure at the time). 10th place out of 11 in the A's. The placing is definitely nothing to get excited about but I'm happy to have finished back-to-back races - especially since most of the day was wrestling with thoughts of willfully DNFing.
Even with ending the weekend on a slightly positive note, my mental motivation headed into the next week was not good. I just couldn't get over what I thought was a poor performance on Sunday. And the blisters from the race on my hands, feet, and...ummmm...somewhere else were not helping matters. Luckily, a read of this great blog post sent to me by a teammate (thanks, Ben!) got my head pointed back into the right direction:
"My only other advice is to give your RIVAL's the credit you want them to give you. They trained hard this past season, and it was probably with the sole purpose of kicking your ass. They love to suffer.... and if they beat you... they must have gotten pretty good at it."
I guess somebody had to remind me that just because I had a good season last year, I'm not automatically entitled to having a good season this year. You have to train hard to get the placings...and everybody else is training hard too.
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