Soigneur Dad -- 2012 Cyclocross Round Up

Well, our season is done.  Jake decided back in October to focus on spring road races rather than try and have peak fitness for cyclocross nationals in mid-January.  So, cyclocross season ended last Sunday at the NCVC Ed Sander Memorial at Lily Pons.

Sander Memorial CX

As I mentioned in the last post, the end of cross season can often be a matter of milking form on fumes.  Well, my luck ran out and I got a bit sick on late Friday/Saturday.  Nothing crushing, but just enough to where Sunday morning I really couldn't get up off the couch.  I'm sure I could have powered through, but the race would have sucked.  And then my Soigneur Dad part kicked in and started feeling guilty about dragging Jake out to Lily Pons 6 hours before his 3pm race just for me to suck.  So, I decided to let him sleep.  This left me feeling a bit unfinished, but c'est la vie. 

Jake & I headed up there at a reasonable time.  We had reports of some mud but nothing horrid.  We parked next to Doug and Dawn Graham, big supporters of Jake's.  I bummed a spare gu off of Johny May for Jake, thanks Johny.  Jake got a decent start in a field of 18, but he clearly didn't have the same snap that he did a month ago. 

He needs to work on not getting shuffled back in those early turns as well.
For much of the race he dangled between 5 and 20 seconds behind Tanner Browne and Calleb Ingram, but just couldn't close it. 

He also had a little trouble with the barriers.  NCVC had them inside the beer tent, but by that time of day, with the clouds, it was pretty dark inside the tent and Jake said his glasses were fogging up again and he couldn't see the barriers and was having to go by counting steps between them.  So he tripped twice, which just knocks you off.

He finished 13th, which isn't bad, and he fought hard the whole time.  But he wasn't satisfied and was a bit frustrated by it.  I understand that.  But that hour was good training for the upcoming road season and next year.

Season Overview

So, it's tough finishing on a "down" note, as our form faded away.  But it was clearly a great cyclocross season.

Liam did 8 races, his most so far. And he would have liked to do more but they conflict with Sunday school.  Next year, more than likely, he will join the NCVC junior squad.  He went to some of their Saturday cross practices and they have a decent number of boys Liam's age and a more organized structure.  The highlight for Liam was definitely Hyattsville.  Flat and muddy is what Liam likes.  Liam is the family mudder. 

He's not as serious as Jake, but he has fun at the races and that's great.  It's great to have him with us.

My season was largely devoted to support for the boys.  I had terrible fitness going into August, but Sue Hefler helped me bring it around.  I was bad bad bad for the early races.  But then I had a little glimmer when I did well at the Psychocross B Masters.  So, chasing the Sportif Cup 45+ Cat 3 gave me something to focus on.  It was great winning that and the MABRA Cat 3 45+ race.  I had a couple of good races, like at Winchester (love you) and AACX (another big hill) and was happy to be able to open it up at a bunch of races.  So that was good. 

King of the old B-Masters ;-) (photo by Doug)

My Soigneur Dad skills were Elite.  We could pack that car with every wheel, glove, towel, bike and shoe that we owned like a well oiled machine.  A separate entry planned on that one.

Jake's season was great.  Even though the last few races in the Elites were not up to his demanding standards for himself, there is no possible debate about his season.  His sole goal going into the season was to upgrade to Cat 2.  He did that with flying colors.  He won two Cat 3/4 men's races, he was 2nd in two Cat 3/4 races, he was 3rd both days in the Elite Juniors at Charm City, 4th in the men's 3 race at Rocktown, 7th in the 3s at Winchester, and 11th in the 3s at Tacchino (which, based on the field and the strength of the guys who beat him, USAC still ranks as his second best race of the season).  He finished 4th in the Super 8 Cat 3/4 series despite skipping Hyattsville with injury and then not doing the 3/4 at the last 2 races of the year after upgrading to Cat 2.  Not bad.  Hopefully, his "off" races were learning experiences as well.

 

For me, it was a roller coaster. I was beside myself when Jake came flying up through the field of 100+ to finish 2nd at DCCX.  So exciting.  And when he rode away to win at AACX, it was almost surreal. I didn't even have my wits around me to video it.  His win at Rockburn was a culmination. A solid victory over a big field at one of the monuments of MABRA CX.  But there were tough days too, when he didn't perform up to his expectations. My heart really bled for him then.  You just don't want your boy to suffer those slings and arrows of self-doubt and failure.

But in the end, you can't argue with this:

Photo by Doug

 Wrap Up
I was sad for the season to end. It was great to see everyone every weekend.  Seriously, there is nothing better than the traveling weekend family party of MABRA cyclocross races.  We'll miss seeing all of you.

Thanks to Loren for her patience and support.  But I think the novelty having us around the house on the weekends will quickly wear thin, and she'll soon be asking "when are you 3 going to go race all day again..."

Thanks to our Sponsors.  Thanks to Van Dessel for hooking Jake up with his Full Tilt Boogie.  A great bike and a wonderful company.  Thanks to Sue Hefler for training us to be in a position to succeed and for soothing our fragile racers' egos. And Vapiano for supporting Coppi and Bicycle Outfitters for supporting HPC.  Check them out.  Support them.

Thanks to all my Squadra Coppi teammates for their support and camaraderie.  I will miss Wednesday morning practices.

A final special thanks to everyone who helped me juggle balls as Soigneur Dad and racer, including Doug Graham and my fellow SD Dan Klaussen in particular.

Luray Caverns CX & Capital Cross Classic -- We're nearing the end

December, it's when real cyclocross racing happens. But in the Mid Atlantic, where we start cross season at the beginning of September, some of us are running on fumes after 16 races in 12 straight weekends of racing.  Some days you've got good legs, but others not.

Capital Cross Classic
Last weekend was the Capital Cross Classic at Lake Fairfax. This is a monument of Mid-Atlantic cyclocross.


Me and the boys went out to Lake Fairfax on Saturday and pre-rode a bunch of laps.  The upper section was very very dry with hard ground covered by a loose layer of little pebbles and stuff.   And the gravel road was thick.  It was like riding deep sand.  It was in many respects a very technical course.  Little things would make big time differences.  We spent some time trying to ride the stairs.  I could do 2 but not get the last one, so I wouldn’t try in the race.    But it was also a course with hard efforts followed by slow technical stuff where you could recover.  This was not a big ring pedaling course (opposite of Taneytown last week).
The moisture from the fog on race day actually helped the course be a bit more grippy.  Lined up on the second row next to pete.  I Got a good start and maintained it ok all the way up past the run up  then I lost some places when I got shoved off the solid line into the deeper gravel on the climb up the back ridge.  Then I was behind Karl Kensinger of NCVC who was way too slow through the technical descent and “chute”.    On the second lap I somehow ended up on Pete’s wheel.  He could run those stairs well.  He’s a strong runner.  So I used him for draft on the road up through the start finish.
But I was stronger on the climbs.  I don’t remember when but I rid myself of Pete on the upper climb mid race. Same with Bill O’Keefe.  Then I was coming around  a group with Knight Elsberry of NCVC, Ken Morris of Winchester, Al Green, and Bill Wheeler.  Now many of these guys have beaten me a bunch this season.  Again I could tell I could climb faster.  Ken had powered ahead on the bridge (I had been on his wheel and should have followed, but he’s damn strong on a flat road) but was only about 50 meters ahead of us. With 2 to go I was sitting 2^nd wheel going into the little uphill back by the start finish.  I tried to cut inside Knight but instead he stalled and I ended up hitting his back wheel and having to jump off and run.  That let the other guys catch back up and pass me.  I was shuffled to the back of the group as we got the bell (I think we lapped James coming onto the road that lap).  But my legs were still good.  So I moved up to second wheel on the little climb up to the bridge.  I followed Al across the bridge and up the run.  It was full gas.  I knew that I would make my move on the gravel road climb up the back then recover in the turns.  So as soon as we hit the gravel road after the run up, I drilled it, full gas seated.  Only Bill could get to my wheel, but I knew I could be faster through the turns and descent.  I had a little gap when we came out of the chute and I punched it hard again on the gravel road through the camp grounds opening the gap more.  I  punched it full again up the little climb off the road.  At that point I was closing on Ken.  I put it in the big ring to sprint and try to catch Ken (maybe this is when I passed James, not sure, but thanks james for sliding out of the way).  I sprinted at the start of the road but couldn’t close to Ken.  But Bill was far enough behind that I didn’t have to worry about him, so I cruised across.

I was 14^th, but that was ok.  Cross results had me predicted to be 20^th, and I beat the guys that I want to beat and the guys who beat me are, with only 1 or 2 exceptions guys that I’m not going to beat (about 8 of them are career Cat 1-2s that I’ll never beat).  It was fun to be able to open it up and attack when I wanted.  I’m so much happier when there is a climb or two, per lap ;-)

Photo by Jay Westcott

 Jake lined up in the Men's Elite race.  With no series points he was on the back row, and in front of him a bunch of Cat 1s.  He had a bad day.  A learning experience.

Luray Caverns CX

So today Jake and I drove out to the mountains to do the Luray Caverns cross race.  You'll remember it as the scene of our big father/son showdown last year.  I beat Jake last year, but in the words of Apollo Creed "no rematches."  Since Jake's race was at 2:30, I decided to do the Cat 3/4 race at 1:30 instead of the 45+, which was earlier in the day.  This year, Luke and Dan Klaussen would face off in the 3/4. And there was some talk of me helping Dan with some old man tricks.  At the starting line, Doug Graham had the official mention their battle and warned me "no bullying."  It was fun.

Doug Graham was loving this

There had been rain over night and drizzle and fog today, so the course was very slippery with greasy mud.

mountain shrouded in mist

Luke and I got a good start up the steep road.  But boy are those boys more willing to risk crashing than me.  So I was a little more "risk averse" in the slick turns.  I was in the top ten for the first 1/3 lap.  Coming out of the gravel road U turn Andy came by me, but at the top I passed him back on the other side of some guy.

The 180 gravel turn (photo thanks to Jay Westcott)

Photo by Doug Graham

But I didn't have good legs.  I felt bad after the first lap and lost Andy, who went on to a strong 4th.  At some point, 13 year old G Schultz caught up to me.  He was turning really well and my glasses were fogging up so I could barely see.  G is going to Nationals and is looking for a good result in a 3/4 race to help his national ranking, which will dictating his starting position at nationals.  I lead G for a bit, figuring I'd help him get forward.  At some point G came around me so I figured I'd follow him and make sure no one came by.  I still wasn't feeling great, but G was riding well.  Kudos to him.

Doug catches me laughing?

I still wasn't thrilled with my handling.  I finished 12th.  That was a tough course and my legs never seemed to open up.  But it was fun.

Jake lined up in the Elite Men's race immediately after.  Not a big field, only 9 guys.  He got a good start, right with the group.  He lost some places in the opening turns, but after the climb back out of the gravel 180 turn, he had moved past some guys and was not far off the lead group.

He was doing well.  but he said the first lap effort hurt him.  The guy in the Trek MTB kit caught him going up the road.  Jake stayed with him for a while, which was good.

 
But then that guy's giant quads created a gap.  Plus HIS glasses fogged up and he gave them to me (of course his were prescription so he couldn't see)

Jake was then being chased from behind.  Here are a couple of videos from following laps.  I told him to put in a big effort with 2 laps to go.

photo by me

Jake did a good job.  The guy behind him was trying hard to catch, but Jake ultimately put a big gap to him.

Jake finished 7th.  He wasn't thrilled with it but it wasn't bad.  He's had a long season, a strong season.  It's a big jump up to the Elite race.  Not just the extra 15 minutes, but the brute strength of the men involved.  And with small fields it can be hard to ride alone

photo by doug

It was a fun day on the whole, but long.

MABRA Championships -- In which I get a new Hat & Jersey

Ok, so after 2 years of getting smacked around generally in the “Elite” 45+ races in the Super 8 series (Tacchino, DCCX, etc), and based on the fact that the 3/4 35+/45+ (aka “B Masters”) race at the Sportif Cup series races was earlier in the day, I did the B Masters at Psychocross a while back, and hey, I won the 45+ subgroup (let's be clear, I didn't win the race overall, I was like 8th or something). Suddenly I was actually tied for the lead in the 45+ part of that series with Pete Lindeman who had won the 45+ BCA race (that I skipped because it sucks).  What to do? well, I decided I’d need to defend that series.  So, I started doing the B-Masters races in the Sportif  series.  I had a disappointing 3^rd at Seneca (all these placings are w/I the 45+), but I won AACX, beating Pete; after AACX, Pete was slightly ahead of me, but he also admitted he was burned out and done racing.  I didn’t have a great Patapsco, getting 3^rd again among the 45+ subgroup, but it put me well ahead in the series.  Going into the MABRA Champs at Taneytown today, which is also the end of the Sportif series, I had a 40-something point lead over Pete, and a 68 point lead over Eric Schmidt of Cycle-Smart.  Eric would have to win, and me get worse than 21^st among the 45+ subgroup for him to overtake me.

In the past, I haven’t really like Taneytown, mainly the thick-ass mud, but today’s course was good, wide and flowing, but challenging with off cambers in good places.  However, it still is fundamentally flat.  It was a big ring power course, which doesn’t fully fit my profile (steep nearly unrideable hill, why yes, thank you).  Oh, and it was freezing cold.

The boys and I loaded up the car pre-7AM, as the sun was rising:

Liam went off first.  I got no photos or video because I was warming up for my race.  He didn't have a great race after several weeks off from racing. 

Then it was my turn.  It was grey and in the 30s (Garmin says average temp for the race was 35).  I got a front row start based on my points in the overall series.  I got possibly my worst start of the season, but my sole goal was to keep an eye on Eric Schmidt.  Well, I slot into the top 15-ish, and there is a cycle-smart guy right in front of me.  I’m fine with that.  If I can see him, I’m winning.  At some point, maybe 2nd lap, he got a gap after the wheel I was following didn’t go hard enough.  Still, I’m fine. (At some point a few laps in, something started hitting me in the face, and I thought it was gravel but then realized it was sleep & snow, just a burst).  Eventually Marc Klein rides up to me.  Now, Marc has a big engine, and this course should have let him kill me.  I jumped on his wheel and let him pull a bit, but he wasn’t going fast enough at times, so we worked together a bit.  Then with about 2 laps to go, I noticed some guys coming from behind (not super close, but getting closer), including a second guy from cyclesmart (that I thought was the 35+ guy from that team; I don’t really know either of them).  Still, I drilled it to put pressure on Marc and move us forward.  Marc indicated at one point that he couldn’t come to the front to work, so I thought he was on the ropes a bit.  On the last lap, going up the gravel road “climb” (more like a false flat), I got Marc to pull, but at the top I went around him so I could be first through the twisting section that was the last 1/3 of the lap.  It was all out time now, no holding back.  Marc was tenaciously holding on.  There was a technical drop-in that was barely rideable, and may have been faster to run.  On the last lap we were catching another guy, I tried to ride the drop-in, but he bobbled so I bobbled and basically stopped both Marc and I.  This was within 1 minute of the finish line.  I remounted and “hammered” as carefully as I could around the final off camber turn, and going on to the finishing pavement I fish-tailed in the gravel, but then sprinted all out to gap Marc, which I held.

When I crossed the line (12th overall), I gave a happy little pump of the fist, figuring I had secured the series.  Oh, but wait.  The Cycle-smart guy who was in front of us was 35+.  Eric Schmidt was the one who was chasing us.  I had won the 45+ 3/4  sub-race as well as the series!  So, I am the Cat 3/4  45+ MABRA Champion (I have a hat to prove it) and the Sportif Cup Cat 3/4 45+ Series Champion (I got a jersey to prove it).  I am officially the King of the Old B-Masters!  ;-)

New hat

Eric apparently left before the podium

 

Me & 55+ series winner Jim Bronsen photo by Broken Spoke Photography

a photo by Doug Graham

It may sound stupid, it's a minor thing, but I really wanted to accomplish this, and I’m happy I did.  I’ve actually never won a cross race, or series, or anything, so I’ll take this. Pete and I were talking about this.  We're good Cat 3s for our age, but will never be competitive with the guys who have been life-long Cat 1s and 2s.  So, among a bunch of strong guys like Pete, and Marc, and George Schultz and Eric Schmitt, I'm happy to have pulled this off.

Jake's race was much later (4 hours later).  He lined up in the back with the other newly minted Cat 2s.

Elite "scrub" zone

Jake got a poor start, slotting basically 3rd from last.  He admitted that he was surprised by just how fast the start and first lap really was.  He got gapped a little so didn't have the advantage of a draft so was working that much harder.  But I encouraged him to ride hard and try to catch guys from behind, which he did.
Here are some videos.  Prologue (he needed to be closer to the wheel in front of him):

 Jake has caught one guy and is catching a guy from Freddie Fu racing

He rode with him a while before dropping him

Jake chases another guy on the final lap

He was 16th, 7th among Cat 2s.  A learning experience.

It was a long day.  We didn't get home until 6PM. 

sunset on the drive home

Still 3 more races left in the season.  I’ll be back in the elite 45+, and playing Soigneur Dad to Jake.  Thanks to the sponsors of the Sportif Cup Series for the races.

Rockburn CX - a Story of Redemption & Victory

So, last week I didn't do a blog.  I'll tell you why: Jake had a bad race and was very upset about it. At Schooly Mill Jake went hard to win for the first 80% of the race, going off the front, but some mistakes in fueling and drinking, and the hard efforts caught up to him and he cracked bad on the last lap. He was very unhappy about it, very upset.  But we talked about as a learning experience.

And Saturday we tried making the Rice Cakes from Allen Lim's "Feed Zone" cookbook.  He had 2 before the race today.

 Well, during the week I had to fly to California on Wednesday and home on Friday, for my 3rd week in a row of travel.  Not good for me. But Rockburn is a great course for me. I've done well there, and this year's course was another perfect blend of speed and flow and technical demands. I got a decent start in the Elite 45+.  Some chaos in the sand left most of us behind the front 10, but they are the Cat 1s and 2s.  I was near George and Shawn Downey and Jon Hicks so I was doing ok.  I was a little off that group fighing the wind on the 1st lap, but got up to them mid race and was able to go by them at some point.  For the last lap I was battling with John Rogers, who has been riding really well this year.  We went into the final U-Turns before the pavement finish, but when I tried to shift into the big ring to sprint (a mistake) the shift didn't happen and so I never had a chance to sprint.  But I was 12th, which was good. I was happy with the guys I battled and beat, who have been beating me all year.

So then it was time for Jake to get ready.  I told him a few things about the course and we talked about him riding smart.

Jake got a good start and sure enough jumped off the front pretty much immediately.

 By the barriers and then climb mid lap he had a 50 meter gap. (you can watch a larger version of any of these videos by clicking on "YouTube" in the lower corner)

But when he came back out of the woods he was in 8th.  He had crashed on some loose gravel.
He made his way forward through that group and got together with Jay Dove and another guy.

They had a sizeable gap on the rest of the field after 2 laps and were taking turns at the front.

Sand on Lap 3

Some photos by Doug Graham

Here's the end of the lap on the technical U-Turns before the pavement

Jake made his move, attacking just after the pavement right after this.

photo by Doug Graham

 After the sand, which was about 1/4 of the way into the lap he had a big gap (that's Neil Shirmer going to tell him too). I'm not much of a fan of "heckling" but listen to the end of this clip:

The game was on.  He had 2 laps to go and was off the front.  What I didn't know was that his front tire had lost air.  It only had 18psi when he was done so he was having to be careful in the corners (and he said he tried to put it in cruise a little to make it to the end)

Jay Dove put in a hard chase and ultimately closed to within 10 seconds.  Here Jake gets the bell for the final lap.  Jake had about 15 seconds with Jay chasing hard.

Jay was sliding around corners try to close, but Jake was clear for the win:

Doug got this great shot (we should get this done life size):

Photo by Doug

Photo by Doug

It was awesome. I'm so proud of him for coming back from the bad race last week.  Thanks to his sponsors and supporters, like Bicycle Outfitters, Van Dessel bikes, Doug Graham, and Coach Sue Hefler.  And thanks to AVC for the great prizes including a beer preme that I gladly accepted on his behalf (and am drinking now), although he did get a taste. Thanks to the guys in the Cat 3 races, like Jay and Larry who have been so great

This was his 2nd win as a Cat 3, which under USA Cycling rules means an automatic upgrade to Cat 2. He also has 25 points and needs only 10 to upgrade, so this evening we submitted his upgrade request.  He is one of only 9 15-16 year old boys in the country who are Cat 2s.  His goal for the season met.  From now on, he races the Elite races, which are 60 Minutes (ouch).