On Saturday, Jake, Liam & I went to Psychocross which is part of the SportifCup series. It's a great course, but very hard with some steep climbs and tough off camber sections.
First up was Liam's race. It was a decent sized group of 10-14 kids (around 15 I think). Not some of the really strong older boys, but some. I didn't get to see a lot because I was warming up for my race, but Liam had a good start and I guess rode the whole course well. He ended up 9th, which was a very good result for him. Moving up from near last to being in the middle of things. Plus he had a good time.
Based on scheduling, I did the 3/4 Masters (because it fit between Liam and jake’s race and because they send the elite 45+ at the same time as the elite 35+ and it sucks being on the course with Dave Weaver and Paul Rades and those other Cat 1s). Because I didn’t do the BCA CX, I started at the back. Crossresults.com predicted I’d get 2nd, but not from the back. I lined up on the edge of the grid and I shot from the 5th row to the 2-3rd row by the end of the pavement (elite masters skills). It’s a very hard course with a brutal run up and a lot of technical off-cambers and elevation change. I burned several matches to pass people in the first lap to get out of the crowd. But the efforts on the first lap led to me having a bit of a let down mid-race but then I rallied a bit for the last 2 laps (or at least I was pushing myself hard enough to where I was breathing really hard the whole time). I was dueling with Gus Grisom a little but he couldn’t keep his bike under him and I left him behind. I handled my bike pretty well I thought. I ended up 9th overall, but I just went through the results on USAC and I won the 45+ sub-category, which they break out for a sub-series. I know Pete Lindeman won the 3/4 45+ subgroup at BCA but wasn’t there Saturday. Not sure who else has points but I may be tied for the lead of the series or at least close. So, in short, this was my first ever cyclocross race "win" (although it didn't feel like a win at the time). [[Insert picture of me in my office holding my arms over my head]]
Jake had a very hard day at PsychoCross. Immediately he was saying he didn't think it was a good course for him. But I reminded him he got 12th last year in the Cat 3/4 race, so he would do fine. But his mind was not on point, I think. During my race I saw him standing by the course in his casual shirt and I had to yell at him that his race was next and to get ready. Then he wasn't at staging early enough and ended up at the back, taking his casual shirt off and fiddling with his helmet as the officials gave the 30 second warning. So he got a terrible start in traffic. Now, by the 2nd lap he had worked his way into the top 10 because he's really fast (and if he had started in the top 2 rows he would have been with the leaders), but then he started making faces at me when I tried to yell encouragement (mind not in the race). He says he wasn't feeling great, which I'm sure is true after going full gas for the first 2 laps to move from last to top 10. So after he snapped at me even though I literally hadn't said anything, I left him alone and was off riding to cool down my legs. When I got back he was coming through the finishing stretch, clearly not going hard. He pulled over after the finish line even though there was 1 lap to go. He had crashed hard bunny hopping a log. He landed on his left shoulder, the same one that hit the pole at nationals. On the way home it became clear that his ribs also hurt. So I took him to the ER. I was pretty sure nothing was broken, he wasn't in that kind of pain, but I figured get checked and ok'd to race Sunday.
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| CX-rays |
Indeed he was unbroken but increasingly sore. Whether to race on Sunday would be a day-of call for him.
Sunday was a whole different ball of wax. Cold, light rain, muddy, etc. As an aside, in the theme of "soigneur dad," the logistics for this day were huge. Several other Coppis were able to bring tents, but I had the boys pack the car with everything we owned. Multiple pairs of dry socks, dry clothes, towels, extra wheels, etc. The car was bulging at the seems.
In the Elite 45+ I got a bad start after missing my pedal, but I was still top 10 maybe or around 10th when we went into the technical wooded section. I had pre-rode it 3-4 times and thought I knew the line, but damn if I didn’t crash on a root, tumbling down the hill and losing a couple places (and now my knee is scraped and sore and I have a couple little aches and pains). My mud tire on the front was great but the Griffo on the back was sliding a lot so I was struggling at times, but so was everyone. I got into a 3 man group with Karl Kensinger and Knight Elsberry of NCVC. Karl has been riding really well this year. They were both running the woods, which was faster at times but they lost time remounting. One time in the woods I couldn’t brake and ended up in the fencing, so they ran by, but I got back to them. On the last lap I pushed hard and passed them on the tight turns just before the woods because I felt that if I had a clean shot I could get through the woods a lot faster, and I did. I rode it clean and I came out with a big gap on them and was catching Thori Wolfe and George (who was struggling with some crashes in the mud). I got up to their wheel, but I was too tentative around the baseball diamond that was 100 meters before the final pavement so I got gapped off them. I finished 17th. Not great, not at all, but I’m no mudder probably. Wish I had the Limus mud rear. I still had legs but was too tentative with my fish-tailing rear wheel. It was definitely fun though, so that was good.
Liam had another great day, a bit of a breakthrough I think. Sunday, Liam and Dustin Goodwin (also 11 and very strong) lined up in a big group of 10-14 year old juniors (I think 20-ish boys and another 10 girls). The promoter routed them to avoid the woods, which Liam wanted to do. It was raining when they started and the course was slick after the Cat 4s tore it up. Liam had a great start and was right with Dustin, who is very strong.
They were mid pack and duking it out with some Rock Creek Velo boys and some NCVC kids. Dustin slid out a few times but has a lot of power so made up for it. Liam handled his bike great and kept a steady speed, staying close to Dustin. In the end Dustin was 9th and Liam 10th out of 23 boys, and Liam held off a group of 3 RCV boys who were working together for the last 2 laps to chase him. Here’s some video from the first lap in the technical turns mid lap.
Unfortunately, Jake took a few warm up laps but the pain in his shoulder and ribs was too much for him to give a full effort. Deep breathes hurt his ribs and pulling on the handle bars for leverage hurt his shoulder, ribs, and back. It was his call but we decided best not to risk the rest of the season. So he didn't race. Everyone was crashing at least once and if he had hit that shoulder again, which has probably got some strained ligaments, he would have been in a bad way. Given the pictures of the chaos in the woods in the 3/4 race, crashing was a high likelihood. But a bummer to give up his front row (number 04) starting spot.
Now we have to clean the bikes and get ready for next weekend. The cycle continues.
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