Charm City CX 2012 - Two Day

It's Sunday night in late September, so that must mean I need to do a blog on a cyclocross race.  This weekend was the Charm City Cyclocross two day race.  It's a UCI race for the elite race, so it has slightly different categories for the rest.  Of special note, they have an "Elite" Under 19 race for boys who are Cat 3 or higher.

Saturday:

Liam, Jake & I all filled up the CR-V at 6:30 to drive up to Baltimore.  My race (45+) was at 10.  Crossresults.com predicted I would finish 26th, and I did.  My fitness is slowly improving but I struggled a bit mid race.  No one takes photos of me any more, so we'll move on.

Liam's race was immediately after mine.  It was a big field. I think that there were over 25 kids in the "regular" Under 19, including jake's teammate Luke Klaussen, who Crossresults predicted would win (but he had already done the Cat 4 race).  They send them after the Cat 3/4 and Masters women, so it's a pretty significant mess of mixed categories.  Liam did pretty well. I got some video of him dealing with the little wall that is a long-running feature of the course.

He was struggling a bit and going back and forth with another younger boy.

Another time over the wall

On the final lap Liam rode the sand pit that he had been running.  Unfortunately, when I went to film it the memory card was full.  Damn.  But I was really proud of him for riding it.

A shot of Liam entering the sand thanks to Doug Graham

Liam finished 12th, easily beating the crossresults.com prediction of 17th.

Then it was Jake's turn in the Elite Under 19.  It was a small group of 9, but it included a 17 year old Cat 2 from New Jersey and the youngest of the Keogh brothers from Massachusetts, and Tanner Browne, who of course Jake has been racing with since they were both 9.  They started them 20 seconds after the start of the 35+ elite race.

Well the boys caught and started passing the 35+ group immediately.  This is video of Jake at the wall after only 1/2 of the first lap.

He had caught and passed half their field.
The problem is that gaps had been created between the boys based on traffic in the 35+ race.  17 year old Noah Granigan from NJ had slipped away and initially Tanner and Ian Keogh were about 10 seconds ahead of Jake.  Jake eventually caught Tanner and they were together w/ 2 laps to go when some idiot 35+ guy didn't like being passed by juniors and put Tanner into the tape, crashing him, which put Jake home free for 3rd (not the way Jake would have liked to take 3rd mind you; really sucks people are like that).

This is what the crowd looked like photo thanks Doug Graham

going sideways in the sand by Doug Graham

Over the wall w/ his beloved Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie

thanks to Doug Graham

Here's a split second of Jake & Tanner approaching the wall together (camera issues made it stop too quick)

Here's a photo of Jake and Tanner over the barriers together thanks to Dennis Smith

So Jake was 3rd.  He won $40, which he was very happy about.  Incredibly, we think he was about 30th in the 35+ group.

It was great to see everyone.  I introduced myself to British national champ Helen Wyman.  The drive home required us to drive through a section of Baltimore that is like driving through an episode of The Wire.

Sunday (sadly lacking in multi-media)

Liam had Sunday school so it was just me and Jake for Sunday.  We had just pulled onto I-66 when I said to Jake "Do you have shorts & jersey?"..."oh no" that's right, he forgot his shorts and jersey.  So we had to go to the next exit and turn around.  That kinda cut into my pre-ride time.

The course was reversed from the day before.  It was a bit wet from some rain over night, but a cool wind was drying it fast.  My race was a lot like the day before, except I didn't feel like I had a big let down mid race.  The course was getting faster every lap.  On the final lap I was able to duke it out with some guys I didn't know. One from NCVC had been up ahead the slipped back.  I ended up 28th which surprised me.  I thought I was a little better.  I think I passed some guys but got passed by others because I was starting number 29 on the grid.

Jake started at noon again.  Same basic cast of characters.  The gave them a little more gap behind the 35+ men which helped a little.  This time Ian Keogh slipped away.  Noah Granigan was 2nd and at first Jake was only about 5-7 seconds back from him.  I though he could close it, but he says that once Noah got through a pack of 35+ Jake got stuck behind them for a bit and that allowed Noah to open the gap.  Jake had a 15 second lead on Tanner and Sam Lear that he extended to 30+ as Sam & Tanner battled between themselves.  Jake ended up riding the last 2 laps in a group with Kimani Nielsen who was on Coppi last year and had won several Cat 3 races, finished 2nd in the 3/4 series and is now a Cat 2.  Jake lead that group up through the open field sections but Kimani got him by a few seconds.  Still, Jake rode really well and was with fast guys (that he had caught up to).  I think it bodes well for the rest of the season.
This time we got a podium photo:

podium photo with blackberry by me

I'll update with more photos if they get posted on the web.