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.