After the Cincy 3 day cyclocross festival, the next weekend was the Louisville Derby City Cup sponsored by Tim Johnson's Mud Fund. It would be held at Eva Bandman Park in Louisville, the same course where they held the world championships. It is the biggest race of the year for UCI 17-18 other than nationals. It was a world championship team qualifier.
The plan all along had been for Andy to take Jake. The question was whether I'd go. I really wanted to be there to see it, and to race on the worlds course myself. But there were things going on. Loren hasn't had a break, Loren's car stopped working on Wednesday while she was taking Gabby to the vet, and Gabby was doing very badly. Friday morning I picked up Loren's car and at 12:30 Loren had to take Gabby to the vet to put her to sleep. She had kidney failure for a while and was just too sick.
RIP little girl
So after some tears and some machinations (could I fly?), at 3:30 I decided to drive to Louisville -- 600 miles and 9 hours away. I threw my bike and a bunch of stuff in Loren's car and hit the road. Thanks to my mom and Dan Klaussen for long phone conversations that kept me occupied. I got to Louisville at 1am and unloaded my car into a hotel room.
Saturday morning I would do the Cat 3 35+ again, but register day of, which meant I would be staged dead last out of 100 or so Cat 3s and single speeders. The course was very nearly the same as worlds, only no snow. 2 sets of steps, a flyover, and 3 different sand sections, one of them the 50+ meter long section where we stood at worlds. Jake and Andy parked by me in the parking area and I really got essentially no warm up. Talking to Andy at one point about pre-race prep, I said "so, doing tabatas on Thursday, then driving 9 hours through the middle of the night Friday night isn't optimal pre-race prep" and he said "well, you could script out something worse, but not much." The back of the pack Cat 3s really suck so I was constantly forced off my bike even in the smallest sand sections. Pedal through the sand! and in the long section, I could ride the whole sand but guys would bobble and start running in the packed in rideable line. DIE! I actually got pulled with a lap to go under the 80% rule, which was a blessing. Bill Browne and his wife Shawna got a few photos of me
I hated that flyover
Jake got warmed up while I cooled down. he was number 29, so back row call up this time. the UCI official at registration told me that every UCI licensed junior in the US was here except 2. This was a big field of very very fast young men. The front 10 could easily hold their own in the top 20 of the pro race.
nervous energy
UCI tire width check
last row
The start was super fast and nervous
Jake got lucky and made his way past a pile up in the first sand section heading into the flyover on lap 1.
Jake got in with a good group of 3 for the next couple of laps moving in and out of groups. He lost touch with his group when he crashed on a tricky off-camber rut. We could see that he was riding the sand really well. Bill got this great photo of him and another boy coming off the flyover
Here they are running the long sand section
photo by "Just another bike photo blog"
Bill got this great sequence of Jake leading some boys over the barriers
thanks for the shots Bill
photo by just another bike blog - yes that's it's name -- you can see where he crashed
The officials were overly pushy about the 80% rule on Saturday so they pulled Jake with 1 lap to go even though he wouldn't have been lapped. That really pissed him off. But it was a good effort on a very hard, unrelenting course. Lots of boys were really falling apart after mid-race and Jake reeled a couple of them in.
We hung out to watch the pro women and men.
Soigneur Dad Swag
pro staging
They just fly through the sand. Incredible finish between Trebon and Powers
We had dinner with Tanner and his Mom Shawna and dad Bill, which was nice.
Jake and Andy went back to their host housing and I hit the hotel.
Sunday we were back in the field parking area. I did the day-of registration again, but got a better warm up. The course was essentially unchanged. Started full back row again, but felt better and moved my way forward, big ringing much of the course most laps. I didn't get pulled and finished 13th out of the Cat 3 35+, 58th overall. I had to run the sand on lap 1 because of traffic but rode it all the last laps. Here are some great shots by Bill and Shawna
It was fun to ride the worlds course with working legs. But it was still hard.
Same routine as Saturday, Jake warmed up.
He was number 33 so we figured back row again. But he got called up to 2nd row, so that was cool. Another crazy fast start
river next to the course
second row
Here is first lap Sunday
Jake put in a good effort, catching and passing some boys but he was alone too soon and didn't have the advantage of any draft.
He did stay on the lead lap, which was an important improvement.
photo by Bill
some iphone shots
He was noticeably quick through the long sand. I was able to get some video of him in the sand on the last lap. He's smooth.
I shot that from the same place where we stood at Worlds
It was firmer and faster at worlds
Well, we had a long drive home so we quickly packed. I had to break the news to Jake about Gabby and then it was the 9 hours drive home. It was long and tiring and a pretty crazy move but I'm glad I went. More long phone calls with my mom and Dan and Liam and Lee.
I appreciate that Loren lets me do this stuff too. I would have loved to take Liam. Gotta figure out how to repay her.
It's been a while since I posted. Just hasn't been a post-worthy kinda time. But this was a big Soigneur Dad kinda weekend so I'm inspired.
Intro
This past weekend was the Cincinnati 3 day cyclocross festival (aka Cincy3 CX). It is special because it is one of the few races in the US that has the "UCI 17-18" race, which draws the top 16 and 17 year old boys in the country seeking UCI points and bids for Euro Cross Camp and the US National Team for cyclocross World Championships.
Now, Jake's cyclocross season hasn't been up to his usual standards. He took a forced 2 weeks off the bike when he got back from Europe in late August, which is just a terrible time to take a break before cyclocross season. Then his races have had various problems (tires losing air, chains getting jammed in the frame), so his race fitness/strength is still behind by like a month or more. So, the approach and expectations have been adjusted, but Cincy was on the schedule and we were going.
We would not do the Friday race, but the Saturday race was a twilight race for the boys and then the pros would race at night, so we could watch them immediately after the boys' race. So, that would be very cool.
My Best Man from my wedding, Brent Peebles, and his wife Laura (Brent and Laura were our best friends in law school and for several years after, until they moved away, abandoning us) live in Mason Ohio just a few miles from the Saturday course, so Jake and I would stay with them in their palatial Ohio home. I drove down to Charlottesville Thursday night, then got up early and picked up Jake from Miller School at 7:30 Friday to start the 6.5-7 hour drive through West Virginia and central Ohio. The Hylander was jammed with stuff
West Virginia was beautiful. The trees were actually a little past peak, but the early morning light in the mountains was incredible. The iphone from the car doesn't do it justice:
We got to Brent & Laura's house around 3 and after I had a conference call, we went over to the Saturday course to pre-ride and loosen up. It had rained and it was muddy and soft already with some long soft power sections, a hard, heavy sand pit of may 50 yards long. Hundreds of riders the next day would definitely turn it into a muddy course. Boy would it. Friday night we hung out with Brent (Laura and their daughter were at a high school football game)
SATURDAY
Saturday morning I met Dan Klaussen (Soigneur Dad #3 and Coppi master racer) and Bill Browne (Soigneur Dad #2 and retired Cat 2) at the venue to set up tents for our Mid Atlantic compound.
Dan raced the 45+ Cat 4 race at noon....AND WON! That happened just as I got there 2 hours before my race, so I didn't get a photo. Luke supposedly has one on his phone, but blew through his data package so we don't have the photo yet.
and here's the photo
I was registered for the Cat 3 35+ race. They run all the Cat 3s as well as the single speed racers together in a giant wave. Due to a staging rule I didn't know about, I was staged 123 out of 137 racers. It would be a game of how many people could I pass. I was at the very back of this:
I won't give a blow by blow, but it was so crazy that multiple times in the first few minutes a mass of us were off our bikes standing still waiting to get through a turn. I wiggled and bumped my way through pretty good, but by the second lap didn't feel super. It was a heavy effort. Here are a bunch of photos by Laura (hers are with the phone) and Bill Browne (his are the ones from a nice camera) that show conditions:
green means go (by Bill)
Bill got good shots of my poor drivetrain
by Laura
this was a slog of a climb; really soft ground
Bill's zoom gets in close
here I ride the grass at the edge of the tape for traction
it became faster to run
early action by Laura
Bill captures the running
the sand pit; I'm on the left up at the top (by Laura)
I finished 60th overall, so passed 60-ish people. I never saw what I was among the 35+ subgroup. This is what my bike and drivetrain were like after. It weighed a solid 5-7 pounds more after the race, and I really could feel it on the last few laps.
My new shoes
But then it was time to jump into Soigneur Dad mode. Jake and Luke and Tanner were pre-riding the course and warming up on the trainers while Dan, Bill & I scurried around them like a bunch of over-active mother hens. We worked well together. Dan cleaned my bike so Jake could use the mud tires on his pit bike.
Every Soigneur Dad's dream -- the UCI Pit Pass:
The boys got staged. Random draw for those without UCI points, which meant everyone except for 4 boys. Jake and Luke were on the second row. Jake lined up center right, Luke and Tanner more to the left (foreboding).
Jake rocks the hi viz jersey for the twilight race
I ran down to the end of the starting pavement to get some video, so I didn't see what happened, this is the video I got as they came around the corner
Yep, I heard crash from the announcers. Jake made it by and sprinted hard to get up with the front. Here are Laura's photos of what happened:
Jake and Tanner
Tanner and Luke go down in this
I don't have much coverage after that. I was in the pits. Bike changes would be necessary to keep them from having the 10 pound weight I had. Laura got a few shots that show just how bad conditions became
Jake runs the mud
Luke goes knee deep
Jake was doing ok, hanging between 15-18th, he had a bike change twice for a clean bike, but then one time coming back into view off the road start, he wasn't there with the guys he was with, until he came walking/trotting with his bike on his shoulder. I yelled to coast on it, but then I saw his derailleur was gone. The mud had caught the derailleur and boom, this:
He was as far from the pits as practically possible, so he had a long walk trot around half the course to get back to the pit. He got another bike and kept going, but the officials pulled him because he was lapped. So that was a bummer. We've never had such catastrophic mechanicals before. I ran around working on getting something set up to fix that bike for Sunday. Then we watched the pros, which was a lot of fun, even though not technically the best way to recover before the Sunday race.
not happy face
We chatted with Tim Johnson, who won (good luck charms)
We met Colt from Behind the Barriers TV (my stated goal for the event). And we watched Zach MacDonald give a clinic on the "fast" line. My new heckle became "that's not the line Zach MacDonald took"
A little video
SUNDAY
Tom at Swallow Bicycle Works had kindly offered to meet me at his shop at 7:30am to fix Jake's busted derailleur, so I got up early and headed over there. He fixed it up, thanks again, and I ran home to get Jake out of bed. My race was supposed to be at 10:55 and Jake at 1:15. But then I realized my bottom bracket was nearly frozen stuck because of the mud/sand/crap the day before. I figured I was not going to race.
We got there at 10am and I forced the crank to spin and figured what the hell. I just had time to get my number. I would not get to pre-ride the course at all or even really warm up more than riding around the parking lot/field for 10 minutes. No problem, I was staged 101 out of 113, so there were literally only a few guys behind me and 12? 15? rows ahead of me. I was slightly more conservative about bombing through the crowd since I didn't know what was coming next, but I used experience to make it past a lot of chaos and a lot of people in turns to steadily move up. It was a fun course, and rewarded you for taking the right lines in flowing turns that had some greasy mud at times, plus it was a bit punchy and less of a slog so it suited me. I had fun. I was 20th out of the 35+ but I don't know where in the total 113 starters (need to tabulate kill points).
Jake, Luke, Tanner, Dan and Bill all sat at a pavillion and heckled me while I raced, but not nearly as bad as the little girls just past them "it's the last lap, you can go faster than that" ouch.
But then it was back to Soigneur Dad mode with Dan and Bill. I applied the embro to Jake and Luke while they were on trainers, then they warmed up for an hour before their race.
Just for some perspective for a minute here, these are a few photos of Jake and Tanner when they were racing their first cx races together at 9
Tacchino 2006 at Ida Lee Park (Justin Mauch won)
and here they were 12
Sander CX 2009 (Jake's saddle too low)
Anyway, Jake got the front row call up with the random draw, so I got video and audio, which was cool.
Luke and Tanner in 2nd row
I got video of the start. Jake's legs weren't too snappy after walking around the pro race until 9:30 the night before but he and Luke and Tanner slotted in to a fast fast group.
Then it was over the pit with the other fathers. It had a beautiful view and the action was light without the massive mud from Saturday.
It was a tough course. Tanner did well, fighting to 13th. Jake put in a solid effort. It wasn't the final placing he wanted but I was very proud of the solid race-long effort and the fight he put in with a couple of boys. It was really only his 5th or 6th complete cross race this year, so it's a building process. Luke did well too (although again, probably a little sapped from Saturday). He went out fast but told us at the pit by the final lap he "had nothing left".
We chatted a bit with some boys that Jake knew from CX Camp, like David Lombardo and David Obrien. Cooper Willsey from camp and Europe won, and I raced with his dad Jamie on Saturday, both starting in the "way back"
It was a long drive back. I had to take Jake to Miller School then drive me to Arlington. So I didn't get home until midnight even though I drove at significant speeds. The ride through the middle Ohio valley area was really beautiful with the low sun and the peaked leaves. Again, I phone doesn't do justice
I really enjoy the long car rides with Jake. It's special time and I realize that.
MEANWHILE BACK IN MID-ATLANTIC
Loren played "Soigneur Mom" for Liam at the NCVC Ed Sander memorial CX. He had fun and got special team socks for the event. And Loren got a corn beef sandwich she's been craving.
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