Louisville Derby City Cup -- Soigneur Dad takes the Long Road

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.