Jan 8, 2017
Here is a bit of a summary of my experience at Cyclocross nationals in Hartford Ct January 2017. Unlike last year, I did not target nats this year, and candidly wasn’t 100% sure I was going until even a week before. One sign of an ice storm and I was out. But my win in the last local race told me that I had some fitness still, and I wanted to try again to see if I could improve on last year.
Rain on Tuesday created mud, and with races on Tuesday and Wednesday it created a million muddy ruts. Thursday those froze solid. I Drove up Wednesday, went to check in and pre-ride the course on Thursday. It was like nothing we’ve ever had here. The frozen ruts would grab your wheels and throw you. There was a huge hill, the side of Dike, where you could pick your adventure, Immediately run up then run across the top line (way too off camber and choppy to ride, or you could ride a rut at the low line and then run up the hill later where it was higher and steeper). That hill was exposed to the sun so it was super slick and choppy, hard to run even with long toe spikes.
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| treacherous to run |
Friday morning I woke to 1 inch of snow on the ground and more falling.
The course was now covered in snow. So frozen ruts covered/hidden by slick snow.
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| snowy frozen ruts |
Eric Ivy of Bikenetic crashed and broke 2 ribs during preride when ruts just threw him down on top of a broken course stake.
My race was at 12:40 – I was staged 60th, 8th row, out of 93. AND the snow had all melted in the hour before my race, so suddenly it was a top inch or two of wet mud, and I didn’t have a mud tire on my back wheel. Two crashes shortly after the pavement slowed me a bit. Chaos on the big hill. Utter chaos in the woods where the ruts were the worst. Guys falling in front of you, stepping off. But you couldn’t just get off and run through it because the ground was so slick and choppy you’d brake an ankle.
I took my pit bike for the 2nd lap.
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| On the pit bike |
That was a bit of an improvement. And then I got my A bike back with a mud tire on the back, and could start to move. My third lap was my fastest as I gained confidence and started rolling over the ruts. This was not a contest of fitness or even power. You spent so much effort trying to pick your way across treacherous ruts or around greasy turns that you couldn’t ever just pedal. Every little dip in the ground you had to pick a rut and commit to it and be prepared for it to throw you. But for the last 3 laps I was able to feel like I was doing some racing. With one to go my chain was skipping badly if I shifted into a small cog in the back so I threw it in the big ring up front for the finishing pavement and out to the pits,…AND DAMN suddenly I flew through a bunch of guys and was thinking why didn’t I do this the whole time. I was finally rolling a gear. The last half of the last lap I was all out to hold off the group I had passed. But as a result I was barely in control and went into one course stake, and then 2 minutes later into another, just 2 turns from the finishing stretch, which let one guy by me, but I held the rest off.
I found out later that I was 55th. So I beat the race predictor (USAC had me 60th and CrossResults 62nd). I wasn’t lapped or pulled, and comically, I was just 3 guys behind Peter Schultz from Bikenetic (pretty much like last year, and all season).
The amount of mud was incredible. My bottom bracket is shot. My skinsuit had mud soaked all the way through (it’s soaking in water right now until my hose thaws so I can pressure wash it).
At least I didn’t make all the rookie mistakes I did last year, but I’d be lying if I said I was satisfied. Still frustrated with my inability to put together a truly strong performance at nats. But the conditions were nothing we could practice for. We’ve never had frozen ruts.
Here is barcam from the race after mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2wFEZ7hcBs and from the front of that race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GneJltrW0kg&t=15s it gives a minor glance into what it was like
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