The US Gran Prix of Cyclocross, the last race of the season. I wake up and look outside, it's about 20 degrees and the wind is gusting up to 25mph. A beautiful day to ride 5 miles through glass-strewn streets in piercing wind to a race where I don't have backup wheels and where the people who've been supporting me all season won't be there, right? NOT! The entire way down there I tried talking myself out of racing, "you're cold," "this wind sucks," "your friends aren't going to be there," "what if you flat on some of this glass before you get there," "you didn't race last week and didn't touch this bike for over a week and a half, are you really ready for this?" On and on it went. It didn't get any better once I arrived at PIR. The wind was still f***ing cold and blowing even harder. I tried warming up but everytime I turned around to ride into the wind my kneecaps decided to do jumping jacks to try and thaw themselves out. Eventually I hide out behind an out building a bust out the embrocation, the hottest I have. I swear I used about an 1/8th cup on my legs just to try and warm them up before I raced. Well, it did the trick. Aaron showed up and grabbed my stuff from me (THANK YOU) and I headed to the start line.
Instead of the normal random number call up like every other race where I have a chance of muscling my 138lbs towards the front the official called up every racer INDIVIDUALLY! Who does that? Also, they staged the singlespeeds first, again, WHY? I look up from my starting position and just see a sea of helmets. I turn around and see I'm two rows from the end, just freaking awesome. Upon later inspection it was noted that there were 128 racers in my category (not counting singlespeeds) and I started about 110th. The whistle finally goes off and I start the slog through the masses.
Ok, so besides getting a terrible starting position I had a terrible start. Yeah, there were only about 20 people behind me but I think 10 of them passed me in the opening sprint. I just need to learn to ball up and push my way through while I can. Then again I'm most afraid of a crash in the opening sprint so I'll stick with cautious for now and pass people out on the course. The being said, I spent the entire first lap waiting for gaps to open and darting into them. After we rolled through the first lap full of trash-talking, line-bumping a-holes with way too nice of bikes I finally caught my break on the road section. Peace out old guys, you can bump and fight each other for 80th place. At this point let's just say I had the legs and wheels they didn't. I stood up and took off, they didn't have a chance.
(second lap? Whenever I had room to finally pass people)
The next few laps kind of melted together but I recall throwing my chain twice, walking over the handlebars in an epic almost-faceplant and doing not one but TWO double-ejects out of my pedals after hitting a sandy/muddy section of the course. I managed to stay up the entire course but the chain throws probably cost me a few spots. Oh, I almost forgot to mention my rear tire. I started the morning with 42 psi in it. Halfway through the race I was bottoming it out (~20psi). This loss in pressure caused some problems on corners and I know that I lost 2 spots because of that at the very end but hey, it's racing, stuff happens.
I checked my rear tire pressure at the end of the race: 16 psi, probably cost me a few spots. Oh well, it was a fun race. I didn't place as highly as I would have liked (38th) but considering my starting position and what I had to work with it was a decent race.
Well, my cyclocross season is now over. I had a good run this year and I'm looking forward to it again next year assuming I don't get bored out of my mind with road racing. I'll probably type up a season recap at some point but right now I'm tired. I'm going to bed.
(edit): Crap, I forgot to mention; a special thanks to Craig for coming out and cheering for me. I'm glad you were able to make it out and see one of these!
(hey, I finally learned how to corner!)
Both photos courtesy of Oregon Velo
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