USGP New Belgium Cup: Day 1 Slip-n-Slide

After a crappy night's sleep I woke up to discover someones had turned on the tap, turned the fan up to 11 and turned the thermostat way down.  Outside my window it was raining like the apocalypse, with sustained 20 mph winds and a thermometer that hadn't broken the 40f mark.  This is cyclocross.  As if to get one more jab in I find that OBRA's Heiser Farm CX race is going to have perfect weather.

and I am missing this weather why?
(photo credit:  Matt Haughey)

Upon arrival at the race venue the wind and rain had abated somewhat but the course was totally different from the pre-ride 24 hours earlier.  Instead of a fast, bumpy course with lots of turns we were faced with what I can only equate to a mud Slip-n-Slide.  All the corners were coated with slick, greasy mud and anytime you attempted to change direction you risked sliding out.

Unfortunately, someone changed the rules for start position.  It was originally posted that callups would be based on UCI points and then order of registration, placing me in the middle of the pack.  Not the case.  Random drawn.  Boo.  The guy in front of me drew 50.  I drew 72.  There were 73 pre-registered riders.  Awesome, back of the pack again.

today's big winner.  Congrats, Ryan!
(photo from VeloVivid Cycling)

The start actually just went a lot better than I was expecting.  I was able to move up rather than come through the first corner dead last.  And then people crashed.  I dodged it and continued working my way up.  Another crash.  This time I stuck my front wheel into someone's rear triangle.  After some crunching and scraping sounds I was off again.  People were wiping out right and left.  I was sliding but managed to stay upright.  After the first lap something unusual happened.  My lungs started to burn.  Crap, forgot about the elevation, that's going to make this even more difficult.  At some point I just started riding my race.  I stopped looking up for people to pass and just focused on taking the corners as fast as I could, without wiping out.  I went for a $5 handup and missed it, slid out but saved it.  Tomorrow, that is my goal:  get a handup.  After 3 laps the course was littered with $1 bills and plastic beer cups.  I was tempted to do what I at Mt Hood's queen stage this year and stop to pick up all the bills but I really didn't want to have to get off and back on my bike again.  I kept riding.  Trebon passed my at the barriers and I knew my race was over.  Powers and Kabush came by a little later and I focused on not crashing them.

In the end, 57th out of 71 starters.  I was hoping for a little better result but given the course conditions and my first muddy race of the year I'm happy enough.  I wanted to make the top 50 (I know, aiming high) but I can partly blame my start position.  I rode a solid race given the hand I was dealt and while I slid out several times I never wound up on the ground.  All in all a successful day.

To put a damper on a decent day, see picture below.  Somehow TSA and/or Frontier managed to crack both  my wheels on my way down here.  No, they're not going to do anything about it.  They were small cracks and I figured I'd use this as an experiment to test the durability of carbon.  It was a soft course so I was figured the crack wouldn't spread, much.  I was wrong.  Yesterday the crack was only below the brake track, today it's propagated all the way to the top of the rim.  Oops.  Looks like I'll have some materials to experiment with in the future.

Also, thank you to everyone who was out there cheering for me today.  I know there were a lot more people cheering for me than I recognized to thanks to all.  Additionally, Trebon's mechanic saved my butt.  Right before the race I noticed my left crank arm was about ready to fall off.  Dusty, you're a life saver.