This past weekend was the first cx race of the season for me and it was a blast. For the first part of the weekend I was in Cleveland OH for a wedding. This meant during the three days before the race I was in a car for 14 hours, the day before the race I was awake for over 20 hours, and got 7 hours of sleep the night before the race. Needless to say, it was a fairly hectic weekend and finishing would be a huge task of its own.
The course had one major hill and two years ago it had some barriers at the bottom to make it a nice run. For the last couple of weeks I was planning on running up this hill, so I practiced mounting and dismounting so I would not fall on my face in the lactic acid haze that I would be in. This year however, the hill did not have the barriers but was made into a killer switchback through some sand. Luckily this hill was after a section full of mud with the consistency of peanut butter for about a thousand feet before it. The hill was a lot like adding insult to injury.
The start of the race was like inner city rush hour traffic. There were so many people in a hurry, and everyone was in each others' way. There were about 60 people going off the line at once in the mens open class. The start was about 4 rows deep and I was lucky enough to start in row 3 near the right hand side. I had to push it right off the line and I was able to go around most of the pack on the right hand side. Half way through the first lap I was sitting second wheel in a group with a handful of riders behind me. There was a fairly fast and tricky transition that went from grass to loose gravel. The guy in front of me started to slide and his front wheel washed out. I just barely avoided him in his close encounter with the ground. I had to thank my mountain bike skills that got me through that one. The first two laps consisted of passing people while being passed by other people. Every one was fighting for every second that they could. About half way through the race things settled down and I was able to concentrate on picking one person off at a time. I was able to catch the blown up remains of people who went off the line with too much enthusiasm. I must have gained about 5 positions in the last two laps. One rider saw what I was doing and stuck on my wheel. I could not shake him. On the last lap up the large climb before the finish he put down a great acceleration and I lost about 4 bike lengths to him. Down the backside of the hill I hammered as hard as I could and caught and passed him with about 50 feet to spare. That was one of the best finishes I have had all year.
One thing about a cyclocross race is the fact that unless you are in the very front or the very back, you do not know where you finished until the results are posted. I did not find the results before I left but, they should be posted soon. I can not wait to see if I placed where I thought I was in the massive pack. The results were posted online and I finished in a respectable 22 out of 73 starters for a mens open class. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
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