Lower Huron - What Happened?

I raced at Lower Huron Metropark this morning. As predicted, it was chilly and spitting rain. The course was relatively long and technical, particularly with the wet grass and leaves.

I did my warm-up primarily on the course. Since the course had more tricky spots than usual, I thought it would benefit me to ride them a few times. I basically felt OK for the warm-up.

We lined up for the start, almost all Flying Rhinos on the front row. The start was a long, straight, paved stretch of road. Right from the whistle, a bunch of guys blew by me on the road. I made the decision not to go with them, which is not typical for me, because I figured I'd catch them once we got to the grass. Someone crashed in front of me in the first (grass) corner, but I was able to ride around without a problem. Two corners later, I overcooked it and rode into the tape. My race settled down a little bit after that and I started gradually picking up the spots I'd lost on the road. My legs didn't feel particularly good though, so I don't think I was pushing as hard as I normally do.

My issues really didn't get started until the second lap. When I remounted after a barrier section, my tights got caught on the saddle and I couldn't move forward to sit correctly. I ended up having to hop off a little and remount. Then, I started having trouble getting clipped back anytime after I got off the bike. I don't think it was a problem of the pedals shedding mud, but more of me not being able to find the cleat. I don't know, maybe it was a combination of both. I used my new shoes and Eggbeaters this week. Still, not getting clipped in quickly was costing me time all over the course.

I had just about caught back up to the two guys I was chasing, after having lost those spots with my remount issue, when I caught up to another guy who promptly crashed in front of me. This time, it slowed me down considerably and I had to put a foot down (more clipping in issues). So, back to work closing down the gap.

Just as I closed the gap at the end of the third lap, the first guy stood up and attacked. The other guy went with him, but I kept up with a steady tempo. Eventually, they slowed down again, but it looked like the gap was staying constant. There was a pretty big gap to the rider behind me, and I considered backing off and just holding my spot, but I decided that I should keep working. I figured that this course was hard enough that there was a good chance one of these guys might crash and, if I was close, I could capitalize on it.

In fact, that's exactly what happened. There was a tree down across the couse near the end. Most of the C racers were dismounting and running it, myself included. So, as the guy in front of me tried to remount after the tree, he had some kind of problem and stumbled. It slowed him down enough for me to catch him at the bottom of the last hill. I had watched him on this hill before and knew he was having some trouble with it. I put the hammer down and passed him on the hill and kept it up until I turned onto the finishing straight. At that point I looked back, saw no one was chasing, and cruised through the finish.

I ended up finishing 11th out of 21 riders. I felt a little bad that I passed the guy because he stumbled, but that's how it goes. Lots of people passed me as a result of my problems. After my 6th place in the last race (and being in contention for 4th), finishing a lucky 11th was a little disheartening. Still, it's not the results that matter, it's the improvement and the meeting of goals. So, how did I do with my race goals?

1. Execute race strategy - Basically this was OK. I think I might not have pushed hard enough on the first lap though.
2. Smoothness in mounts/dismounts - Eh, this wasn't so good. I had the big remount problem, issues clipping in, and my foot hit a barrier once (it didn't cause a problem, but it could have easily made me face-plant). Ultimately, these errors forced me to burn up a lot of energy closing gaps that I had already closed.
3. Push for 20yards - This is a good idea, but I just don't feel like I've got enough extra to do this. The only time I did it today was executing my last pass. Although, I suppose you're never going to have "extra" energy in a race like this, so I guess I just need to find a way to do it.

So, really, not such a great race. To put it into the "big picture" though, last year I had a pretty bad outing at the Munson cyclocross race, and I was the last finisher. This year, a bad race is still a mid-pack finish. So, I am getting faster.