Monday, October 22, 2007

Lower Huron CX - 07

Sunday was the Lower Huron cyclocross race. I didn't expect much going in; as I posted on Thursday, I was pretty tired by the end of the week. I did decide to skip my ride Thursday night, but I did a hard trainer ride Friday and a semi-laid back mountain bike ride Saturday. I had a pretty bad race at Lower Huron last year too. It was cold and rainy, I made a lot of little mistakes and my fitness wasn't very good. So, like I said, I wasn't expecting much.


One of the things that happened last year was that I got snowed under at the start. The begining of the course was basically the same this year, there was a long paved straight (into a strong headwind) ending in a sharp left-hander. At the whistle, I went hard, but nothing too crazy. We quickly formed into a line I think, I don't know because I ended up second in line! I was OK with that, I figured I'd just sit there and let this guy pull me to the grass. About 3/4 of the way down the straight, another guy pulled alongside the first and they rode next to each other. No problem for me, now I had two guys blocking the wind for me. Unfortunately, that was the last time I got any help in the wind.


Things were pretty close on the first lap, the first two guys had pulled away a little, but there were a few of us trading spots behind them. When the course doubled back on itself, I could also see that a chasing group was close.


For the second lap, I was right with a Cycle to Fitness guy. I had passed him going onto the pavement, and he wasn't interested in helping me out in the wind, so I pulled him all the way down. He passed me back running through the sandpit. This basically was how the race went until near the end. He and I were swapping spots back and forth. Usually I could work by him on the open flat parts of the course, and then he'd run hard and make it up.


On the third lap, the CtF guy had opened a little gap by the time we got to the pavement, but I pushed and closed it before we hit the grass. I had planned to back off the pace just a touch on the third lap, but I didn't want to back off too much. I knew that two other Rhinos were just behind me (in talking with them after the race, this is where they thought they could catch me). The CtF guy looked like he was tiring a little bit about halfway through the lap, so I attacked and tried to open a gap. He went with me though, so I didn't get my gap. This was the point, I think, where we gapped the group chasing us.


On the fourth lap, I was in front on the pavement again, I tried to use some lapped traffic and the edge of the road to keep him from getting a good draft, but I don't think it helped much. Things were still tight until a barrier section about halfway through the lap. My rear tire hit the second barrier hard and I dropped my chain. I got it fixed pretty quickly; I kept expecting the guys behind me to come by, but they didn't. The damage was done though, the CtF guy was way ahead of me, and, unless he had a problem, I knew I wasn't going to catch him. I worked hard for the rest of the lap, but nothing unusual happened, and I cruised in for 5th place.


The other notable point about the race involved our new Rhino, Brian. Brian's rear derailleur exploded (for some reason unknown to us) at the start of his last lap. Instead of DNF'ing, Brian picked up his bike and ran it the rest of the way through the lap! If I had thought faster, I would have taken my bike to the pit and let him use it. At that point though, my bike was in the car, and it didn't occur to me until it was too late.


Anyway, 5th place... by far my best finish of the year, and my first podium (thankfully, the podium in 'cross is 5 places). A couple things contributed, first, some of the usual faster guys weren't there. Still, I beat English Mark, and he's been consistently beating me all year, so that wasn't the only reason. Second thing is that my high-end fitness is finally here. Basically, I was able to push for the whole race (unlike Stony, where I could only push for about 20 minutes), and I felt strong enough to make some tactical decisions, like my couple hard efforts on the third lap.

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