Stony Creek Cyclocross - 07

And this old man in front of me
Holding canes and ruby rings
Is like containing an explosion when he sings
But with every chance to set himself on fire
He just ends up doing the same thing

- White Stripes "Little Cream Soda"

Another weekend, another 'cross race. This time at Stony Creek. The weather has been wildly different every time I've done this race. In '05 we had snow, in '06 the weather was mild, and this year it was hot and humid.

The course was pretty typical for Stony, there's only so much they can do there. The defining feature was probably the long running section along the beach. First, you had to go through a sand volleyball court (which was rideable), then a short stretch of grass before you hit the beach. The beach section was long and had a couple turns, so the C-racers were running it. Once you got off the beach, there was a short uphill section leading back to the start/finish line. Definitely tough going.

I'd been questioning my effort a little bit over the past few races. Not that I was out there cruising, but I felt like I had a little too much left at the end. I've also been disappointed in the way I've been getting hung up at the start. So, this week, I went hard at the start. I wanted to get to the first relatively tight corner near the front, since I figured people might be slowing more than necessary there or crashing. I didn't get a great start initially, but I worked my way up quickly and was maybe in the top 15 by the corner. Fortunately, my concerns were unfounded and everyone made it through the corner OK.

I had planned to back off a little a little at that point, but I didn't. There were several guys in front of me that I knew I could beat (and aren't great technical riders), so I wanted to get around them early. I did get past these guys pretty quickly, but the result was a pretty intense first lap.

Things were spreading out by lap 2. Again, I thought about backing off, but I could see that English Mark wasn't too far ahead of me, so I tried to keep that gap constant. Another pretty fast lap.

At the start of lap 3, I knew I had to back off or I was going to blow up big time before the race was over. So, I backed off and let the gap in front of me open up. I had a big gap to the group behind me, so I was hoping I could more-or-less keep it until the end. By the end of the lap, I was really suffering. I stalled about halfway through the volleyball court and had to get off and run. I also slowed down a bit running on the beach.

I tried to pick it up again for the last lap (and my lap times show that I did, a little), but I was about cooked. This was the first 'cross race this year where I really felt like quitting on the last lap (I also felt like throwing up). I actually take this as a good sign; I usually have my best races when I've gone hard enough to feel like quitting on the last lap. Anyway, I didn't have much punch left in my legs, and I got caught and passed by the group behind me. I nearly picked off one of these guys going to the line, but he saw me coming and turned it up enough to keep his spot. So, another race, another 11th place.

So, there were a couple good things that came out of this race. One was that I was really happy with my effort, even though I misjudged the pacing a little bit. I had nothing left by the end of the race. The second thing was that I can now say I've stopped the hop! All of my remounts were good (in terms of hopping) except the last one, which is saying something since I was off the bike 3-4 times per lap. Now I need to work on finding the pedals quickly when I remount.

Hockey was tougher than usual Sunday night. It was humid in the rink, and I think I was feeling the effects of going harder in the race. I was involved in a big collision where one (or both) of us wasn't watching where they were going. My neck was sore from it last night.