I have been wanting to try a Cyclocross race for the last couple of years but for some reason the stars never aligned with training schedules, personal schedules and actually having a cross bike.
Well, 3 weeks ago someone posted on the MABRA list that they were selling a well used cross bike for $200. It was too good of a deal to pass up, and I figured for $200.00 the bike would fit the engine I was going to use to power it. Next step, I found a practice organized by a team member held on a free morning. Things were finally coming together. Nice thing is there seems to be a practice every weekday around the DC area.
Cross practice is hard… I was able to hang with the group from the start, through some hairpin turns and over the first barrier. Once the group hit the flats they were gone, I was huffing and puffing trying to catch back up. Three practices later and I could at least see the group across the field but was still way-way off the back; I was starting to get nervous. This type of riding seemed to be the exact opposite of what I had been doing all year training for Triathlons. In Triathlon you want to work on a smooth power output for an extended period of time. Cross is fast and hard right from the start for 40 – 50 minutes.
I happened to volunteer at the Ed Sander CX race and actually got to watch the Men’s 4 race and everyone didn’t seem to be going as fast as we did in practice so my confidence was renewed a bit. So I decided to sign up for a race 2 weeks after.
Another thing I did pick up at the Ed Sander race is that Cross is a different kind of race. Quite a few people brought out their families to watch. There were kids everywhere. My son and daughter did the “lil’ Belgians“ race which consisted of a couple of laps around a very short track with one barrier for them to lift (or in the case of my daughter, me to lift) their bikes over. Everyone gets medals and treats after the race is over, my kids were hooked. Cross races are much more laid back than Road races and Triathlons. From what I have seen there always seems to be beer and food also which is definite plus after the race.
Fast forward to today. My wife and I loaded up the truck with my stuff for racing and of course the kids bikes if they wanted to race also and headed up to Hyattsville for the Hyattsville CX put on by Route 1 Velo. We arrived about an hour early, my race was the first of the day starting at 9:00. Picked up my number and my pint glass that I pre-ordered (I needed something to drink beer out of right?) . Walked back up to the truck and my kids were already riding through the parking lot on their bikes, so I worked on getting my number pinned to my jersey, of course I put it on upside down first, so had to redo that.
One of the reasons I wanted to get there early was to make sure that I had some time to pre-ride the course, since the only course I had ridden was the one at practice. It’s a pretty flat track with some twists and turns , riding through the infield of two baseball diamonds, volleyball court (nice deep sand for my race) some road and the “Spiral of Death” which was a spiral section where you rode to the center, then made a 180 degree turn and back out, good for getting you dizzy.
After the pre-ride I rode over to the playground to kiss the kids and wife before my race, the kids didn’t seem to care, they were having a blast playing with all the other kids there, again lots of families at this race.
I wasn’t exactly sure where the start line was and realized that I was in the wrong place, so I figured it out and rode to the start. In the men’s 4 race, start position is solely based on when you registered, I was 655, numbers started at 600 and went up to just about 700, so a decent sized field. They still weren’t to my number yet but since I was late getting there I was pretty close to the back of the field. The official was lining everyone up by number, but about the time he reached 645 he just said, ok, the rest of you just line up somewhere behind them, so I was stuck quite a few rows back from where I should have been.
Then off we went. It was packed to the first turn; I couldn’t really get around anyone. To me it seemed that the front half took off and the back half was moving a bit slower. Once things spread out a bit where you could really start passing the front half of the race was well out in front. I really didn’t have any idea what to expect so I just tried to pick off people in front of me when I could and make sure I didn’t drop my bike and look like an idiot. The thing I had the hardest time with was getting by people in the technical sections. I seemed to gain the most ground on people in front of me when the course started to turn around trees, or whatever obstacle was in our way, but those sections were tough to get by.
When things thinned out a bit there was a group I pretty much spent the whole race with and the 4-5 of us would pass each other a few times out there, then one by one we thinned out, some pulled ahead some dropped back. In the last lap or two there seemed to quite a few people that had burned themselves out by that point so saving something for that last lap is probably a good idea.
Passed by the finish line for the bell lap and surprisingly I hadn’t been passed by the leaders, I was sure that I would get lapped, so I count that as a victory on my part. I ended up finishing 55th out of 95 or so that started, extremely happy with that result. It’s funny when I looked at my Garmin I raced for 42 minutes and went a total of 8 miles with an average HR of 169. Probably one of the more painful but fun 8 miles I have put in on a bike. I think I rode it correctly, 182 feet in HR Z1, 127 feet in HR Z2, .2 miles in HR Z3, 3 miles in HR Z4 and 4.5 miles in HR Z5 so probably couldn’t have ridden it much harder than I did.
After the race I went to pick up the family and watched some of the later races drinking beer and eating BBQ, does it get much better than that?. My kids were disappointed when we told them it was time to go; there must have been 20-30 kids on the playground after my race and they of course also loved the moon bounce, nice touch there.
Very much looking forward to the next race, doing DCCX on Nov 24th in DC, I think I am starting even further back in that race but learned a bit in this race so I can hopefully put that knowledge to use and move up a bit more.