This past cyclocross season culminated in my participation in CX Nationals which were held in Boulder this year. It was awesome to have the race near home, which honestly, is why I participated. Of course just fitting the race into my weekly, post holiday crush ensured I wouldn't have time to enjoy and participate in the 'extra curricular' activities. First lesson learned, it would be better to travel to the race so I could fully immerse myself in the joy that is the National Championships.
My races were, fun but not overly spectacular. My goal was to simply finish on the lead lap and have fun. That's it, no other expectations. I was able to race in two races, the championship race and a non-championship race for my age group 40-44.
The first race was the non-championship race on Wednesday morning. The weather was finally warming up and melting the snow that had fallen during the previous weekend. The number of racers was huge, like 115. I didn't have a terrible starting location, there were a lot of riders behind me. Unfortunately, and to keep a long story short, on the second lap I was passing the pit and took a 180 turn. As I slid across the snow in the corner, my rear tire hit a rut and the tire was dislodged from the rim. I was running mud clinchers. As I came out of the turn, I made it to the sand pit before the tire blew off the rim bringing my race to a sudden stop. There was still some time and I didn't want it to end that way so I threw the bike on my shoulder and ran to the pit. Once at the pit the nice Shimano man put the bike on the stand and gave me a rear wheel. I jumped back out to finish the race but ended up a lap down on the finisher. I wasn't DFL, but I wasn't real happy with my finish either. Fortunately, I still had my championship race on Saturday.
My championship race was the first race of the day, early Saturday morning. The course was a lot drier and there were only a few icy spots left. There were about 130 starters this time and I was starting way at the back. That first lap was crazy, stupid chaotic, but amazingly I got through pretty well. A video form one of my teammates shows the first lap below. He had it worse than I did. In the end, the day was not to be mine. Sometimes your the hammer and sometimes your the nail. I gave it what I had but it really wasn't what I had envisioned my race would be. Fortunately I didn't have a mechanical but I just didn't have the legs. In the end, I was pulled as the leader came by, shortening my race by 2 laps.
In the end I didn't reach my goals but I certainly learned a lot and had fun. I'd definitely be interested in racing nationals again. I'd even be willing to travel so I could immerse myself in the event. It made me hungry to improve my cyclocross skills and fitness. We'll have to see if I can do that. I'm a little worried all the easy gains are gone and I've just hit my 'genetic speed limit,' requiring me to commit to more training hours than the work, life, hobby balance can withstand.
No comments:
Post a Comment