The Preface:
Usual morning drill: Get up at the crack of darkness, load van, wait for Supreme Justice, Race Director, Team Field Marshal and Dictator-for-Life David Gill, load David into the van and drive to Coffeetopia for liquid stimulates. The drive was very pleasant, but not because of David’s company; it just happen to be a very beautiful morning!
The Course:
Instead of racing in the usual spot at the East Garrison of the old Fort Ord, we were racing at the old campground section where they usually hold the CCCX mountain bike series. This could only mean one thing, lots of elevation change! This certainly was not your typical cross course. There was heaps of high speed singletrack, a blazing fast paved downhill section, and lots of low speed turns, barriers, and two little logs that you could bunny hop and one big one that you could not. The big story though was the climbing. I can’t ever remember racing a cross course that climbed so much. The climb started before the finish line and was broken up by a little run up with a rideable steep climb directly afterwards that led to a false flat double track to a set of double barriers at the very top of the hill.
Race # 1
Master A 45+:
What a disaster! I had a bad start and was pinched off twice causing me to lose a lot of places and all of my momentum. I then somehow managed to kick my left side rear brake arm on the remount at the top of the course and knocked the retaining spring off of its perch. I stopped and tried to fix it, but to no avail. It never occurred to me to in my anaerobic state unhook my brake cable; instead I rode 2/3 of a lap with the left side brake pad jammed against the rim. UGH! I saw teammate Karen Kefauver and asked her to have my singlespeed ready for a bike change. She made it to the pits before I did and the exchange was made. I rode my singlespeed for half of a lap and was meet by Supreme Justice, Race Director, Team Field Marshal and Dictator-for-Life David Gill in the feed zone where we did another change back to my original bike. After a couple of laps on my geared bike I was feeling very sloth like. I figured I was having a really bad day and put it on cruise control and finished the race. It wasn’t until I loaded the bike into the van at the end of the day that I realized that with even the retaining spring in the proper position, the brake pad was still rubbing the rim. I finished the race in last place and ended 7th overall for the series (I tied for 6th, but lost the tie breaker).
Race #2
Singlespeed:
After the long uphill at the start of the race, I ended up behind a rider who I will call “the Kid”. The Kid and I were the tail end of a lone pack of riders as we snaked down the singletrack. The Kid was having a very hard time staying on course. By the time we reentered the dirt after the long paved section, there was a small gap between us and teammate Eric Thunstrom and Tim of Buy-Cell. The Kid was sliding all over the place and buy the time we hit the dirt straight away next to the parking lot I got pass him. As I passed the Kid he made some discouraging remark (smack) to me. The Kid re-passed me in the next corner, but I was not concerned being that we hadn’t even completed one lap yet. I was taking the old bull vs. the young bull approach. We hit the double small log section and the Kid made an error and I got a gap on him. There were sections of this course that doubled back upon itself and you could tell if you were gaining or losing on the riders in front or behind you. For the next couple of laps the gap to Eric and the Buy Cell guy held steady while the gap on the Kid increased.
By the third lap I couldn’t see the Kid anymore and Eric and Tim were slowly pulling away. The climb on this course was taking its toll on me. Except for being lapped, I rode the rest of the race by myself. I got a nice tow from Pat Schott for half of a lap. It was a pleasure to follow Pat in the singletrack section. This was in stark contrast to following Olaf Vanderhoot who almost missed a couple of corners and carved large divots into the dirt with his tires. I’m not sure the word finesse is Olaf vocabulary when it comes to riding on the dirt. I ended up finishing 6th overall in the singlespeed class. 4 cyclocross series down and one to go!
Usual morning drill: Get up at the crack of darkness, load van, wait for Supreme Justice, Race Director, Team Field Marshal and Dictator-for-Life David Gill, load David into the van and drive to Coffeetopia for liquid stimulates. The drive was very pleasant, but not because of David’s company; it just happen to be a very beautiful morning!
The Course:
Instead of racing in the usual spot at the East Garrison of the old Fort Ord, we were racing at the old campground section where they usually hold the CCCX mountain bike series. This could only mean one thing, lots of elevation change! This certainly was not your typical cross course. There was heaps of high speed singletrack, a blazing fast paved downhill section, and lots of low speed turns, barriers, and two little logs that you could bunny hop and one big one that you could not. The big story though was the climbing. I can’t ever remember racing a cross course that climbed so much. The climb started before the finish line and was broken up by a little run up with a rideable steep climb directly afterwards that led to a false flat double track to a set of double barriers at the very top of the hill.
Race # 1
Master A 45+:
What a disaster! I had a bad start and was pinched off twice causing me to lose a lot of places and all of my momentum. I then somehow managed to kick my left side rear brake arm on the remount at the top of the course and knocked the retaining spring off of its perch. I stopped and tried to fix it, but to no avail. It never occurred to me to in my anaerobic state unhook my brake cable; instead I rode 2/3 of a lap with the left side brake pad jammed against the rim. UGH! I saw teammate Karen Kefauver and asked her to have my singlespeed ready for a bike change. She made it to the pits before I did and the exchange was made. I rode my singlespeed for half of a lap and was meet by Supreme Justice, Race Director, Team Field Marshal and Dictator-for-Life David Gill in the feed zone where we did another change back to my original bike. After a couple of laps on my geared bike I was feeling very sloth like. I figured I was having a really bad day and put it on cruise control and finished the race. It wasn’t until I loaded the bike into the van at the end of the day that I realized that with even the retaining spring in the proper position, the brake pad was still rubbing the rim. I finished the race in last place and ended 7th overall for the series (I tied for 6th, but lost the tie breaker).
Race #2
Singlespeed:
After the long uphill at the start of the race, I ended up behind a rider who I will call “the Kid”. The Kid and I were the tail end of a lone pack of riders as we snaked down the singletrack. The Kid was having a very hard time staying on course. By the time we reentered the dirt after the long paved section, there was a small gap between us and teammate Eric Thunstrom and Tim of Buy-Cell. The Kid was sliding all over the place and buy the time we hit the dirt straight away next to the parking lot I got pass him. As I passed the Kid he made some discouraging remark (smack) to me. The Kid re-passed me in the next corner, but I was not concerned being that we hadn’t even completed one lap yet. I was taking the old bull vs. the young bull approach. We hit the double small log section and the Kid made an error and I got a gap on him. There were sections of this course that doubled back upon itself and you could tell if you were gaining or losing on the riders in front or behind you. For the next couple of laps the gap to Eric and the Buy Cell guy held steady while the gap on the Kid increased.
By the third lap I couldn’t see the Kid anymore and Eric and Tim were slowly pulling away. The climb on this course was taking its toll on me. Except for being lapped, I rode the rest of the race by myself. I got a nice tow from Pat Schott for half of a lap. It was a pleasure to follow Pat in the singletrack section. This was in stark contrast to following Olaf Vanderhoot who almost missed a couple of corners and carved large divots into the dirt with his tires. I’m not sure the word finesse is Olaf vocabulary when it comes to riding on the dirt. I ended up finishing 6th overall in the singlespeed class. 4 cyclocross series down and one to go!
2 comments:
turning in the dirt is against my religion.
and i thought the climbing was great!
Olaf,
I had to put the biggest gear combo I have on my singlespeed because of how fast the course was. This of course made climbing a pleasure!
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