Last Wednesday was the beginning of the 07/08 cyclocross season for me with the first Team DFL race of the year. Team Santa Cruz had a strong presence with team leader David Gill, Troy Boone, Erik and Darik Thunstrom, Philip Sims and Grant Stoner all making the trip up to Golden Gate Park for the race. Since the DFL is an underground series with none of the usual waivers and permits, it seems more like a guerilla operation. The entry fee is $5.00 or if you wear a dress the entry fee is free. The usual park goers (and in particular the homeless people living there), can’t really comprehend this invasion of bike racers, let alone when over half of the field is dressed in drag! By the way, Team DFL laid out a course which was even better than last year’s, which in my opinion was one of the funnest courses of the season. Tons of loose, tight sandy corners, high speed gravel corners, some pavement, two legitimate run ups and four natural barriers that forced you to dismount and two more that were rideable: this course simply rocked!! 
I use this series as a wake call for my body because the shock of cyclocross racing can take a few races for the body to get used to. I was more apprehensive this year than normal as the month of August had been particularly unkind to me in cycling terms. The month of July had been good to me and I was building up to the cross season well. August rolled around and I went on a small vacation (not a bad thing!) and on my first ride back I crashed three blocks from house. I gave myself a small concussion and a righteous five day headache. On my first ride back after a week of recuperation, I promptly slammed myself to the ground. This, combined with the 12 hours of 5Th Ave and another small vacation, meant August was a wash in terms of training. Enough with the excuses!
I managed to get a good spot three rows back on the starting grid. I don’t know the exact numbers, but there appeared to be well over 100 riders. At the very last second I noticed David Gill popping out of the bushes and slotting himself on the front row! With little warning we were off! I was immediately hooked by teammate Troy Boone and in order to avoid crashing into the guy to my right I had to back off hard. I then had about 20 rider surge around me. I had little concern for this as I had told myself that I would go out easy and roll with the punches.
The usual first lap chaos ensued with big bottle necks at the obstacles and singletrack and the usual mix of very strong riders who couldn’t for the life of them ride on the dirt. People were flailing everywhere! The second lap began, things settled down and I was feeling pretty good. I was slowly picking off people in front of me. There were a couple sections on the course that double backed upon itself and this was a great gauge to see if you were advancing or not. I was certainly gaining on David and in fact he said I had a little smirk on my face every time we passed each other.
The third lap began and I had just re-passed Mary-Anne Hunter. I was feeling very good. About half way through this lap I absolutely blew sky high!!! I never felt this coming. Mary-Anne re-passed me and yelled to me “come on Mike,” but had nothing left. The remainder of the race just got worse and worse for me as I was struggling like never before. I actually stopped at one point and checked my rear tire which I was convinced was going flat, but wasn’t. For the last couple of laps I just concentrated on keeping out of the way. The race finally ended and I was put out of my misery! It was only then did I discover that my rear spring on my brake caliper had popped off of its perch allowing the brake pad to jam against the rim and in fact it was actually hard to push the bike on the ground after the race! Yeah, I have found another excuse! Even though this race put me into the hurt locker, I still had a blast! With the awesome cast of characters and superbly laid out course by DFL, who could not have fun? All photos blatantly ripped off from Scotty Paz
I use this series as a wake call for my body because the shock of cyclocross racing can take a few races for the body to get used to. I was more apprehensive this year than normal as the month of August had been particularly unkind to me in cycling terms. The month of July had been good to me and I was building up to the cross season well. August rolled around and I went on a small vacation (not a bad thing!) and on my first ride back I crashed three blocks from house. I gave myself a small concussion and a righteous five day headache. On my first ride back after a week of recuperation, I promptly slammed myself to the ground. This, combined with the 12 hours of 5Th Ave and another small vacation, meant August was a wash in terms of training. Enough with the excuses!
I managed to get a good spot three rows back on the starting grid. I don’t know the exact numbers, but there appeared to be well over 100 riders. At the very last second I noticed David Gill popping out of the bushes and slotting himself on the front row! With little warning we were off! I was immediately hooked by teammate Troy Boone and in order to avoid crashing into the guy to my right I had to back off hard. I then had about 20 rider surge around me. I had little concern for this as I had told myself that I would go out easy and roll with the punches.
The usual first lap chaos ensued with big bottle necks at the obstacles and singletrack and the usual mix of very strong riders who couldn’t for the life of them ride on the dirt. People were flailing everywhere! The second lap began, things settled down and I was feeling pretty good. I was slowly picking off people in front of me. There were a couple sections on the course that double backed upon itself and this was a great gauge to see if you were advancing or not. I was certainly gaining on David and in fact he said I had a little smirk on my face every time we passed each other.
The third lap began and I had just re-passed Mary-Anne Hunter. I was feeling very good. About half way through this lap I absolutely blew sky high!!! I never felt this coming. Mary-Anne re-passed me and yelled to me “come on Mike,” but had nothing left. The remainder of the race just got worse and worse for me as I was struggling like never before. I actually stopped at one point and checked my rear tire which I was convinced was going flat, but wasn’t. For the last couple of laps I just concentrated on keeping out of the way. The race finally ended and I was put out of my misery! It was only then did I discover that my rear spring on my brake caliper had popped off of its perch allowing the brake pad to jam against the rim and in fact it was actually hard to push the bike on the ground after the race! Yeah, I have found another excuse! Even though this race put me into the hurt locker, I still had a blast! With the awesome cast of characters and superbly laid out course by DFL, who could not have fun? All photos blatantly ripped off from Scotty Paz
