This past weekend was filled with travel and racing for me, just as the next couple weeks will be too. I'm currently hanging out in Madison, WI with my feet up awaiting my first CX Nationals race of the week tomorrow, so what better time to write a blog before the week turns into full gear race mode. I've been lucky enough to take some vacation away from work to play bike racer a bit, so I'm enjoying my "other" life here for a while and it's nice to be able to focus on what I need to do to race for a couple big events you may all of heard of: USAC National Cyclocross Championships and UCI Master's World Championships.
Saturday was the final ICX series race of the year in Zionsville near Indy. I knew going into the race that I had to finish pretty high on the steps to take the series title and I knew exactly who I had to beat to do it. My goal for the race was to do this, to take the series overall. I would have never imagined being in contention to win a series title a few short months ago, but I put in just enough ICX races to qualify and I was pretty happy to be able to have a chance to win! Sure, I wanted to be able to have a shot at the higher profile OVCX series title... but life just didn't work out that way this year and I was actually honored to take one of the first elite series titles in a series that is in it's beginnings. At the rate it is going and the success of how well it has been run by Planet Adventure, it will only get bigger!
So race day was looking pretty sloppy with power sucking mud and a bit of a killer run-up mixed in there. The course had a lot of elevation changes and it was pretty tough for me. I started fair enough, felt pretty decent, but Gerry Schulze obviously felt better. Way better. I knew I was in trouble as she grinded her way up a steep incline I had to run up. Kudos to her as she passed me and that was the last I saw of 1st place....
(Started off strong and stayed out front until the steep run-up. After that Gerry (Biowheels rider on right) pretty much killed everyone! Great job to her! All photos this posting courtesy of Planet Adventure http://www.indianacxcup.com/index.php.)
That was actually fine with me. I gave chase to her for a bit, but she was on fire and I knew I would have to put in a near throw-up effort to catch her. I quickly assessed my position to the other gals and got comfortable in 2nd place and knew I would take home the series the way things stood. I was lucky enough to have my buddy Aaron pitting of me and I took a clean bike every lap which is great practice and just makes life so much easier in those conditions!
(This was pretty much my problem: I should have put some spikes in my shoes for some traction. I was lucky to get up the hill as well as I did but I was sliding all over the place.)
After the race I was instantly frozen. It was quite the chilly day and I quickly changed and set up shop in front of a propane heater while we waited for the series awards to take place. It ended up taking some time (as is expected) which was all fine and normal, but knowing Aaron and I had a long night of driving to Chicago and bike cleaning didn't make the time go any faster. We finally hit the road, had dinner, and arrived in Chicago around 9pm or so. Tired! But it was the perfect way to bring in the New Year!
(Coming across the finish. I was feeling blessed to have taken the ICX Series Win!)
Ahh yes... so Chicago New Year's Resolution UCI Race. The city I learned how to do anesthesia, ride in the wind, and how to keep my shoulders broad! Turns out, 6 years after moving away from there, it didn't disappoint for a UCI cyclocross race either. Chicago is cut throat, you have to stand up and be tough or get torn apart, and that's pretty much how the cx race went. Except I think I made it out of my anesthesia training way better then I did the cx race.
With my last row start I pretty much wasn't looking to do great, and pretty much knew I was there to get in a good, hard effort with some full time pros before nats and worlds. I started good enough, kept up, and felt fine. That is until my bike didn't work anymore. It was the most horrible composition of mud I have ever encountered. Mix that with some sand trap gravel, 40+ mph freezing cold sideways wind, course tape in cassettes, and things just didn't go well from the get go. It made for a long race. I ended up pushing and running around with my bike more than I rode it. I def got running and shouldering practice in. I think I did a better job at finding the humor of the entire race than letting my poor standings get to me. I ended up a few spots off last, 16h, not too bad considering I really didn't bury myself to make a frozen up bike go when it didn't want to. Brutal. Just brutal.
After that we heading to home sweet home for a short bit. Aaron pretty much had to rebuild the bikes from the all the mud. Thank goodness he didn't need anything major that I didn't already have since I was only home about 24 hrs before making the trip up here.
It's been fun so far. Single speed race is tomorrow. Should be interesting. I've never rode a ss cx bike before, but I thought it would be fun to do to get a couple races out of the trip.
I did just take it for a spin in the hotel hallway though. I maneuvered the businessman obstacle pretty good. He had the "deer in the headlight" look and stated that he wasn't expecting to see a bike rider in the hallway...
Well Sir, get used to it,
Cyclocross Circus is coming to town!
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