Double-header races are funny. After every 'cross race, I feel totally spent, can barely feel my legs and my back is killing me. But then, for some reason, I always thinks it's going to be awesome to race again the next day. Next day comes around, my legs still hurt, I run a few laps...and I'm ready to go again. I must love pain.
Despite the title, today's race was definetely not a race for kids....although all the money they made from our suffering was. I woke up and checked the weather and it looked like they were expected sleet during the morning. It was sort of half-raining on my way to the course this morning...which could be a really good thing...or a really bad thing. The weather certainly always makes 'cross a more interesting sport.
As I said before the course was changed the day before the race because COP had decided to start putting snow on the hill early so we were moved the west side of the bobsled track. Keith B. had very little room to work with but somehow designed an absolute masterpiece of a course...probably even better then the original course. It had leg burning climbs, technical descents, flowy hairpins, stair run-up and ultra-long sand pit.
We all lined up for the start, which was on paved uphill climb, and had another surprise start. 30 seconds...15 seconds (5 seconds passed)....GO!!! I think some people were caught off guard...some way to anxious but it was a sprint to be the first to the top of the hill.
The first lap went pretty fast but you could tell who had not fully recovered from yeterday's race. The climb was a killer and in 'cross you never have time to fully recover. As I rolled around to the second climb and I sprinted and caught about 5 riders. Then the sand pit came...which was rideable except for the sharp right-hand turn in the middle. The strategy here was to go as fast as possible into the sand, dismount and shoulder while your bike was still plowing through.
Then run for a the other half of the pit. This also turned out to a place where I pass many riders who had a hard time running and even those foolish enough to try and ride the whole section.
Second lap went well and was starting to wonder how many tims I could do the hill. My legs were also starting to burn while trying to run through the sand pit. I finished off the second lap, checked the counter to see how many laps were left, saw 4 and thought to myself "Are you serious??? I can't even do one more".
Going into fourth lap I had caught a group of four riders spinning up the hill and could see my teammate up ahead. One of my teammates yelled at me to attack and I dug deep and went hard to not only pass the group but bridge up to my teammate, Craig. As Craig and I are matched in 'cross ability my new plan was to stick to his wheel as long as possible and work as a team. Craig was taking awesome lines and it made it much easier having someone to race with. Craig is better technically then I am so he would gap me on the technical sections and I would catch up on the sand pit. On the climb we were always side-by-side. We stayed together for the remainder of the laps.
On the final lap we pushed hard. We caught more riders that just couldn't go anymore and I stayed as close as I could to Craig's wheel. I thought that if I could stay with him into the sand...I might be able to edge him out on te run. Craig went hard on the hills and gapped me so I was a little behind going into the sand. I went in full-bore into the sand pit, swung my right leg over and then my left shoe got stuck in the pedals as I tried to unclip. I ended up falling over into the sand and lost Craig while I fumbled around to shoulder my bike. I ran as hard as I could for the end but he was already on his way to the climb. I sprinted hard when I got to the climb but couldn't catch him...he beat by 7 seconds (which is the same time I beat him by the day before).
Result: 12/32
What a great race. One of my best results so far. I had a super clean race and only had the one mishap in the sand. I felt really good about my results and felt I had done almost everything well. Craig told me after the race then even if I caught him on the sand he wouldn't have let me beat him on the hill, he was saving his energy in the last lap for a sprint climb during the race in case I passed him in the sand section.
Keith and the rest of the Midweek Mayhem crew did an awesome job on the course and Midweek Mayhem held an awesome event.
I stayed the whole day and got to witness a scene that could only happen in 'cross. Keith and Jeff Neilson were in a tight battle for last place. After trying to see who could make the other puke first on the climb, they decided to spar in the sand pits with their bikes. Keith won the fight and left Jeff to suffer alone up the hill. Another lap later, Keith decided that he had enough of his own sufferfest...and needed a push up the hill. 'Cross is freakin' awesome!
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