At some unearthly time in the morning, Gaelle, Chris Gould and myself piled into the car and left a very VERY misty Page country behind us as we headed to a rather misty Charlottesville for a cyclocross race called “Urban Cross”. It wasn’t actually “urban” but the park was in a town for once rather than out in the middle of nowhere as is often the case over here, so I guess that's why they called it "Urban Cross". We arrived early enough to watch Levi from the Warrenton Cycling Center do his first ever cross race, which was really cool, and I think he enjoyed it. Following Levi's race was Chris’ race. There are basically 2 ways of approaching cyclo-cross. 1) you can go all out and concentrate on the discipline, start some CX specific training in July and make CX the main aim of your year, or 2) you can take it all as a bit of fun, show up out of shape after your off season, have a blast and take it as a way of keeping active during the cold winter months. Chris and I are evidently in the latter of the 2 categories. Chris went out there, had some fun and had a pretty hard “workout” as he puts it, and that was his aim for the day. He did however find the course a little too technical for his liking...
The Course:
The organizers had actually made very good use of the space they had. Unlike last weeks "Taxidermy Cross", this course resembled more of a typical “cross” course. There were lots of corners on this “loop-di-loop” course, 3 to 4 run-ups/stairs and 1 set of barriers. The ground was sticky from the past 4 or so days of non-stop rain we’ve had, and the numerous off-camber sections and descents were treacherous to day the least. After Chris’ race we went to grab a little something to eat before my race at a more reasonable 2:30 in the afternoon. Whist scoffing a sandwitch I was watching the other category races on the day attack the course, and I can’t say I was overly looking forward to racing myself. The course looked really hard. I haven’t raced or even ridden off road for years and I don’t have the technical skills anymore for that kind of stuff. So with that in mind, as well as my month off the bike, I headed for the start line of the last race of the day, the Elite race, or A race or 1,2,3 race or whatever it is.
Turns out it was a lot of fun. After a while I kind of got into the course and had a blast. The run-ups really started to take it out of me after a while, but the constant corners and trying to get something of a “flow” on the course (and failing miserably may I add) was just really good fun. Once again I was reminded of why I wanted to do some CX racing in the US again. It really is just a lot more fun.
The whole day turned out to be a great day. The sun came out and it was actually warm for my race. I got to catch up with an old MTBing buddy from the good old days (8 or so years ago) who I hadn’t seen since I left the US back in the very early 2000s.
Mike Hosang did his race, then turned around and got on the mic for the first part of my race giving me a much appreciated “SHREWWWWS” as I past him at the end of my 1st or 2nd lap. Ahhh, the good old days. Thanks Mike, all those MTBing memories just came flooding back! The USA Cycling officials just seemed to get on with their job and weren’t “officious” as many of them seem to be for some reason. Maybe they too were feeding off the good vibes of the day’s event. Everyone out there seemed to be wearing big smiles and enjoying the day. A van was selling doughnuts and coffee all day, the sun was out, the racing was exciting, the course challenging… what more could you ask for from a cross race??? Well, except for maybe a few hundred Flems with stupid hats and bells lining the course… hmm, kind of like this guy?
The race itself saw Jared Nieters ride off to a more than commanding win over the rest of the field. Jared sadly did his “robot” once again as he crossed the line (even though I told him not to as I saw him on one of the switchbacks on the course), but aside from that minor marring of the race (sorry Jared) he was extremely impressive, and undisputably deserved to win! I rode around for a bit and finished in total anonymity as seems to be my place in cross at the moment with an 11th place on the day.
All in all, a TanFastic day.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment