Crossing It Up

In my last post I mentioned I've been doing some cross racing this fall. So far I've done 4 races this year. Of the first three I felt good and was happy with my results at one and pretty disappointed with my finish at the other two. So going into my 4th race I was really hoping to improve. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving at Bloomer Park. The weather sucked, really cold (low 20's) with a heavy layer of frost on the ground. That made it a little tough to get moving at first. After a lap of warm up I actually felt pretty good though, other than numb fingers, so I got some warmer gloves on and headed to the start line.

Other than the cold, it was a great morning. John, Ben and Todd were there racing as usual, plus Curt was out racing instead of taking pictures. It was really cool to have him out there riding his bike with us again. He's been sidelined almost all year with a knee injury, so I haven't ridden with him since early spring. That's made the year seem weird since we really got into the sport together and typically ride together quite a bit. Also, we had some great spectators that day too, with Brian (a fellow TSb member), John's dad Rich, Jackie, and her sisters Jill and Amy there to cheer us on.

So, back to the race. They blow the whistle and off we go. As usual, I can see John shoot off the front with the holeshot. I was hanging about mid-pack, actually feeling pretty good. Then we hit the open grassy area just before the first set of barriers, and as I'm rounding a 90 degree corner my front tires washes out on the frosty grass. I went down really hard onto the frozen ground, skidded and rolled over, slamming my bike into the ground. A couple guys paused to ask if I was okay, and I popped up pretty quickly. It didn't make sense to jump back on the bike yet so I grabbed it and just ran to the first set of barriers. By this point everyone in 39 and under caught me and the 40 and over guys were passing me too. As I crossed the barriers Curt passed me and I thought I could jump on and ride with him for a bit. As soon as I jumped on the bike though something felt wrong. I quickly realized the my handlebars had spun on the steer tube and were off center about 15 degrees. Off the bike again, I tried to straighten them with no luck, so I jumped back on and rode with crooked handlebars. It took a little bit but eventually I got used to it. By this point I was quite a ways back so I started trying to bridge up to some of the other riders. I would make some progress, but then fall back again, over and over. Basically every off camber area or tight turn would make me nervous after the early crash so I know I was riding really conservatively.

I ended up coming in second to last in my class, my worst finish of the year. Actually I think its my worst finish ever in cyclocross. Plus the crash added insult to injury, it knocked my new front wheel out of true and made me really sore for the next couple days. The rest of the team did really well though. John won the C race with a sprint finish against Jason from RBS.

Now on to the state championship race at Waterford Hills. Remember above when I said the weather sucked at Bloomer? Well, it was actually really nice. This is going to really suck. If we're lucky it will get out of the teens, and we're supposed to have a couple inches of snow. I did get some new tires, Michelin Mud 2's so hopefully that helps, though I suspect that it has more to do with the operator than with the equipment.

Here's the link to all the pictures Jill took at the race: http://picasaweb.google.com/JandJSchneider/BloomerCX2008