Wednesday: Triple Crown of Kensington Cyclocross Race #1: Well well well, what do we have here? A local cross race with small entry fee and winner takes all attitude? Where do I sign up?!?! After palling around at the Belmont as a warm-up, I packed the bike back in the car and drove over to Kensington to do some cross gaming and self-heckling. Tons of familiar faces were gathered near the lighted fields waiting for the football practice to finish. Those in attendance included, but were not limited to, The Joe Reynolds Foundation, Warren H, Woody, Har-Har (on a fixie and slicks!), L Pipes (with a huge screw lodged in her tire), The QCW Posse, and The Great Pat who organized the whole shindig. The set-up was simple. Short urban 'cross course, two races running at once (men's and women's), overall winner of each race takes home 50% of the entry on the night. All clear? Ready......GO! I make sure not to hole-shot as I would rather follow and feel things out on any day than dictate the pace from the gun. Not sure if this is smart strategy or a little lack of confidence. If it's a lack of confidence, than I quickly gained it on the second lap as I took the lead and never looked back. Roughly 40 minutes later the bell lap rang and I did one more flying lap to the finish line. Looking back, I noticed a lot less people on the course than before. Turns out there were a lot of flats that took people out of the race. All of the faster riders seemed to make it through OK though, with the exception of Har-Har who's slick-tired fixie got a flat, and Woody's chain snapped. Had a great time and will definitely be back to defend my lead in the series and go for the omnium. End Result: 1st baby! Not a UCI win, but it's a start!
Saturday: Richmond Festival of Cross Day 1: Drove down with L Pipes to Grandmaster Stu's place in Richmond, VA for a low-key weekend of fun racing. With big UCI races going on in Ohio and Rhode Island, I felt like I was missing out a little, but am glad I got to see the scene down there. Despite having fun in general, the racing wasn't together. The weather was warm and muggy Friday night and Saturday. I had trouble sleeping and woke up feeling rather rough. I tried to stay positive and confident, knowing my form was coming on and improving. I figured that if I just gutted it out and finished decent in the first day's race, I could do a good TT and get some rest for Sunday's race. Well, first lap in, I got myself a flat and had to ride/run a good distance to the pit while everyone raced on ahead. I swapped the front wheel and chased as hard as I could the entire race, picking riders off steadily and finishing up 10th. OUCH! The humidity and weather took their toll on me, wrapped in my lack of sleep, I almost lost my lunch at the finish line. With my lackluster performance and bad-luck combined, I couldn't get up the motivation to do the TT. 10th place didn't seem like a good place to start a run at the overall, especially since there was no TT prizes and the omnium was winner-take-all for a custom-made cowbell. Instead, I chose to rest up and take a crack at the win the following day. End Result: 10th/20
Sunday: Richmond Festival of Cross Day 2: After napping after yesterday's race most of the evening and getting a better night's sleep, I woke up feeling normal but not spectacular. After yesterday though, normal felt amazing! I chowed down breakfast and headed over to the course with L Pipes to sign-in and pre-ride. While on my lap, I realized that this course was unlike any I've ever ridden. The best way to describe it was a 'Crit on Grit'. That meaning it was pan-flat, almost no technical sections, and had plenty of power straight-aways where sitting in and drafting was the only way to maintain position. Nothing hard, nothing to seperate things out. I got a decent start and like I figured there was just one long pace-line from the start. After the first barrier section and a short tech-section we hit a quick road section. Here a few guys started getting a gap and I knew that they were the race-makers. I went to jump across the gap so not to drag anyone with me, but I quickly realized that I was lacking my normal power. I was forced to sit down and try and slowly bridge up, but was caught by two riders who did not have the power to do so and the gap quickly started growing. Realizing I should not have been caught, I kept it together and waited for a good moment to make a move and get rid of the group I was with, as I was riding a lot smoother than most. However, when I went to make a move again, it felt like I was stuck in mid-gear. That's when the tingles hit me, the hunger tingles. Oh Snaps! I quickly realized what was happening, and although the cross race was short, it was too early to tough it out. I made my decision to pull the plug and get some food in me. Not my proudest moment of the year, but turns out it was my smartest thus far. I see no reason to dig a hole for myself at a local race when it can seriously affect upcoming races with far greater importance and stiffer competition. That being said, it's always hard watching a race go by and knowing that you could be in contention but for one reason or another are watching from the sidelines. End Result: Blah!
Looking forward to this week/weekend! The Triple Crown got moved to Thursday's now, so as not to conflict with the Wednesday night cross workouts at the plateau. I'm thinking I may do a mtb ride on Wednesday instead just to test out the new 29'er I finally got all built and tuned. I'll stop by the plateau to heckle a little of course!
The weekend brings my second duo of UCI races. Granogue and Wissahickon. Granogue was a muddy slop-fest (as opposed to a sloppy mud-fest, which is not as bad) the last time I raced it in '05, and Wissahickon was my last race that season, siting burn-out as the cause for my early departure there. I'm just going to take it easy this week, except for Kensington, and try and stay focused. Poor start positions are in the works and I need to bring my A+ game so I can race like I know how.
Toodles!
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