Cross talk. Talk Amongst Yourselves.

i raced cat 3 at rochester cx which is the first big uci weekend of the year
saturday was my first race of the year. my legs didn’t really work. i got last place. except for one guy who DNFd
sunday was much better, finished 13/17 and was actually racing properly.
the technical back section was awesome, they have this log they’ve cut into steps that you CAN ride. maybe 80% of the men’s elite field rides it, and about 10% of the women’s field. that was a good challenge. i rode it 8/10 times, crashed 1/10, and put a foot down 1/10.

the pro races were pretty great. maghalie rochette won both of them; the second day she was off the front after lap two and no one ever saw her again. ellen noble was having some problems?
on the men’s side, day two was better and hyde didn’t really get separation until half a lap to go.

other shit:
-e-richie brought his two elite men and one elite woman. still riding the same bikes as they were on 30 years ago, of course. i actually feel awful for those guys because they’re running sections that the other elites, even in their groups, can routinely ride. yes i know you CAN ride everything with cantis but unless e-richie routinely picks riders with lower technical abilities by random chance, you have to believe the bike matters.
-at one point in my race i was passing a guy in my field. he got all salty when i hung onto his wheel for the straightaway into the wind instead of passing him. his rationale was “i’m slower than you”. yeah, i know, but i’m not going to tow you around here for half a lap. i dropped him before the tech section and he still only finished about 15 seconds behind me, so i’m glad i didn’t pull.

LOL. Did he not get the memo that this was a “race” which involves things called “tactics”?

yeah for real. i am not in the habit of just casually passing someone in a race and then pulling them to the next turn. i’m either going to sit on and then sprint around, or pass quickly so hopefully they can’t hold the acceleration
unless there’s a chance of us catching the next group by working together which almost never happens at the end of the shattered cat3 field with two laps to go
i know it’s the back of the cat3 field but i still care

That’s how it should be.

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Our first race (Cross-Shooshko) was cancelled because the park being underwater in sections, so I only raced on Sunday. The race in Manitowoc (Flyover Silver Creek) is always lightly attended because it’s too far for people from Madison to want to go, but since the Milwaukee race was cancelled, FOSC offered discounts for anyone willing to pull the trigger on theirs. Both factors definitely helped attendance.

Additionally, the course is always quite good up there, but this year they shifted some stuff around and this time it was STELLAR. They ditched the boring front end and created a highly technical course with a decent amount of straight-aways so you weren’t stuck behind someone.

I raced Cat 3 - 35+ and blasted off the front to take the hole shot, then was able to hold 3rd place for 98% of the race. On the last hill I cracked and the only thing that could save me was that I hoped to have put enough distance between me and #4, but sadly I completely exploded: I had extreme tunnel vision and I was subsequently passed by 3 people in the last 100 meters.

My wife was cheering/heckling and on that last hill she said she saw my state and my competition approaching and said, “I want you to win, but you are going to die!”

Still, I accomplished two goals:

  1. Riding until exploding, just to see how hard I could push it, and
  2. Finishing in the top 50%.
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This is the hill I finally cracked on.

That looks like the worst thing ever.

That thing looks steep. almost looks like it would be faster to run up?

Is there a tow-rope out of frame?

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Yeah it’s either preposterously steep or your wife/the photographer is a camera tilt wizard. Well done on asploding! I can’t really find the motivation to push myself that hard anymore. Well, I never was hardcore enough to reach tunnel vision but even less so these days.

Here it is from a different angle, which makes it look a little more manageable.

Still, I think this may be the steepest and longest hill of the season. Mt. Krumpit at the Jingle Cross World Cup may be comparable (though it’s its own technical beast).

Not sure wtf is going on with Nick’s bike handling skills in the back there…

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He seems unfamiliar with the directionality of volocipedois

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i have never seen someone carry a cross bike like that
very impressive

It looks like he’s inspecting the rear tire for thorns, etc.

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Turns out he rolled his tire and was trying to reset it running up that hill (dear lord, as if it wasn’t challenging enough).

It does kinda look like he’s truing the wheel or something.
Now it’s badass.

Did a short cross practice yesterday. It’s still really hard and I’m still really slow. I already missed one race. Completely forgot about it actually. But I bout a season pass to one of the series here and the first race for that series is Sunday. Getting pretty excited.

first race of the season was a mudder on a not so great local course. rained all day long and was largely miserable. still pulling my fitness back together after badly breaking myself at the bike park this summer, so my result was mediocre as expected.

to add insult to injury one of the fast lines along the tape was riddled with poison ivy, which mixed in with the mud that covered my entire body. the rash is everywhere, especially all over my ass, and it’s the worst.

that said i’m super stoked to race nittany this weekend, albeit a little sad i’m in no form to take advantage of the fact that it’s a UCI race again this year. that said i’m sure the 2/3 will be plenty fast for me, and i’m looking forward to watching the pro race as a spectator again. the view from the back usually isn’t that exciting.

poison ivy mud mix is the wurst. Sorry.

Mini HY I finally got out on the CX bike this afternoon for a few laps on the local trails. Feeling good on it again and had markedly more energy than the last time I did those on my MTB. My road rides, however meager, are actually giving some results.

Looks like my first race of the season will be Jingle Cross as I apparently have no interest in driving over an hour to a race. Will truck it over to Madison for Trek tho.

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I had severe poison ivy on my ass and legs this summer and it is miserable, there’s a million remedies out there and I have no clue which ones are better than another, but just go to your doc and get some steroids immediately, take benadryl, and heal up fast.