Went to California this weekend to race in Calimesa. We timed a XC race on Saturday and I raced cat 2 and got 3rd. Went home, packed up and headed out that afternoon to CA. We camped and my air mattress was too big for the tent I brought and I got some shit sleep becaise my feet and head were touching the sides of the tent. Wind picked up in the middle of the night and that didn’t help. For whatever reason, socal runs elite men immediately before ss and although I’ve done it in the past, I just didn’t want to.
So, first time ever racing masters in 35+. Was sitting 2nd for the first 3 laps, with 2 close chasers. 3rd lap, I went off course where there was downed tape on an off-camber downhill sweeper and the 2 guys were able to roll past me when i made sure to get back on the couse about where I exited. I lost a lot of momentum, but closed it down. Next lap they attacked hard up the first half of the course, which was all climbing. It was something like 200’/lap and loose, sandy, and full of gopher holes. They finally got seperation and i was able to keep it in check on the descent and more power sections, but that climb kept doing me in. I ended up holding 4th.
SS was at the end of the day. I forgot my spare cogs, along with a bunch of other stuff, and was stuck with 42/17, which was way, waaaaaay too big of a gear for this couse. People were running 2:1 ratio and I just couldn’t hang on the climb and dropped to 4th on the 3rd lap, where I stayed.
Did cross for the first time in 3 years. It sucked as much as it did then. I torpedoed myself into a barrier trying to bunny hop the one before it. So my helmet died.
Double header series finale was this past weekend. managed to pull 2 wins out of my ass in ss. 6th and 4th in elite. Miraculously, we had the course torn down and the trailer packed in 2 hours, which is the new benchmark. Sad to see our season over, but looking forward to the break and then to build for next year. We have some ideas that we have to play around with.
CX should definitely be a winter Olympic sport. But CX entirely on snow just for the sake of putting it on snow is stupid. But without that, it won’t ever be an Olympic sport.
Worthy of discussion.
CX on snow, when snow appears, is great. I think snow and ice (especially ice) can favor specific riders, which is also great. Taking a rare version of the sport and making it the only thing in the Olympics seems not so great. It’s kind of like making the Olympic road race a cobbled classic every year. Which could also be great, but also kind of unfair for people who just don’t cobble well.
on one hand i think the val di sole cx world cup was incredibly stupid and gimmicky. i love the olympics, i wish cx was in it, but cx is just not a snow/ice sport. it’s like how football could be played on snow. but it’s usually not. it’s dumb. fuck the UCI.
you are 100% right that every sport includes a sliding element. in the interest of pedantry i argue that ice hockey includes more of a non-sliding element than biathlon.
What’s your reasoning? Ice hockey the players are sliding, the gamepiece is sliding, the entire field of play is slippery and all action involves that slipperiness.
ATMO Bobsleigh has a greater % non-sliding element than ice hockey. But neither of them hold a candle to biathlon, in which an entire element of scoring has nothing to do with sliding around.
my metric is “necessity of expertise at non-slidy part”
whereas in biathlon i acknowledge the shooting is non-slidy but it’s a pretty small proportion of the total time. if you are bad at skiing you literally can not do biathlon, you will get annihilated. whereas you can be very good at biathlon and miss a lot of shots.
bobsled is even sillier, where the non-slidy bit is only like 5 seconds of the total 60+ second run! even without your hired football player goons to push you, if you are bad at sliding you will DEFINITELY FAIL
whereas the hockey has an entire player who barely slides at all! the goalie just stands there. he really doesn’t even need skates. he doesn’t have to be good at slidy. he just has to catch the puck and stuff.
