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Storm the Beach! Cyclocross |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Matt Hersey
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Saturday, 06 January 2007 |
Storm the Beach! Cyclocross
Camp Pendleton, CA
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Crazy for cross! I hear you Big Al. Me too. That’s why I would drive an hour to a cross race after having worked from 11pm - 7am. Just to get a taste of the winter cross scene here in southern CA. Keep the star bucks coming.
Camp Pendleton is a famous, large marine training area on the California coast. Did you see the movie Jarhead? Yeah, that’s it. I didn’t see any marines or any training action going on. But they had a small “military” category at the race.
The weather was beautiful, of course. Sunny and 70 on the beach. Perfect for shorts and short sleeves. It was warm enough that I didn’t even mind getting soaked by a rogue ocean wave on my first lap of the race.
Based on past experiences with California cross, I wasn’t expecting much from the course. This was about the same. It was a big rectangle with one side riding along the ocean’s shore. You had to dismount and run through deep sand as you approached the water, and then ditto as you exited the shoreline and rode up and down some steep ocean hills on the technical part of the course. There were a bunch of fast downhills that rolled out into loose sand. They were fine as long as you leaned back and kept all your weight off the front wheel. There was a set of double barriers in the loose sand. You could remount after the barriers and ride a little bit through the sand only to dismount after 40 feet for more sand running.
I crashed while warming up. There was a downhill, that moved into a 90 degree turn on hard sand, that moved into a long uphill. I was trying to conserve speed and take the corner pretty tight when the sand gave out on me. No damage, just my pride. And a little more sand in my shoes and shorts.
I didn’t feel great during the pre-ride. I started the race fast and didn’t think that I could keep up that speed, but I did. I got 4th in the master’s 35 plus race. Then it was quick back onto the San Diego Freeway so I could get home and get into bed. I worked again that night at 11pm.
You can see pictures if you go to CeloPacific.org or ClintonPhoto.com. Brent Pretzlow won the pro race. He’s the big cross honch around here. The Mark McCormack of the southwest. I was checking out his two bikes before the race. Two identical Salsa Las Cruces. One with standard tread Challenge tires, the other with dry conditions Challenge tires. What could be better?
Matt
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