|
Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
|
|
Written by Steve Morse
|
|
Monday, 24 September 2007 |
Coonamessett Eco Cross
Falmouth, MA
September 23, 2007
 | | click to enlarge |
Chuck and I headed out to Cape Cod for our first official cross race of the year. The day was hot and sunny, and the ground conditions on the Cape were extemely dry. We both sported our brand new cross bikes (me- a Kona Team Issue Major Jake and Chuck -a sweet Kona Major Major), plus we each had pit bikes which was a first.
Seeing how it was Chuck's birthday, he brought an entourage of freinds to yell at him. I brought my wife who was off to pet and poke animals on the farm while I suffered in the race. Chuck's pals even made some sweet pro-wrestling-inspired signs, emblazened with slogans like "Asian Boyz Rule" or "Vu 3:16". I thought those were pretty funny, but not really enough to make me feel better about the thrashing I was about to receive.
 | | click to enlarge |
The race course is set up on this really cool working farm. It utilizes a lot of features of the farm that add to it's difficulty. For example, there is one section that zigzags though a set of blueberry hedge rows. At the end of each hedge row is an off camber 180 degree turn. You also race right through a pumpkin patch, and there is a set of tall barriers set up in a gravel pit, which incidentally is under the beer pavillion (full of spectators). Most of the terrain is pretty rough for cross standards, and there isn't really anywhere to put down any power - it was all either bike handling or acceleration. Think of it as a mountain bike criterium on a cross bike. Even places where the path was straight or downhill, it was very bumpy and difficult to pedal since you were bouncing all around. Low pressure tubular tires didn't offer very much help with the bumps today. I realized that I was at a huge disadvantage, since I tend to be more of a power rider and prefer the wide open "tundra" type courses mostly seen on the New England circuit.
The other point is that there were only a beginner's race and "open men" which really translates to "elite". In years past the turnout was pretty small for this race, but I guess with the popularity of cross now, every a$$-kicker from New England decided to show up, including NE legend Mark McCormack and other nationally ranked riders like Matt White and some junior prodigies.
So we warmed up on the trainers, and made an effort to stay hydrated with HEED, since the thermometer was showing mid-80's. A really hot day for a cross race - and really tough considering we'd be racing for at least an hour. The mostly black skinsuits weren't helping as we spun away on the trainers in the open sun. After a while we headed down and pre-spun the course a bit before staging.
 | | click to enlarge |
So anyway, after a short delay in staging (waiting for an ambulance to clear out) the race finally goes off. As usual, it was the mad dash up the dirt road, past the petting zoo (where I caught a glimpse of my wife harassing a donkey) and into the single track bottle neck. It really sucks when you're stuck at the back and then have to wait your turn to go through. I am not a good starter but it's something I've been working on it practice. Guess I need to work on that some more. I saw Chuck and a few other guys dart past me, and I got on their wheel and held steady while everything strung out. This is where my horrible first lap follies started. I was following these guys into a really sketchy section, where it was only wide enough for one bike, a fence on your left and trees with nice roots on your right. As I was pondering the legality of this part of the course, a guy in front of me stacked it on a root and I had to stop and get off my bike. Everybody behind me followed suit (a lot of yelling and pushing ensued at this point). I ran my bike around the guy and couldn't remount until I was though the skinny section. I watched as Chuck and co. rode away up the trail.
I started hammering to catch back up to these guys. I found it very difficult to pedal my bike hard because there was always some hard turn or rough/loose surface to contend with. I did manage to work back up to behind Chuck's group. I was following him going into the beer garden/barriers. The crowd was going nuts and it was really loud. I cleanly dismounted and cleared the 1st barrier no problem. I tripped over the 2nd barrier and fell face first into the gravel. The cheering stopped and there was silence, except for a crying baby. I heard a few gasps too. No problem, I picked up my bike (noticing that there was blood streaming off my knee which I had just hamburgered on the rocks) and got quickly remounted. Guys who I normally can easily beat in races were coming by me. Arrg.
I chased these guys into the blueberry bushes and started the zig zag rat race. It was pretty cool in there because you could easily gauge whether you were gaining on somebody or not by seeing where they were in the rows. You had to be really careful though - it you blew any of the turns you ended up in a nice scrubby hedge. I finally came up upon Chuck's group a little later, and I went by them in the sand trap/runup. It was rideable in practice but in the race, with traffic, it was faster to run.
 | | click to enlarge |
Going into the 2nd and 3rd laps I started to find more of a rythym as I got to know the course a little better. I started to rail the loose corners which I was hesitant on at first. I think the heat started to get to me after about the halfway point and things started getting a bit hazy. It was also not fun watching Matt White lap me pretty early on. In fact a lot of people lapped me - including guys that I can usually finish right behind (or beat). Matt eventually lapped me twice as he quite handily destroyed the field.
After about 45 minutes, I was completely done and was in survival mode, basically riding by myself. Just trying to stay in front of the few people who were behind me, and hold a steady pace without overheating or crashing.
I finally rolled in to the finish- not exactly sure how I ended up, but I was 2 laps down on Matt White, 1 lap down on a lot of other people. Probably one of the last few guys across the line. Knowing it was not my type of course, I just chalked it up to a good training day and a successful shake-down session for my new race bike. I later heard that a lot of guys ended up DNF'ing for one reason or another, so I guess just finishing today was an accomplishment. Chuck rolled in too, not too far behind me. I think he had a decent race, considering how outclassed we were.
With the first race in the books, I am eager to see how things go on the wide open power courses of Maine and Gloucester, MA in a few weeks time.
Steve |
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
; "click to enlarge")
