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Seattle Cyclocross Series #4 |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Joel Liefke
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Saturday, 21 October 2006 |
Seattle Cyclocross Series - Race #4
Donida Farms - Auburn, WA
The weather this week was much more pleasant than last weekend, as far as spectators go, seeing how last week at Kelly Creek was an absolute downpour. Sunday was the first “chilly” day that we’ve had this year and while pre-riding the course, I noticed that over half of the course was under a nice frost. Crisp and clear was the agenda for the day!
Upon getting registered I learned that the porta-potties had yet to arrive, people were debating on creating a website entitled honeybucketssuck.com, so to say the least, there were no facilities until about 10am. Yeah, lots of happy racers! When the Honey Buckets did arrive, people were climbing on the truck to use the toilets before they could be placed on the soil so that they wouldn’t miss their race start, quite comical to say the least. I actually found a restroom facility at the ranch back by the horses, so I was able to get dressed and refreshed prior to hitting the start line.
I rolled up to the start line with about 80 other racers, and again, got positioned near the back. This week, I got a really bad start, and was in 3rd to last coming to the first run-up, this was all my fault. On the run-up there were people falling down all over the place, I’m not sure what is going on w/people this year, but running up things they seem to be having some serious issues this year. I passed about 10 people on the run-up until someone slipped and took me down with him….ugh. At the top of the run-up on the remount, the same guy had issues and fell off the bike and took me out again…so here I am back near the back. Fun stuff. On the rest of the first lap I just tried to pick off as many people as I could through the infield section and the barriers and managed to get up to about 65th or so after lap 1.
Lap 2, still wasn’t feeling it, so I’ll refrain from any details from this lap.
Lap 3, things started to click and I picked off a ton of people to getup into about 45th place or so. On the run-up people were actually walking so I opted to hammer as hard as I could up the run-up and ended up passing quite a few people. On this lap, Richard, the guy I duked it out with last week ended up sneaking behind me and following me for lap 3. I knew he had a brutal kick from last week at Kelly Creek so I had some work to do.
Lap 4 (Bell Lap), things again were coming together and I picked off a few more people and actually lapped a few people which was nice. The run-up was again my friend as I distanced myself from Richard. Up ahead I could see a group of 10 or so people that I was trying to catch, but they were about 15 seconds ahead and I had about a ½ mile to go, so I to lay the hammer down and try and catch up to them, and try and get rid of my follower. Well I got close to catching the group on the horse race track, but couldn’t quite catch them, and I did manage to hold off Richard in the sprint, which was great.
Overall a decent race, I need to focus on getting a better start next week, so that I can duke it out a little more. I ended up 38th out of 80, which is an improvement from last week, and I also beat 12 people that beat me last week. There were also 25 people within 2 minutes of me so I think I should be able to continue to move up the ranks as fitness improves. Next week we have a new course at Snohomish, which no one has raced, so it’ll be interesting. Cheers until next week, and remember, to always make sure you hit the can before you race.
Joel Liefke
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