CX Master’s Worlds – Louisville 2012
Written by Michael Green Friday, 03 February 2012 17:29
As I sit here a week after driving home from Louisville, I realize I learned a lot about my racing. I’ve come to a lot of conclusions about my racing season for next year and what I will do differently.
My trip started pretty uneventfully, I got the kids off to school, like a normal day, and then jumped into the car and drive south, hoping for a warmer climate. What I wasn’t expecting was the monsoon that had hit the Ohio Valley that day. My original plan was to get to the course for a pre-ride after check in at accreditation. My mistake. I got to the course okay, but it was a quagmire. Standing water everywhere: I didn’t fancy having to wash a bike after the long drive. I walked the course, much like many others, and realized that there maybe a lot of running in tomorrow’s heats. I went back to my hotel and rode the trainer.
The next morning, I got up had a good “brekkie” and headed over to the course. To my disbelief, was it possible that the course was worse that the day before? I did a lap, got a taste for the track and of the local mud (it tasted much like the mud I ate as a child). I realized that after a couple of hundred laps, it was going to be different again, so just a warm-up was all that was necessary. Back to the hotel, more food, and ready for the heats.
During the next couple of hours the temperature continued to drop and snow made its way into the Banman Park. Historically, the cold doesn’t bother me, nor the wind that accompanied the snow, but I really hate the mud – I’m not much of a “mudder”, I should say. I think it’s a combination of my weight pushing me deeper into the slop and lack of experience racing in such conditions. Either way, I needed to “carry on” and race: do my best and aim for a mid point starting position for the finals. After a reasonably uneventful race, I would be lining up in 46th position on Saturday’s final.
The following evening, I thought I should give my race bike a quick once over after washing it thoroughly the previous day. To my delight, the slop had made it into the bottom bracket and derailleur bearings, seizing them up. I grabbed a beer from the fridge and went to work stripping the bike down in my makeshift workshop and cleaned and repacked the bearings for tomorrow’s race – I was so glad I had decided to pack the kitchen sink!?!
I got to the finals in decent time to watch the previous heats and walk the course a little. The course had changed overnight in the twenty degree temperatures, such that the four inch tyre tracks in the mud, had now become four inch concrete “rumble strips”. Another fun day waits. The overnight crews had changed the course a little and widened, or moved, the track in areas of high unrideability due to the frozen ruts. Again, I’m fine with the cold, I’m fine with icy conditions, but as the day wore on, with the sun shining, the temperature elevated just enough to make those highly traveled, widened sections into peanut butter. This meant that there were very few opportunities for passing throughout the course – just narrow strips of mud at the edge of the track, versus the four inch ruts!
Watching the start of the races prior, all I saw was crashes as folks hit the first icy grass section of the course. I decided to hit that section with caution at the start of my race. Thus, the start of my 45-49 age group was uneventful, with a racer or two crashing, and not the ricochet effects in former races where one after another crashed at the start. I “timidly” hit the trail and found myself with my first group of the day, but because of my start, I found myself much further back than I really needed to be. Now, one of my poor, inexperienced decisions of the weekend, was thinking that I could handle the weekend of racing on my own, as I do every other race of the year. Another was that historically, I’ve used my pit bike in emergent situations only, and not as a strategy in the mud – plus, my pit bike had clinchers, and with these deep ruts, I could see the potential of pinch flatting and would only pit if I had to. Once I passed through the pits on the second lap I realized the error in my judgment, and that everyone else was starting to pit, and by lap three, I hadn’t noted anyone else not pitting, and not climbing aboard a light, clean bike.
I continued to slowly crawl myself through the field. Only one other racer passed me, so I knew I was riding reasonably well, even though my bike was now weighing close to thirty pounds. Because of this mud build up on my bike, I used the start/finish chute as an opportunity to sit up on almost all laps in an attempt to clear the brakes and bottom bracket area of mud – potentially another error, as I know the next section was one of my strongest and I used it to catch others I had lost in the chute, rather than pass and set up the opportunity to catch others ahead.
I continued to pick my way through the field and felt pretty confident about my pace in the conditions. With one lap to go, I gave it all I had a started taking a few extra risks that I hadn’t taken on previous laps. Into the final technical section among the trees, I paid the price for my risks and hit a rut that threw my over the bars. A little panic, a few lost spots, a quick check of the bike and I was back onto my rig and racing to the finish.
I placed 35th over all. Better than my seed place, mid-pack where I thought I may lie. I feel confident that I lost 10-15 seconds a lap sitting up and clearing the mud. The confidence of a pit crew and a bike exchange, or two, during the race could have accounted for a few more seconds. The fall is part of racing and not something I could have gained time from had I planned better, but I could of definitely gained eight or so spots overall. My original intent for this year’s race was to experience the event, and prepare me for next year. I age-up next year and will be the young upstart in the 50-55 age group, rather than the old codger in the 45-49. Let’s see if I use my experiences and learn from them so that this time next year I have no woulda, coulda, shouldas…..!?
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Biking through rough terrain can be rather difficult to say the very least but then there are those with other options who will finish the race no matter what.