Step by Step

We finally had some cross weather here in Chicago, with a couple of days of rain followed by cold temps on race day. The drastic change in conditions was a real shock to the system, and had me digging into my bag to pull out the Craft winter gloves.

To start off I have to say that the guys/gals of Northbrook Cycling and Flatlandia put together an awesome course with tons of great offcamber sections, fast pavement, and two leg burning stair runups. I didn't get there in time to ride the course before the start of the 30+ event, but cruised aoround checking out as many of the technical sections as possible. After a bit more warmup and the end of the 30+ race I jumped on the course for a lap before my race. The two trickiest sections were both found after the two runups. Both were offcamber; one with tight 180 degree turns, and the other being a fast hold on for dear life downhill. On my warmup lap I went down pretty hard on the downhill offcamber section, flipping a couple of times before coming too a stop. Not exactly what I wanted to do before my race, and definitely didn't help my pre-race confidence. I did quickly come to the conclusion that the reason I went down was because I was on the brakes way too much trying to control my speed, and I really needed to feather the brakes, or just let it roll and worry about scrubbing speed at the bottom. During the race I rode the section everytime with no more falls. Unfortunately, the other offcamber section after the first run-up proved to be my downfall during the race.

Photo taken after my tumble on the downhill. I was hoping no one saw me.

So, after the call-ups and talk by the official, we were off. Not a great start, as I struggled to get clipped in. I found myself about 8th place going into the first tight sections, and was sitting on teammate Mike Seguin's wheel as we made our way to the first time up the stairs. I made the decision to run the first itme through the chicanes, hopefully avoiding going down or being taken down by somene else. It ended up being a good decision as one of the riders in front went down, and I was able to scoot through on the inside. The rest of the lap I worked with Mike to catch the couple of riders in front of us. Mike did a great job of getting me to within contact of the group of 3-6, which contained teammate Brian Parker.

Parker on my heels sporting the neon Guy of the Month Jersey

As the race went on I moved up to 3rd place, and was getting closer to Nevada Dave in 2nd place. This was short lived as Scott Arrigoni of Verdigris bridged up to our group. He was riding really strong, and went past us in short order never to be seen again.




Next time through the offcamber chicanes we were getting into lapped traffic, and was making this section even tougher to negotiate. I was forced to take a bad line to get around a rider and went down coming out of the turn. This unfortunately gave David Thomas of Team Magnus a chance to gap us. With a lap and a half to go, Brian and I were in chase mode. Unfortunately it really wsan't a course where trading pulls was helpful. With all the turns it seemed that we were better off setting our own pace. Last time through the chicanes and I am sitting in 5th place. I had another poor choice in lines, and went down, this time dropping my chain. After what seemed like an eternity, I got the chain back on the bike and was off. During this time Tim Yuska of Get a Grip was able to sneak by. I really tried to bury myself the last lap to catch him. Through the last tight section of chicanes I was getting close, and the next thing I know he is off the bike with a mechanical. Not the way I wanted to catch him, but I guess that is part of cross racing. In the end I roll in for 6th place, just out of the money, and just outside the Cat. 2 upgrade points.


I am definitely getting frustrated with my mid race performance the last several weeks. I have really been losing focus and in turn losing places in the middle of the race. I know this is a mental thing, and I won't be able to put together a really good race if I don't correct it. This weekend I am heading north of the cheddar curtain for the Whitewater race on Saturday as well as the Lansing race on Sunday. Since I am not really competing for an overall series placing in the Wisconsin series I want to go into the race with the attitude to go as hard as possible from the gun and hopefully make it to the finish line in one piece.




Photo Credits:


Timeforcrickets

NicCyp

Never Drown Out