Cyclocross has been a big deal to some of the guys I ride with in Hood River for a long time. I’ve never completely figured it out, because sometimes it looks like it’s just a way for hopelessly insufferable, wannabe bikey hipsters from Portland to endear themselves to the cycling community… Thankfully, that’s mostly untrue – many of the guys (and girls) are bad fast and it has always looked like everybody has loads of fun. So, for years it seems, I would plan to acquire a bike – nothing fancy, just something that would work better than a mountain bike or converted road beater.
In "cross" time is spent carrying the bike and tripping over obstacles
Last year, I finally pulled the trigger – which means that I had a bike by the time the season was about half over. This is a “cross” tradition born either from the reality that bike shops don’t want to stock a bunch of “weird” bike stuff that will be useless by the time Christmas rolls around (and until September of the next year), or a massive conspiracy to prove “you’re not cool enough”. Your bike will be here next week, er September, I mean mid October…
Anyway, the bike showed up and I figured that since the guys I ride on the road with are racing in the Masters B category (the equivalent of Cat 3 on the road), that I should do the same. WRONG. First, if you start at the back (there is another conspiracy to guarantee this), you will likely stay there. The courses can be quite technical which is problematic for a guy that doesn’t spend much time on a mountain bike anymore – that means passing is hard. I struggled to get into the middle third of the pack. I sucked.
It seems there were always 100 guys in the races. And, the line-up is done by lottery based on the last digit of your race number – my number was never in the top half of the guys that started at the back half of the race. I have come to believe that this is because I was new and cyclocross has another special math based conspiracy to determine these things. I was definitely going to need a new plan for this year.
Each cross event has about 90 different races split up by different combinations of age, experience and sex (there are no fewer than three of those, as near as I can tell). There is always somebody (something) to race with and I would like to do well, but I really don’t want to be a sandbagger (those that race a category easier so they can win the beer prizes which are based on more “randomly” generated combinations of numbers).
This year, even though I’m 49, I can race as a 50 year old (another tricky numbers thing – but it says so on my racing license). They have a geezer class in cross that starts at 50. Surely, there would be fewer age 50 plus riders, so starting at the back wouldn’t be as far back, and since its age based – no sandbagging… The only problem is that, like road racing, there exists the possibility of x-pros in the field (or guys that are just plain fast). But hey, if I can be the “new kid”, I’m going to check it out – and how many fast guys that age could there be, anyway..?
"Team Dirks" debrief
Double Cross in Hood River is when the Mountain View team starts it’s cross season. Pretty much everybody gets involved, including the kids which is super fun. This would be my first time doing these races, which is hard to believe given how long I’ve been riding bicycles. Day one would be at the High School and day two would be at the Hood River County Fairgrounds in Odell.
“Masters 50” races along with “Masters B” (age 35+, where I raced last year), so comparisons between the two would be easy and I would still kind of get to race with my buddies. We started one minute behind the B’s (about 35 of them, 25 of us) and it was clear while waiting for the start that a few of the old guys were going to make it through a lot of the B field. The High School course is kind of wide and / or grassy in a lot of places, so passing wouldn’t be a huge issue and the start was easier than I expected.
I settled into a top 10 position early and just rode my heart rate for the first couple of laps. Now, I have issues running in the red zone – I don’t like it. It’s probably that I’m lazy – I just don’t have a very high “suffering index”. In cross, however, red zone is what it’s all about – go till you blow. I ended up in a race with two other guys (two of us chasing the other with a gap that varied between about 1 and 10 seconds).
I had backed off a bit with 3 laps to go with the idea that I could deliver a big, demoralizing and crushing blow to the others at the beginning of the last lap. My heart rate was low in zone 5 and if the other guys were redlined (like I expected they were), I would win the mini “race within a race”. As we crossed start / finish at the beginning of the last lap, the scorer shouted out “you’re done” – WTF? I had made a stupid rookie mistake and didn’t see that the lap board had gone from 2 to zero as we approached the line – the guy that had been following me for two laps did see it and put a wheel on me at the finish. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I don’t make that kind of mistake – well, except this time… F*** me. I was ninth.
racing round the rabbit barn
I figured the Fairgrounds course wouldn’t suit me because it was less technical. As it turns out, even though my bike handling skills are in the toilet lately, I am blessed with good line selection capabilities so that even when my bike doesn’t go exactly where I wanted it to it is still close to being “on line”. Being on line makes it possible to start pedaling earlier when exiting corners (the same principal that applies to cars) – this is important on a “non-technical” course like Sunday’s because it had lots of “easy” turns.
As we were staging for the race there was a line of guys in the front row and I parked my bike behind them. Minutes passed and occasionally somebody would push through to the front – a couple of guys simply went around and backed into the front of the line-up. I thought these guys are being awfully aggressive for a bunch of old f***ers – some of them are going to beat me, but not all of them. There is something about the protocol that I don’t get.
Then as we rolled up to stage I found myself in the back row – I’m really not very good at this. Several of the guys were suggesting that we take it easy until we get to the grass – we’re all here “to have fun” I think is how it goes… I had already made one rookie mistake this weekend so screw that. Besides, I think it would be more “fun” to be nearer the pointy end. The way I see it these guys had started racing when they forced their way to the front – once we “switch on”, it’s on…
I was able to make it around most of the line barging hipsters by the end of the long start straight and a few more as we went through the first barriers. When things settled down I was in the top 10 which I was comfortable with. My decent late corner acceleration was making it possible for me to stay close to the fast guys at the start of the race. I was worried that my legs would be tired from Saturday’s 45 minute effort in the red zone, but I felt better than expected. I don’t think cross’ effect on the body is as much like road racing’s non-stop prolonged efforts as I expected it would be. But still, I need to do a lot of work before I can stay with those top 4 or 5 guys.
Eric Moody (E2) blasting up the inside
Like Saturday, I had a really fun race with a few other guys on Sunday. There were always three of us within a few seconds. Mid-way through the race I felt the rear tire briefly roll off the rim (I’m still riding clinchers which do that at the lower pressures used in cross). I was convinced I wouldn’t make it to the end of the race as it felt like the tire was going flat. I checked it a couple of times and it seemed that it hadn’t lost all of its air so I was able to ride carefully to a sixth place finish. At the finish line it was totally flat – better lucky than good.
Cross is fun and it has been good for my fitness – its forcing me to run in the red zone for prolonged periods which is exactly the kind of training I’ve been missing (that laziness thing again). I’ve also successfully kept the bike from hitting the ground after loosing traction several times which is good for my bike handling confidence. Afterward everybody gets beer and French fries. How cool is that?
This cross thing is growing on me.
p.s. Cross races are also fun to watch on fall weekends – that’s how I originally got suckered in. In Portland, Cross Crusade is the big deal.