My First Cyclocross Race

I wouldn't say I got up early for my very first cyclocross race (Ed Sander Cyclocross, Lily Pons Water Gardens, Adamstown, MD, Sep 30 2007) , but I did manage to get there in time to check in, get my number, get into my shoes, and make it to the start line. In the rear of the men's cat 4 (c) (the newbie category), looking at the backs of about 70 other guys it turned out. The whistle went off and the mass finally moved forward after several seconds. Suddenly we were racing! Damn, this was fun stuff! I was able to move past a lot of people in the first half mile by being a little aggressive and knowing when to hit the gas to make the pass. I noticed right away that most of these guys bled off a lot of speed going through the turns. Definitely not mountain bikers. I was able to make a lot of passes by going much faster through the turns, either waiting behind a wheel and diving to the inside as someone took it wide, or taking an outside line and then making sure not to give the guy going inside too much room to straighten out the turn, forcing them to let up to make it around. The competitiveness of the race was exhilarating!

On my second of four laps I went through a very gravelly sharp turn a little too aggressively and slid out, in the same place I watched 20 or 30 other guys slide out in the later races. I really didn't feel like sliding in gravel, so I came down (gently!) on my hands and only briefly touched down on my right hip. It was only a second before I was picking the bike back up and getting ready to mount... and then I noticed the chain had dropped off. As I was riding singlespeed, This Was Not Supposed To Happen, in addition to being a real pain in the arse. I lost probably 10 or 15 positions while I worked on getting the chain back on (my punishment for putting a ramped and pinned chainring on a singlespeed), then I was back in the game. For the final two and half laps I worked on gaining back positions I'd already taken and trying to conserve energy for the steeps on the back half of the course -- not really a great cyclocross strategy, but I'm definitely at the bottom of the cyclocross learning curve, minus bike handling skills.

Finally the race was over. My legs didn't have much left for the steeps, but my energy systems were really just getting to the point of max output and I was feeling pretty darned good at the finish, which is not how it's supposed to be. Hmmm... I need to work on that. I placed 32nd out of 83 starters -- not too bad considering I started in the back, it was my first race, and I had the mechanical. I managed to bruise the inside of my left calf pretty good somehow, but got through my first 'cross race pretty much unscathed. What I need to do now is work on my mounts, and make the bike more reliable. For the bike I ordered a 42 tooth rampless, pinless Salsa chainring and a new chain. I'll also be putting v-brakes on the front and using a lighter tire next time. Hopefully I'll still be able to stop without disc brakes when things get wet. Mentally, I need to discard notions of conserving energy and just go as hard as I can all the time -- it's only 40 minutes after all.

It's fair to say I'm hooked. :) Now I know what all of the excitement is about when 'cross season approaches. Perhaps next year I'll build up a decent singlespeed 'cross bike, but for now I'm very comfortable with the converted mountain bike, heavy as it is. See you at the races!