Another season of cyclocross racing is underway. Half over for me, actually. I've done 3 wed night races and went to Bozeman, and have 3 more wed night races and then Rolling Thunder.
Anyway, here's what I wrote about week 1
The course "old thunder," a mix of fast and smooth, and really rocky, lumpy, and loose. I don't like it that much- there are a lot of places you can crash or wreck a wheel/tire and some hard, immovable objects you come close to at high speed. My main goals were to stay upright and keep my tires full of air. You can ding the rim with tubulars but I don't have a good backup set right now so I'm trying not to find out what's too hard.
Was not thrilled with the first couple of corners. First one fine, slight bend on pavement from the paved start/finish straight into a paved parking lot at a baseball field, but then you go through a gate into a loose gravel lot, where you have to turn a little bit, and then there's a blind corner with a really inconveniently placed bench on the outside of the exit. Warming up, trying to go race pace around that corner I kept finding myself going straight at it or even going on the wrong side off course.
Off the line I had a pretty good start, sitting like 4-5th wheel, but then got a little nervous and let up in the gravel and was wider out than the line I'd been practicing and suddenly was near the back of the group and gaps were already forming. Ivan was already alone like 30 seconds in. Shit that kid is fast. He said he didn't have a very good race in Wisconsin, but did finish 7th and it was his first race as a UCI 17-18 junior. Behind Ivan were Andrew, Dan, Robert, and Charlie. Robert did beat me every week last year, and at every wed night XC race this spring, but some of them were close so I was kind of expecting to be near him tonight. Not so much. But after the bad start I did move up a couple of places on the first lap and was sitting in 6th with Charlie in sight, then he dropped his chain. Next lap, there's Andrew with some sort of a mechanical issue. There were a couple of guys chasing me for the first half, but I was out there alone in 4th the whole time. Kind of got on cruise control, and would find myself maybe not going as fast as I could in places. Then Phil and Jeremy, the leaders in the 40+ group that starts maybe 30s behind our group were getting close with about 3 to go. Then I got hung up behind some traffic on some technical bits a few times and had to get off, and they were closer. Last lap I had to get off on the last ride up because it was so loose and chewed up then through the shitty rocky downhill section Phil was basically on my wheel. But I picked it up and held him off to the finish.
4th in the A group, which ties my best wed night result, but without Charlie and Andrew's issues would have likely been 6th. Robert meanwhile wound up 2nd, but he had some motivation to chase Ivan after a puncture slowed him down and was riding with Dan most of the race. There were some pretty long headwind sections so drafting was helpful. I was just out there alone the whole time. Ivan still won. I generally felt pretty good, especially for the first race which is always a shock, but could easily wind up in like 10th with more fast racers there. I don't even want to look at the lap times right now.
Bike worked well. I went down from a 42t ring to 40t, but didn't notice much difference. New chain stayed on new chainring, I've had drops on this course like 3-4 times in the last two seasons with the 1x setip. 11-32 cassette. Tires are baby limus tubulars with like 4-5 races on them, and I went with 26/29 psi tonight. They stayed well supported on the fast, grippy corners, and while I dinged the rims a few times there were no hard impacts. I really wish I had another set of wheels with file treads though. Maybe could have used something like a chicane or las tonight (Ivan was on terreno drys, Andrew grifos, Robert MXPs, Charlie big wtb riddlers) but I appreciate grip over speed on this course. We have two golf course races though and faster tires would be nice. You really can feel the chunky side knobs grabbing the grass. I will probably just go up in pressure out there. I could pick up some tires and go with tubes and clinchers but I'm not sure it's worth spending the $120 or whatever on tires for two races, plus I'm thinking about fresh baby limuses for the end of the season.
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