2019 cx season - wed week 6

Wed cx week 6. The last one. This race is out at big sky brewery since our big race is there Saturday. I was out there Sunday mowing the ditch around the sand pit, and then Monday was a snow storm, and Tuesday was really cold. Which meant all the course setup happened kind of at the last minute yesterday. I got the back yard of the brewery setup while Dave and Cory worked on the hill. This is the 4th year racing out there and I've helped set things up before, so we have things mostly figured out, but there's some new stuff this year, mainly that the road between the brewery and the big hillside we use is getting closed so the street is the start/finish straight. The previous issue was that the course was a little short, laps being low 5 min for the fastest guys. Now we're using more of the hilliside plus the street and it's longer. Our laps last night were over 7min and we didn't have to get too crazy with stuff like constant back and forth through a field.


After a couple of hours of course setup I went home to grab all my stuff and was back a little after 4. This gave me time to hack some ice out of the parking lot after turn one and attempt to warm up. My mistake was wearing my base layer while I did all this because it was pretty damp and the temp was like 22f so I decided to just race in my long sleeve jersey with nothing under it like that cold day at the golf course. I did wear full leg warmers and my warmer gloves though. This was fine but I would have rather been wearing that extra layer. Also the race was kept short, only like 30min, because they had the series awards after and it was already going to be pretty cold and dark. Also there was snow on the ground. Fairly light though and traction was good.

At the start, I'm on the front row and then just go backward. Everyone is passing me and about halfway through the lap I'm at the very back of the line wondering what is going on (likely all that walking around to setup the course). But then we climb the hill and I made up a bunch of spots before the off camber descent into the runup, where I catch Charlie. Next lap, the two of us are up to Shaun. The front of the race is Andrew, Toby, some Speedvagen guy from Portland, Dan and Rob, then the three of us. Charlie gets by Shaun, Shaun doesn't chase him and I stick on Shaun because I'm kind of dying after all that work to move back up on lap 1. Charlie gets a few seconds on us, and then last lap I go too wide in turn 1 through the gravel parking lot onto the loose stuff and Shaun comes inside. Then gets a little space on the steps going around a lapped rider, then gets a little more space over the flyover where I'm remounting too slowly at the top. That's where the gaps stay.

It was kind of hard to decide whether to go higher or lower for tire pressure. While yes, there was snow and ice out on the course and a pretty nasty off camber, the course is mostly grass, the traction was good and things are pretty smooth and there are some fast straight sections where you want to minimize rolling resistance. At the golf course, I was up to 31/33. In the mud at bozeman I started at 22/24 and assume they dropped a bit during the race. At our other course I've settled on 27/29. Because of the snow and off camber and tight corners, I put 26/28 in the tires before warmup. This was after letting the bike sit outside while I was clearing ice. Then I rode around for a good 30-40 min, then checked pressures again. They'd dropped to 22/24 from the cold ground and snow. That didn't feel excessively low but I went back up to 26/28 and raced there. It seemed fine. I had enough grip to ride the runup and go into the snowy downhill 180s about as fast as I dared, sometimes foot out and sliding.

I'm going to blame all the course setup work on that one. This happens to me every year and Dave (one of the race directors) told me not to show up to help today or tomorrow. Plus I feel like the fitness has been on a downhill slide all season. I suppose that happens when you ride less and pretty much only race. This weekend will be fun regardless and maybe it's better not going into it gunning for the cat 3 win and then winding up off the podium disappointed. Plus there is no cat 3 podium, 1/2/3 and open 4/5 are all racing together and scored together and there are some pros showing up. Our race is the last one of the day, at 8:30pm, and there's free beer all day, so the crowd is pretty fun.

pics

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