ChiCrossCup#1 - Carpentersville, IL
First cyclocross race of the year today and well it’s a good thing it isn’t the only one. First races are always tough because everyone is so excited and nervous. The Cat 4 Men’s field was a little over 60 strong which is an enormous group to all be racing at the same time. The Spring Prairie, WI road race had 75 Cat 5 men, but they also split us up into 2 groups which was very smart. A lot of the racers were racing ‘cross for the first time and for me it was the first race on my Waterford X-22 ‘cross bike. Last year this was my first ‘cross race too and I did it with Allan on my Bianchi track bike. Instead of riding fixed I raced with a singlespeed freewheel I installed the night before and just my front brake (the Bianchi can’t mount a rear brake by design). I crashed twice in that race the first time slamming my rear wheel into the concrete edging along a creek forcing me to run half a lap to get it repaired. The second time my front wheel turned while I was hopping back on after a run up causing me to flip over my handlebars. That 2nd crash damaged my only working brake meaning I finished the race with no brakes(!).
Today did not go as badly, but was still a bit of a disaster. One addition this year was they (the evil course designers) routed us through the playground which was contained in a giant sand pit. Most of the Cat ½’s would ride through it getting a ton of speed and just hammering a huge gear all the way through. While I was taking a practice lap I fell and accidentally pulled my shifter cable knocking my gears out of whack. Of course I didn’t realize this until just after the start whistle. After the whistle I clipped in and clicked my shifter twice to bring me into a nice hard gear to sprint with when it felt like I took a step and there was no stair. I fell into my handlebars, but got up right away confused why I was still in my easy gear. That’s when I remembered pulling my shifter cable. Damn! 30 racers streamed past me while my adrenaline addled mind struggled to comprehend what was going on. By the time I figured out what was wrong I was back in the game pounding away trying to catch as many guys as possible. Right in the begging was a set of 3 barriers and a run up so I shouldered my bike and ran all the way up and around 10 or more riders who were negotiating past not only each other, but also 2 riders who had crashed among the barriers (see pic).
Now that I was going at a good clip I thought that maybe I’d be able to salvage the race and get in the 50% mark. That is until during one of my remounts my saddle came loose tossing me onto the ground. Immediately I shouldered my ride and was ready to run back to the mechanic’s pit and try and fix it. Along the way I see Nico West and he’s shouting at me “Why are you running?” which I breathlessly answer “I need a hex wrench!” which thank god he had on him. Fixing my seat cost me about 5 places, but since I didn’t do a very good job I was struggling for the last few laps standing most of the way. The race over the officials struggled to post even the top 25 riders, so I don’t actually know how I ended up placing. My guess is around 40 of 60 not too bad all things considering. Hopefully with the next few Wisconsin races as tune ups I’ll be better prepped for ChiCrossCup #2 in
St. Charles.
