Powderhorn Park CX report - C race
From: Bill Connell
Date: Oct 22, 2007 10:46 PM
14th place, 110 starters (from what i heard)
For the second week in a row, the threat of rain held off and it was
near-perfect ‘cross weather. I rode to the race, which made for a nice
warm-up and a good chance to fine-tune clothing layers for the race. I
got to the park early and from the north, so i got a nice preview of
some of the new course, including the oddball MORC-style bridges
section over some construction dirt piles. The course was a lot
different than last year, and a little disorienting at first because
parts of the course were run backwards from last year, and some turns
were hard to figure out on the first lap. Pre-riding was totally
unnecessary for the gratuitous mud section, of course, as it was
obvious that there was little strategy there other than trying to not
fall over.
Speaking of pre-riding, a registration holdup delayed the start of the
Cs by about 10 minutes, and the officials sent everyone off for a
practice lap. I, for one, was glad for the delay when i realized that
my seat post clamp had somehow popped loose. With the delayed start, i
was able to tighten it down and get back to the line in time. I hate
to think how the race would have gone otherwise.
I got a good start, again in the mid-20s or so. The pack seemed to
string out pretty quickly after the trip around the baseball diamond
and the short stair runup. The little 2×4 bunny hops were annoying; on
lap 2, a board jumped up and knocked my foot off the pedal. I liked
the run around the construction area and plywood bridges, but i like
any course that rewards my mountain bike skills.
In retrospect, i should have done some more testing to see if i could
ride the long staircase runup. In practice, it looked like everyone
was supposed to go on the left because of the way the tape ran at the
top. Later i saw people riding up the smoother right side, so i might
have been able to do that too, because i usually tend to ride those. I
did pass one guy on the runup, but only because i rode up about 15
feet up before dismounting and managed to stay ahead the rest of the
run/walk up.
By lap 4 everyone around me was so far apart that i couldn’t get
closer than 50 feet to the guy ahead of me, so no sprint finish for
me. I was happy with my finish and my effort. Unlike last weekend at
Boom Island, i don’t think i had another 2 laps in me. I should have
eaten before the race, and my right thigh started cramping up through
the last 1/2 lap. I didn’t bonk, but didn’t leave much in reserve,
which was good.
The main thing i realized in this race were the little things i’ve
learned to do to conserve momentum and energy, increase efficiency,
etc. I have reasonably good endurance, but little things like holding
a good line and staying out of the rough makes a big difference in how
much energy you can focus on going faster or holding someone off after
a pass. In short, experience is good!
Thanks to my fellow rodents and to Ron and Marty from the shop for the
cheering, and whoever it was (Ron?) who called out my position after
lap 2, very helpful!