The View Off The Back

This weekend was the Gloucester stop of the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross. Given that the course is pretty scenic, the race flyer usually touts that riders who fall off the back can enjoy the view. Let's just say I had a very scenic couple of races this weekend.

Saturday dawned overcast and around 40 or so. The forecast was for the sun to break through but given my race was the early one, it looked like we'd be racing under cloudy skies. We arrived around 7am, 1/2 before registration opened. Being a complete geek, I figured I'd take a lap with my sports camcorder. In retrospect, I'm glad I did since I now have video of the course but I truly feared being labeled that weird geek from NEBC with the helmet cam. Fortunately, there was next to no one out there so I escaped notice.

Fifteen minutes or so before the start time, I headed to the line up. There were about 26 or so women in the field and there were two fields to go off before ours, C Men and B Masters, with 30 seconds between each field. My goal was simply to not get pulled. Considering I hadn't been on my bike in two weeks due to travel, even accomplishing that was going to be a stretch.

The gun went off. Blake looked like she had a great start and considering how quickly she was accelerating away, I was hoping she'd kick serious butt and represent NEBC on the podium. I was probably about 15th or so onto the dirt. Definitely not good but not last! On the twisty grass section I was able to pass about 4 or 5 women by being slightly more reckless on the downhills and pushing hard on the uphills. Going into the chicane (which was easily ridable in the warm ups), a woman fell in front of me which caused me to go down. Quickly got up and continued on but I think some of the women I passed on the grassy section paid me back as I was down in the dirt. First time through the barriers, I felt smooth and pretty good but I was really sucking wind as I hit the lower section of course which was lots of twisty sections on grass and the sand pit, none of which are my favorites.

As I came up the pavement at the end of the first lap, I heard/saw Blake cheering. "What the f(*&^?" Turns out she was having shift lever issues again. Totally sucks. I headed out for my second lap which didn't turn out eventful until I dismounted for the sand pit. As I twisted my left foot out of the pedal, the pedal came off the crank. I clomped through the sand pit with the damn pedal still attached to my left foot and tried to think what I should do. Should I ride with one foot and try to pedal it back on? I thought I would definitely crash if I tried that so I opted to stand on the spindle with my right foot, twist my left and the pedal (Crank Bros Candy, if you're wondering) came off. I spun it back on but all in all, probably lost 30-45 seconds (felt much longer but I doubt it was), had a few more women pass me, but I was back and riding.

Coming up the pavement for the end of my second lap, the official was motioning me (and a few other women) off the course. I was somewhat confused as I hadn't been lapped yet so I asked what was going on.
"You've been pulled."
"Why?"
"Because you were lapped."
"WE WEREN'T LAPPED!", we all yelled in unison and pointed to the leaders in the men's field who were just entering the sand pit.
"Well, you would have been lapped on the next lap." was the official response. Totally sucked. Gave up arguing with the officials and headed over to the course to cheer on the remaining NEBC'ers.

Sunday morning was the complete opposite of Saturday. The stars and moon were out when I left the house and I was in Gloucester to catch a spectacular sunrise. Same routine as the previous day. The course was only slightly different - the twists and turns on the front, grassy side were somewhat modified and given that it was grass and nothing technical the changes really made no impact.

Again, there were about 25 of us at the start and again, I was about 15th hitting the dirt. Maybe even a little further up. And again, I passed people on the downhill parts of the grass early on. The course was a little harder to ride that day due to being chewed up the day before. I probably had the pressure set a little too high as I was bouncing quite a bit on the rough stuff before the Selle Italia chicane. Definitely had to dismount and carry the bike unlike the day before.

The rest of my race was uneventful. I kept trying to breath and not lose my position and was pretty successful at both. I concentrated on being smoother and faster through the transitions, accelerating out of turns and generally not puking on myself or the bike. Both of my pedals even stayed on. :-) Throughout the race I heard people cheering for me. At one point I heard a voice I recognized but couldn't place. Turned out to be my friend E and my brain on limited oxygen couldn't deal with placing her in an unusual context. Thanks to all of you who were screaming encouragement despite it being pretty clear I was pretty out of contention.

It's clear I don't have the fitness to keep up with the at least half of women out there but I was happy to at least finish and get a great workout, finishing four laps, not getting lapped and not getting pulled.