Racing hard, or hardly racing?
USGPs round 5 and 6. Home turf advantage. Training all fall for this and the coming weeks. Legs felt promising. Weather, epic. Everything seemed to be falling into place to have a good weekend racing.
My weekend started Friday as I drove over the pass to the valley. I got a bit of a late start because I had to wait for UPS to bring Jason’s bike that he had shipped to me from Colorado. I also received an email saying that I would need to prove my US citizenship in order to race the UCI races. Didn’t I do this last year when I got my UCI license? I didn’t figure I’d have to do it every year. To prove this I needed my birth certificate or my passport. Good luck finding where I put my b.c, but I figured my passport could only be in a few spots. No luck. After scouring through my room (actually clean for once) and the, “important boxes,” in the garage I was baffled. I know I had seen it recently, but couldn’t find it. I think I may have brought it to Vegas, so my current theory is that it is lost there along with my cross form. Oh well. I decided to chance it, hoping that I could sweet talk the UCI official w/o proof, and Jon and I loaded up and headed out.
We hit up River City for the meet the riders food/beer gathering and I was on my mission to get approved to race. After showing my 2006 UCI license and promising a photo copy of it to the official, he agreed to let me race! I got in line to get my registration number, for once not worrying about starting in the back of the 80 or so rider field. You see, as in any cross race, it’s really hard to start from the back at a USGP. When the start whistle blows, you get to watch the front half of the group ride away before you even get to clip in. Then it’s all bob and weave as you try to make up any ground possible as everyone is full throttle. I registered kind of late, but put an email in to Bruce, who started and still works for Pedro’s. He’s also the executive race director for the USGP series, and told me that he would line me up behind the UCI point holders if I came out and raced any of the events. Sweet. Here we go…sign the waiver, proof of license, and get my sweet number…uh, 73? That doesn’t seem very good. “How man guys are racing,” I asked. “About 76.” I was told. Then I was informed that after the UCI points, the start numbers are randomly generated. So much for industry contacts! Bruce still tried to finagle something for me, but no luck. He told me that Sundays race number would probably be different and in my favor….It was different, but not in my favor, I was number 75. Ha! After the meet and greet, I headed to the airport to pick up some Clif Bar kids and we went for pizza…and beers…a theme of the weekend!
Race days were similar to each other. Cold, rainy, windy. Makes it hard for the motivation to get a good warm up, but luckily we had tents and portable heaters set up for the Sunnyside crew. I’m not sure I warmed up good enough either day, but did get an opener or two in and felt good. At the start grid, I was in the very back. Not great, but I tried to make the best of it. The gun went off and I pedaled hard, but a bit conservatively. After the long pavement stretch we hit the left hander that led to an off camber side hill. Awesome and muddy. The only thing that sucked was that everyone thought they should ride it and not run it. The section was very ride-able, but not with 80 dudes all seeing cross eyed from the start effort. People were flailing all over. If people would have just ran it for that first lap, it would have been way better. I was impressed with Ben as he rode right through people, but then even he screwed everyone around him up when he had to get off. Run, mount, pedal through more mud. That was the order of the day. I was feeling ok and felt like a 20-something result was possible. A few laps in I slid out on one of the muddy dips and got mud packed into my rear shifter. Great reason to pit is what I thought. Use my crew and get a clean bike. This is the big time! Into the pit I went trying to figure out what rain gear clad helper was mine. Rather than look blankly, I started calling out his name. “Don? Don? Don? Don?” No luck. I hit the end of the pit and promptly turned around. If you leave the pit w/o repairs, then you get a big fat DQ and I didn’t want that. Half way back through the pit, screaming my lungs out, Jon came running up to me with a bike. I dropped my current steed and went off frustrated and mad. That didn’t help the rest of the race any. I should have just focused on the task at hand. It’s hard when you’re racing for 30th place and you lose what seems like an eternity of time. Everyone around you is basically your equal and a mistake like that can make it impossible to catch back up to the group you were trailing. After that I refused to go back into the pit and just rode it out until Johnson lapped me. I’ve never been lapped by Tim, but he was riding out of his brain on that course, so it was meant to be.
photo: oregon velo
Sunday wasn’t much different, but my pit exchanges were pretty good. Another back row start, but the legs felt pretty sweet. This days mud was wet and soupy, and the course was pretty fun, even using part of the bmx track. Picking my way through people and riding the mud sections went pretty well. Other than the wind blowing me off of the bmx track, I was happy with the way things were going until my rear shifter started acting up. It was sticking in the shift position and not returning to the normal spot. This made it tricky, as I didn’t notice until I went to brake and didn’t have a working lever. Overshot a corner and I had to get off my bike as I almost hit a tree. Guess I’m going to the pit! There’s Don! Take the Ridley, shout out that the shifter is screwy and head off to chase back to Ben. I still felt pretty good and rode a few good laps on the, “B,” bike. Time to get my Marcroft back! Back into the pit a few laps later. Yes! There’s Don. Grab bike and go. Oops, I fell in the mud slop. No worries. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Ah….my shifter is even more f’d. What???? Lose places. Bummer. Back into the pit for the Ridley again. Another good exchange and I was off for my final laps. Ryan got me, but I lasted a fair bit longer than Saturday and finished right with Ian. Weekend over. Disappointing results, but the courses were pretty epic and fun. Good people and maybe a few too many drinks every night made up the weekend, so all in all, it was a success. Results are only a small part when you’re racing in the middle, so it’s good to be surrounded by friends.
My weekend started Friday as I drove over the pass to the valley. I got a bit of a late start because I had to wait for UPS to bring Jason’s bike that he had shipped to me from Colorado. I also received an email saying that I would need to prove my US citizenship in order to race the UCI races. Didn’t I do this last year when I got my UCI license? I didn’t figure I’d have to do it every year. To prove this I needed my birth certificate or my passport. Good luck finding where I put my b.c, but I figured my passport could only be in a few spots. No luck. After scouring through my room (actually clean for once) and the, “important boxes,” in the garage I was baffled. I know I had seen it recently, but couldn’t find it. I think I may have brought it to Vegas, so my current theory is that it is lost there along with my cross form. Oh well. I decided to chance it, hoping that I could sweet talk the UCI official w/o proof, and Jon and I loaded up and headed out.
We hit up River City for the meet the riders food/beer gathering and I was on my mission to get approved to race. After showing my 2006 UCI license and promising a photo copy of it to the official, he agreed to let me race! I got in line to get my registration number, for once not worrying about starting in the back of the 80 or so rider field. You see, as in any cross race, it’s really hard to start from the back at a USGP. When the start whistle blows, you get to watch the front half of the group ride away before you even get to clip in. Then it’s all bob and weave as you try to make up any ground possible as everyone is full throttle. I registered kind of late, but put an email in to Bruce, who started and still works for Pedro’s. He’s also the executive race director for the USGP series, and told me that he would line me up behind the UCI point holders if I came out and raced any of the events. Sweet. Here we go…sign the waiver, proof of license, and get my sweet number…uh, 73? That doesn’t seem very good. “How man guys are racing,” I asked. “About 76.” I was told. Then I was informed that after the UCI points, the start numbers are randomly generated. So much for industry contacts! Bruce still tried to finagle something for me, but no luck. He told me that Sundays race number would probably be different and in my favor….It was different, but not in my favor, I was number 75. Ha! After the meet and greet, I headed to the airport to pick up some Clif Bar kids and we went for pizza…and beers…a theme of the weekend!
Race days were similar to each other. Cold, rainy, windy. Makes it hard for the motivation to get a good warm up, but luckily we had tents and portable heaters set up for the Sunnyside crew. I’m not sure I warmed up good enough either day, but did get an opener or two in and felt good. At the start grid, I was in the very back. Not great, but I tried to make the best of it. The gun went off and I pedaled hard, but a bit conservatively. After the long pavement stretch we hit the left hander that led to an off camber side hill. Awesome and muddy. The only thing that sucked was that everyone thought they should ride it and not run it. The section was very ride-able, but not with 80 dudes all seeing cross eyed from the start effort. People were flailing all over. If people would have just ran it for that first lap, it would have been way better. I was impressed with Ben as he rode right through people, but then even he screwed everyone around him up when he had to get off. Run, mount, pedal through more mud. That was the order of the day. I was feeling ok and felt like a 20-something result was possible. A few laps in I slid out on one of the muddy dips and got mud packed into my rear shifter. Great reason to pit is what I thought. Use my crew and get a clean bike. This is the big time! Into the pit I went trying to figure out what rain gear clad helper was mine. Rather than look blankly, I started calling out his name. “Don? Don? Don? Don?” No luck. I hit the end of the pit and promptly turned around. If you leave the pit w/o repairs, then you get a big fat DQ and I didn’t want that. Half way back through the pit, screaming my lungs out, Jon came running up to me with a bike. I dropped my current steed and went off frustrated and mad. That didn’t help the rest of the race any. I should have just focused on the task at hand. It’s hard when you’re racing for 30th place and you lose what seems like an eternity of time. Everyone around you is basically your equal and a mistake like that can make it impossible to catch back up to the group you were trailing. After that I refused to go back into the pit and just rode it out until Johnson lapped me. I’ve never been lapped by Tim, but he was riding out of his brain on that course, so it was meant to be.
photo: oregon veloSunday wasn’t much different, but my pit exchanges were pretty good. Another back row start, but the legs felt pretty sweet. This days mud was wet and soupy, and the course was pretty fun, even using part of the bmx track. Picking my way through people and riding the mud sections went pretty well. Other than the wind blowing me off of the bmx track, I was happy with the way things were going until my rear shifter started acting up. It was sticking in the shift position and not returning to the normal spot. This made it tricky, as I didn’t notice until I went to brake and didn’t have a working lever. Overshot a corner and I had to get off my bike as I almost hit a tree. Guess I’m going to the pit! There’s Don! Take the Ridley, shout out that the shifter is screwy and head off to chase back to Ben. I still felt pretty good and rode a few good laps on the, “B,” bike. Time to get my Marcroft back! Back into the pit a few laps later. Yes! There’s Don. Grab bike and go. Oops, I fell in the mud slop. No worries. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Ah….my shifter is even more f’d. What???? Lose places. Bummer. Back into the pit for the Ridley again. Another good exchange and I was off for my final laps. Ryan got me, but I lasted a fair bit longer than Saturday and finished right with Ian. Weekend over. Disappointing results, but the courses were pretty epic and fun. Good people and maybe a few too many drinks every night made up the weekend, so all in all, it was a success. Results are only a small part when you’re racing in the middle, so it’s good to be surrounded by friends.
