Tacchino Ciclicross

with lingering aches from wednesdays gambrill ride (and fall) still around on friday I decided to not bother with saturdays U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross race in new jersey... it would have been fun to see the big boys duke it out in the A race up there, but i'd rather take it easy and make sure i can do the local race where there will be people i know, plus a friend and co-worker had a party saturday night for her birthday and it would be a lot easier to stop by there for a bit if i wasn't sandwiching it between 2 races...

the drive down the race on sunday morning wasn't bad, and the entrance to the farm was marked with a yellow and black flandrian lion flag... got registered and then took a couple of quick warmup laps around the course... most of the course ran on farm tracks through the fields, a mix of grassy and double track... the double track sections of the course where slick and muddy, but most had pretty good lines through them... a couple of grassy downhills, mostly though the middle of the fields, wet, with off-camber turns... about a quarter of the way around was the first technical section, a short dirt downhill, followed by a run-up back to the fields... thanks to the rain the dirt was 2 inch deep thick mud. i chose to run this whole section, figuring that i'd be just as slow if i rode the downhill and then dismounted for the run-up... this was pretty common in the C race, but it seemed to harden up a bit later in the day... the run up on the other side was challenging, since there was almost no footing on the slope...

back through the fields to my favorite section, 3 log steps in place of barriers... i rode them on both warmup laps but figured they wouldn't be much of an advantage in the race, since most people would be able to ride them... more fields, then a couple of fast downhill corners and very off-camber right turn... i was able to find a line and get through cleanly, but a lot of people had trouble here... back down into the woods through a gully... easy to ride, just point your bike at the other side and let go of the brakes, but it seemed to scare a lot of riders. up a short dirt climb, then onto the grass and a very soft climb... i ended up running it, but some riders were able to grind it out, so i probably should have tried it on my warmup laps... one last trip though the woods, including a very cool banked turn and a quick climb and then a climb to the finishing straight... the final run into the finish line was flat, with a couple of good lines...

lined up in the third row and waited for the for the whistle... not having ridden since wednesday i ended up losing a few places on the start... the first lap was chaotic... i got stuck behind a rideron the first pass through the logs and had to dismount... after the chaos of the first lap i started pulling back a few riders including a lanterne rouge rider just before the first runup, but the remounts were my undoing... at the top of the 2 run-ups i was so exhausted that my remounts were awful... including one that went so badly i ended up on the ground. i probably lost a couple of minutes just from the runups and remounts...

after 2 laps, the signal was up for 2 more, so i dug in and tried to pull riders back on the climbs and technical sections... i passed a couple who decided to run parts the 2 rideable singletrack sections and by the last lap i was closing on a Team Fuji rider. I made up some time on the logs, which he ran and by the climb to finishing straight i was only a couple of bike lengths back... I held back a little, sticking as close to his wheel as possible - if i'm going to sprint i'd rather be sprinting from behind, since it give you something to chase... once we hit the finishing straight i start pulling closer, and about half way there i hit the gas and come around, beating him by about a bike length at the line... i think there was a bit of a reaction from the crowd and i sat up and coasted to the next break in the tape...

no one i knew had seen the sprint, so i wasn't if they'd give me the place and i had to wait untill the results were up... 18th place in the end, and i did win the sprint... don't know how many were in the class... they've only published results up to 20, but i think there were 25-30.

stuck around for the rest of the races and took pictures, i'll post some later...