Sunday, November 13, 2005

evolution racing cyclocross

these 'cross racing days are a lot more relaxed when you're not rushing around to be ready for a 10 am start. hit the road aound 8 to head out to leesburg so i could shoot the C race and cheer on some fellow city bikes riders. took a spin around the course with mike before the C race and saw a lot of differences from last years' race... one more steep climb in the first half of the course, but since they were dry they were all rideable, a new section around the back half of the course that replaced a grassy section in the first half of the course, and a new finish with 2 climbs and a couple of tight turns. took a spill in the final turn, so i got early notice that this could a potential problem in the race.

shot the C race - won by my city bikes teammate, mike scardaville - then watched the first part of the masters race then started warming up in preparation for my first B race. lined up in the 3rd row at the start since my intention for the race was to play it safe, stay out of trouble, and get a feel for the Bs. there were a bunch of call-ups, but a lot of no-shows amongst them and 2 pro women who decided to add the men's B race to their racing for the weekend: sue haywood (trek/vw) and georgia gould (kona).

at the whistle were off and heading up the hill on the road toward the course... i'm sitting about 2/3rds of the way down the 20-30 rider pack but then around the first corner of the course a rider ahead of me overshoots and gets caught in the tape, tangling 4 or 5 of us up. we got sorted out pretty quickly and headed towards the barriers and off towards the back section of the course. once we settled in i started to pick up my pace a bit and pick off riders on the short steep climbs on the back side of the course. took one turn a little too wide and almost hit a short wooden post on the outside of the course.

by the end of the first lap i was somewhere around 15th, and then by the end of the 2nd lap i was up to 10th and was actually closing on a large group of riders that made up the main chase. i managed to pick up one more place as a rider dropped off the back, but i wasn't able to get any closer to the rest of the group. 3 laps in i finally got a look at the lap cards which were showing 3 laps to go. with a lap and a half to go the last rider that i passed came back around me and i while i closed the gap down a couple of times i was fading pretty badly and wasn't able to catch him again. the chase for 9th place may not have worked, but it got me a pretty good gap on the riders behind me and i finished in 10th (of 25 according to the results posted later in the day).

3 comments:

gwadzilla said...

joe
good work
did you get sue's number?
not her race number! her phone number!

good work on the race
stepped up to the Bs and finished in the top 10
excellent!

wish I could have been there
next year for me!

keep up the good work

jg

Anonymous said...

Joe -
Nice work - wish I could have stayed around to race!
I'll give 'er a shot at Reston.

Your Friendly Neighborhood HR Dude said...

great ride.
that b race is no joke.

respect
m