Monday, November 28, 2011

Jefferson Barracks

After a season of warm and dry cyclocross the conditions have taken a turn for the worse. Last weekend was the treacherous mud and slop of Mount Pleasant. This weekend almost similar. No rain to speak of but cloudy, cool temps around 40 degrees and ground that was rather saturated from a day and night of steady, light rain.

Two-thirds of the course was non-technical except for a short kicker of an uphill. What it lacked in technical aspects, it made up for in grinding uphills. The last third was more turny with a handful of tricky little turns.

Even with a front row starting spot, I still only got an average start. But, an average start from the front row makes for a much easier race than having to grind through 10-15 riders for a place near the top 10. It was not an easy race, though. My back was aching for the final three laps. I wanted to settle into cruise mode but I was gradually reeling in Patrick from Off the Front.

With half a lap to go, I pass him on the LOOONG uphill. I hold him through the remaining turns and even opened up a decent sized gap. I hit the finishing pavement and accelerated for a little bit since he did not seem to be giving up. I eased up and looked back. He still kept charging so I gave it a few more pedals strokes and crossed the line about a half bike ahead for a satisfactory 9th place. Or, so I thought

After the race I was listed in 10th. I compared race number to the start list names and my 10th place wasn't a matter of getting a lapped rider mixed in with the leaders. Instead they had me being beaten to the line by Patrick. How can I dispute that without a finish line camera, regardless of how confident I was. I contacted an official this afternoon seeking clarification about the finish and whether I was confused about my placing.

As I was typing this blog, I received confirmation that 9th place is mine. Yay!!! In the big picture 9th place vs 10th place is not a big deal. But, I fought hard for that place and earned it. And, that place may get me a slightly better starting spot at Nationals in January.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Bike maintenance silliness

This past Sunday morning, I changed my rear cassette in anticipation of that afternoon's race on the hillside at Mount Pleasant winery. I took off the the 25 tooth cassette and slid on a 27 tooth as a replacement.

I've been around long enough to know that I shouldn't be making last minute changes to bike setups. This even crossed my mind as I was making the change. But, I was blindly confident in my ability to make such a simple change. What could go wrong?

After the Womens race, I jumped out on course for a little reconnaissance. When I shifted higher up on the cassette the chain was skipping and hopping around. Eventually, it would find its proper place but shifting was basically crap. This was not the race to have trouble shifting into those higher gears.

Thankfully, I was smart enough to bring along the gears that I had removed earlier in the morning. Sometimes being cautious pays off. I rode back to the car to change my gearing back to the 25 cassette, as a light rain had begun falling again. I took the wheel off and, sure enough, the last few cogs were wobbling around on the freehub like it needed another spacer. Off came the 27... on went the 25... but there was a problem. The last cog would not fit on the freehub. What? How? I pulled the cogs off and put them back on again. Once again, the 12 tooth cog would not fit. What the hell? Meanwhile, the rain keeps falling and I keep getting more wet.

Like a fool expecting a different result, the cassette came off and went on again with the same result. By this time, my frustration level reached its peak and I decided to just race with a poorly shifting bike. Someone up above was looking down on me and the bike actually performed reasonably well.

Skip forward to yesterday morning. I was going for a morning CX ride and thought I would give one last try to get the 25 tooth cassette to work properly. Sure enough, the darn thing went on with no problem at all. No problem except for the fact that, once I put the wheel back on, the chain was now skipping badly on the rear derailleur pulleys no matter what gear I was in. Now what was the problem!

I was stumped for a few minutes before noticing that the upper pulley was not turning. I popped the wheel off again and tried to manually move the pulley. This didn't work much better. The pulley would turn about half a revolution and stop. Back and forth, back and forth, I moved the pulley trying to figure out the problem. I saw some grass wedged in the derailleur cage but it didn't appear to be enough to completely seize a derailleur pulley. With no better idea, I got a small screwdriver and poked and prodded at the space between the cage and the pulley. I pushed out a couple clumps of the grass but the wheel still was not turning. Eventually, I must have freed up something and things began to run more smoothly fifteen minutes before I had to leave for my ride.

I've had enough of stupid, little, annoying mechanical issues this week. Time to focus on Jefferson Barracks this Sunday and the State Championships next weekend.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Glory and slop

This past weekend was another full weekend of races. It's probably my imagination but it seems there have more of these double race weekends this year. The CX season is barely more than two months old but I am starting to want a break.

Even if I was rather slack in training during the road season, it has been nine months of racing. I am not physically tired. More than anything, I feel a little bit of mental fatigue. Thankfully, my results have gradually improved since the start of the season in Hermann. This has kept me looking forward in a positive light toward the State Championships in Kansas City, two weekends from now.

This past Saturday was the premiere CoMO Awesomo race in Columbia, MO. My original plan was to do the usual Cat 3/4 race but I was on call, starting at noon, during an important weekend at work. Friday evening I noticed that this race had a Masters race at 10am. Hmmm... Not perfect but I could be back home near 1pm and not be risking too much by being away.

This turned out to be a low-key event with small turnouts. Not surprising, since it was a first time race in the middle of the state and on a Saturday, when turnouts always seem lighter. When race time rolled around there were only seven of us Masters that showed up to race.

During my warmup laps I was not excited about this course. Everything seemed bland. There was TONS of tape, thanks mostly to a giant spiral of death, and the field it was built on was full of clumpy grass. I never felt comfortable.

With the small number of competitors it was easy for me to get a front row spot. That didn't stop me from being the 6th of 7 riders into the first turn. My starts absolutely suck this year. I wont get into great detail about the race but I moved up quickly in the spiral of death after seeing Trent open a small gap. If I didn't shut that down quick, it was going to get bigger because I didn't trust the guy in 2nd place being able to hold his wheel. I shut down the gap to Trent and the two of us gradually opened up the gap to the rest. Seeing how Trent and I pulled away, I was very thankful for not waiting around to close that gap.

The two of us had a ding-dong battle for most of the race. Trent was more than willing to lead most of the race and that was fine for me. I don't mind sitting on a wheel. I was much better in the turns but he was better on the flat, straight stretches. With 1.5 laps to go, I let him get a little too far away and couldn't shut it down and ultimately finished in 2nd, 20 seconds behind after easing up a little in the last half lap.

Looking back on the race, I really kind of like the course. Strange how a good result can change perceptions.

Sunday's race was at Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta, MO. The morning was filled with off and on light rain and the temperatures had taken a serious 20 degree drop from the short sleeve weather of Saturday.

I arrived about 15 minutes before the first race and a few women had already decided not to race because of the course conditions. This wasn't encouraging to me. I walked down to a spot where I could see much of the course which is, largely, built on a hillside. Some of the workers were just finishing up a course change. They had taken out a turn that was apparetnly very treacherous with the wet conditions.

I watched a little of the Women's race and, even with the one course change, saw several crashes in just a couple laps. I went to the car, changed clothes and took a couple laps after the women were done. The course was a little tricky because of some off-camber turns but not so bad... yet. After the women, the "C" racers managed to tear up the course and turn virtually every turn into a slippery, muddy mess.

My new Limus tubulars did pretty well in the mud, in my opinion. The conditions were certainly slick and care had to be taken, but I never felt like I was skating through turns or hanging on for dear life.

My start, like Saturday, was not great but I raced a mostly clean race. I never felt quick but I was as fast as some of the top 5 guys once the race settled in. This race was brutal. Very slick. Tough course, even in ideal conditions. Mud clogging up cleats and pedals. It's hell when you are racing but fun in retrospect. A solid 10th place makes things feel a little better, too.

Here is a humorous, little video of my one crash on a devishly hard off-camber turn.