WCA Cyclocross Series Race #2

Moe's Burrito Cross, Lapham Peak State Park, Delafield, WI

Preface: Lapham Peak State Park is a really cool park with tons of mountain bike, and cross country ski trails, rolling hills and forests. They have a snow making machine for xc skiing and a nice little hut to keep skiers warm. They have (weekly?) ski races in the winter, and its only about 50 minutes from home. For all this nice stuff, they charge you $7 to enter the park, and another $4 for a trail pass. This is on top of the $20 entry fee for racing. There is only one toilet in the only men's bathroom, and no toilet paper, just paper towels. Spectating was crappy as there was a half mile walk from the parking lot, across a major highway, to the start/finish line. It was hard to see multiple sections of the course from one vantage point due to the course being on single/double track mountain bike trails. Cyclocross races are not supposed to be run on mountain bike trails. That is why they have mountain bike races. So the venue is awesome, just not for cyclocross races. Enough whining, now on with the race report.

Like I said, the start line was like a half mile from the car, so if you used the car as your "base," you never really knew what was going on with the racing. Are they running on time, or are they behind schedule? Are racers lining up for the start? Who knew. Brian and I managed to get one practice lap in before watching the start of Heather's bike racing debut.

The lap was basically long, flat power sections with some very slow speed chicanes thrown in to break things up. Not technical at all, with one very long run-up, and another double barrier section. Surfaces ranged from tacky, loamy dirt to gravel and a little grass. No pavement, sand, or mud, no off-camber techy stuff. The laps were long, almost 8 minutes. A poorly designed cyclocross course, in my opinion.

Brian and I got our spare wheels in the pits, and went to warm up on the trainers. With start position being critical, and the cars so far from the start line, we were worried we'd warm up too long, and miss the line up. So with absolutely no warm up at all, not one pedal stroke on the trainers, we made our way to the start line. It was a good call since there was already all sorts of dudes waiting for the perfect start position, which Brian and I got, by the way.

So we start, and I have the reluctant hole shot without any effort at all. Brain got screwed over at the start by some Polish dude. I used the first lap as my warm up and never really gave it 100% the first lap. The second placed rider said we had a gap, and I looked back and we already had 10 seconds or so on the chase group which contained Brian and some other dudes, one dude being a dip shit on a Richard Sachs Signature team bike. The cycling gods smited this unfortunate soul when he crashed hard whilst cutting the course. Brian later said he could have ran over his bicycle, and ruin his essentially priceless bike. So the second placed rider never pulled through, and I lead the first lap and a half until he made his move and attacked in a power section before the run-up. I stayed with him for a while, but I was unable to match his pace and he gapped me. I rode around by myself for a half lap until another rider bridged up to me. He immediately pulled through, and we rode a nice tempo for the next few laps, with the first placed rider dangling about 10 seconds up the course. We were never able to reel him in, however. I had a little day dream moment and drifted off the back of our little two man group. With about one lap to go the second placed rider hovering about 5 seconds ahead of me, I wasn't able to close the gap, and had to settle for third. Not too bad placing wise, but its annoying knowing I was definately strong enough for second place if I hadn't lost focus. The dude that won was really strong, he was 3rd at the first race. It will be hard to win if he's around.

Effort wise, it wasn't near as anaerobic as a cross race should be. More steady-state type efforts, and this is reflected in the stats from the HRM:
Excercise Time: 38:32
Average Heart Rate: 191
Max Heart Rate: 198
Calories Burned: 810

A big thanks again to my wifey for water hand-ups. Blogger is being retarded, so pictures will come later.