WCA Cyclocorss Race #6

Milwaukee Cyclocross, Estabrook Park, Milwaukee, WI

It was nice and sunny today with temps in the 50's for the race. The course was fast and dry with lots of pavement and fast grass sections. There was some nice slow chicanes and some tricky singletrack thrown in for good measure. There was 2 sets of barriers, and a short, steep run-up. The laps were fairly short, about 5 minutes long.

Brian and I both had front row starts that neither of us took advantage of. We didn't anticipate the start and we were slow getting off the line. When we finally got going, we were sqweezed into each other and rubbed shoulders. No harm, no foul. I made my way to the front group with brian right behind. I put in a little acceleration and made my way to the front before we entered the singletrack. I was riding a nice hard tempo, but was well within my comfort zone. No one wanted to work, and it was "groupo compacto" for the first 4 laps or so with the top 8 or so guys in points. I stayed at the front and dictated pace. About 20 minutes in, attacks started which whittled the group down to the top 4 riders in the series. The pace was pretty high at this point, but no one wanted to really go for it. We stayed together until the last lap. There were attacks and counter attacks, but no one got away. I made my move after the last set of barriers leading into a section of slow speed chicanes. I went for it here because I was much faster through the slow stuff than the others, and only had a straight-away after the chicanes. I came up on the corner too hot, and lost the front wheel in the loose dirt and went down. Hard. There was a massive pile up which Sach's Boy was able to avoid for the win. I came in third, humiliated, with a bent brake lever and bloody shin. Oops.

I was cursed at, and yelled at, and called bad names, but that's racing. It was a good move, I just lost it on some loose dirt. Victory would have been mine had I executed the corner properly. I don't think I could have won had it come down to a sprint, since I've never been in one. The legs felt great though. I apologized after the race, but I'm still the guy that caused the wreck. I don't want to be that guy. Brian had a good race, coming home in 7th.

Back down to second place in the series, Sach's Boy 5 points in front, with 3rd only 9 points behind me. The next 2 races should be quite interesting.

Here's some estimated stats from the HRM (I'm too lazy to go get the monitor. They're always roughly the same anyway.)
Time: 39 minutes
Average HR: low 190's
Max HR: high 190's
Calories: 800ish

Thanks to Heather for the cheerleading. Heather made the announcement before today's race that she started her off season yesterday. Mary couldn't make the trip today, so no pictures. Brian should have some in his race report, also check out Madcross.org for pictures and video highlights.