Today I concluded my first real cyclocross season. I thought Niv was going to conclude it for me earlier in the week because we were sleep training him. I thought I would never get the sound of crying out of my head and I would live in a rubber room. But after three nights he realized sleeping for twelve hours a night is the awesomest and he has taken to it quite well. Napping is still not happening like it should.
I decided for my last race of the season to do the UCI race. The UCI is the International Cycling Union. It's backwards because it's in French, at least the acronym is. The UCI race means the race with all the really good riders. You need a special license to do it. I already had it for road racing. I had a number of reasons for trying to get my head kicked in on a completely different level than I had previously:
1) It pays 25 places deep. Everyone always likes to get paid.
2) It would be really, really hard and I wanted to see how I stacked up.
3) It is the last race I'm doing this year and I have nothing to lose.
4) I'm pretty sure I have the fitness to do OK, but probably not the technical skills. We'll see how they measure up.
5) I glued up my first set of tubular tires for 'cross. I'm invincible now, right?
I got a ride up with a local cyclocross hero, Anna. She has tons of experience and I was happy to get some of that knowledge. She consistently places in the top ten in bad ass races and has been doing it for a while.
I was quite worried about embarrassing myself. I didn't want to get shot out the back from the gun, which actually happened at the start. I started on the back row because I had no qualifications to start any closer to the front (i.e. points in the series, UCI points, more than 10 races under my belt, etc.). I couldn't get into my pedal when the whistle went off. Thankfully there was a bunch of pavement before we headed onto the hard parts of the course. I was already gapped off 20 meters but was able to remember what it's like to bridge in a road race and rectified my embarrassing situation.
Once we hit the first obstacle, a beach run, I actually passed a couple of people. That was the last time I passed people for good during the race. Holy crap it was fast. I thought I had things under control but some guy in front allowed a big gap to open and everyone rode away and couldn't close at that point. Such is life.
After that I was riding to get into the money and to try not to get lapped, which happens quite frequently in cyclocross, especially to guys like me. The rest of the course was technical, with a bunch of 180 degree turns covered in snow and mud, sand everywhere and two beach runs every lap. Running in sand really saps your legs.
This was the cleanest race I rode. I did fall once on a rooty section of trail when I went into it too hot and lost a bit of time putting my chain back on. This goes back to the earlier lesson: You will not gain much time on technical sections but you can lose tons. Anna also said that 'cross is not like a time trial, but a bunch of intervals strung together, figuring out when to put the power down and when to rest and negotiate tough terrain. In the end you might not go as fast as you can over the obstacles but you'll have that much more pop for when you can throw it down. Smart.
There was a bit of a snow squall in the middle of the race. It was strong enough that I couldn't look up at the lap cards to see how many I had left. The first chance I had it said three to go. I thought that I could really hold off the leaders and not get lapped. I kept working really hard. I got caught about 200 meters from the finish and got pulled. I was so close.
I did finish in 25th place, the last place to get money. It is also the last place to score points for the Verge New England Series. I'm pretty psyched about both of those things. Anna had some good wisdom after the race; she thought I had a great day on a technical course and coming from the road it was a good showing. There was some success but there was also a lot left to accomplish. It was also great to recap on the ride home to compare strategies on the course today.
Today was the first time I ever raced in December. That means only three months until road racing. That's exciting to have such a small gap. But it's much longer until cyclocross starts up again and I'm excited for that too.
And now for the real reason that most of you come to this blog, pictures of Niv:
I'm Niv. These are my friends.
I'm very serious about this; no more joking around.
These are real live friends.
Niv is definitely too "chool" for management.
I decided for my last race of the season to do the UCI race. The UCI is the International Cycling Union. It's backwards because it's in French, at least the acronym is. The UCI race means the race with all the really good riders. You need a special license to do it. I already had it for road racing. I had a number of reasons for trying to get my head kicked in on a completely different level than I had previously:
1) It pays 25 places deep. Everyone always likes to get paid.
2) It would be really, really hard and I wanted to see how I stacked up.
3) It is the last race I'm doing this year and I have nothing to lose.
4) I'm pretty sure I have the fitness to do OK, but probably not the technical skills. We'll see how they measure up.
5) I glued up my first set of tubular tires for 'cross. I'm invincible now, right?
I got a ride up with a local cyclocross hero, Anna. She has tons of experience and I was happy to get some of that knowledge. She consistently places in the top ten in bad ass races and has been doing it for a while.
I was quite worried about embarrassing myself. I didn't want to get shot out the back from the gun, which actually happened at the start. I started on the back row because I had no qualifications to start any closer to the front (i.e. points in the series, UCI points, more than 10 races under my belt, etc.). I couldn't get into my pedal when the whistle went off. Thankfully there was a bunch of pavement before we headed onto the hard parts of the course. I was already gapped off 20 meters but was able to remember what it's like to bridge in a road race and rectified my embarrassing situation.
Once we hit the first obstacle, a beach run, I actually passed a couple of people. That was the last time I passed people for good during the race. Holy crap it was fast. I thought I had things under control but some guy in front allowed a big gap to open and everyone rode away and couldn't close at that point. Such is life.
After that I was riding to get into the money and to try not to get lapped, which happens quite frequently in cyclocross, especially to guys like me. The rest of the course was technical, with a bunch of 180 degree turns covered in snow and mud, sand everywhere and two beach runs every lap. Running in sand really saps your legs.
This was the cleanest race I rode. I did fall once on a rooty section of trail when I went into it too hot and lost a bit of time putting my chain back on. This goes back to the earlier lesson: You will not gain much time on technical sections but you can lose tons. Anna also said that 'cross is not like a time trial, but a bunch of intervals strung together, figuring out when to put the power down and when to rest and negotiate tough terrain. In the end you might not go as fast as you can over the obstacles but you'll have that much more pop for when you can throw it down. Smart.
There was a bit of a snow squall in the middle of the race. It was strong enough that I couldn't look up at the lap cards to see how many I had left. The first chance I had it said three to go. I thought that I could really hold off the leaders and not get lapped. I kept working really hard. I got caught about 200 meters from the finish and got pulled. I was so close.
I did finish in 25th place, the last place to get money. It is also the last place to score points for the Verge New England Series. I'm pretty psyched about both of those things. Anna had some good wisdom after the race; she thought I had a great day on a technical course and coming from the road it was a good showing. There was some success but there was also a lot left to accomplish. It was also great to recap on the ride home to compare strategies on the course today.
Today was the first time I ever raced in December. That means only three months until road racing. That's exciting to have such a small gap. But it's much longer until cyclocross starts up again and I'm excited for that too.
And now for the real reason that most of you come to this blog, pictures of Niv:
I'm Niv. These are my friends.
I'm very serious about this; no more joking around.
These are real live friends.
Niv is definitely too "chool" for management.
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2 comments:
He's cuter and cuter each time I see pictures of him!
i love the pictures. but i also really enjoyed the recap - congrats on the 25th finish - that's awesome that you got money and points!
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