Today was a beautiful day to do almost anything outside. Lucky for me I was signed up for the second race of the 2010 Tobacco Valley Cyclo-Cross Race Series and today’s race was being held in Munson, Mass. The course was right behind the high school, and I had no idea to expect.
I went to the table near the entrance of the high school and picked up my number for the day. When I was back at my car I saw Lance J. and Dave D. arrive, who are both teammates of mine from Expo Wheelmen. They were stoked and so was I, so the three of us set off to pre-ride the course together.
Let me try to give you a description of the first section of the course. Ok, so the start is in the school parking lot which is nearly as long as the school building that sits behind it. The race organizers have the riders line up in front of the school entrance, ride across the length of the parking lot, take a long left hand sweeper turn down into a lower parking lot, cross that lot in the opposite direction, and then hop a curb and bomb down over a steep grassy embankment.
As we pre-rode, I thought oh shucks. That curb is going to take out a bunch of riders at the start. I mean, who would suggest a pack of riders (on cross bikes) go full speed on blacktop (in a somewhat downhill section) and negotiate a bituminous curb that sat at a 45 degree angle to our path (not to mention there was some sort of two odd astro-turfed, foot wide ramp, that sat in the middle of the opening). My brain (or at least what is left of it) told me that I was not at this race to take any major risks. I instantly decided that I was going to take a super conservative approach today; which meant I was going to let the bunch sprint to the curb, and watch to see what happens.
We rode the rest of the course and there was quite a mix of terrain. Others who pre-rode the course explained some of it to me as “scary”. There were sections of tall grass that was roped off with a few sharp switchback turns. This stuff was textbook cross. There were sections of loose woodchips that hopped on and off of blacktop sidewalks. Hmmm, tricky. There were a few wide open stretches of blacktop; including one section of a blacktop walking ramp that leads to the top the hill behind the school, and had a switchback mid way up. I have to admit. The course was now starting to grow on me. I like the wide open fast sections where I can lay down some power. I looked down at the 48 tooth big ring and grinned.
The next couple sections of the course wasn't quite so pretty, but it was just as exciting. From the top of the ramp there was a downhill section with a fairly smooth line and a grassy area to either side. This section was fairly steep and of course had a very sharp right hander at the bottom. This led up over a power roller and all of a sudden ducked into the shade of the trees. The transition from light to dark made it hard for my eyes to adjust quick enough to see the rocks that seem to pop up everywhere like gophers. Bang! I smacked straight into one of the rocks on the pre-ride while following my teammates wheels down the dusty descent, and it almost threw me off the bike. Whew. That was close I thought.
At the base of the hill the trail is a nice double wide and fairly smooth section, only to be ended with a hard switchback to the left. This next section was like the Appalachian trail. I threw my bike onto my shoulder and hoofed it. Then there was a short flat section, followed by another quick uphill that was covered in rocks and roots. This one had a rideable line to the far right (which came in handy during the race to pass people pushing their bikes) that was disguised by the rack. This section was followed by a short flat section of 10 yards or so, then another uphill (with another line to ride but it had some loose sand and gravel). This was followed by a longish section of flat that had only a few rocks and random roots, and ended with a mack-daddy of an uphill. This hill was steep. I would guess it was 25-30 yards or so, but my elevated heart rate while walking up it while carrying my bike made it feel more like it was 100 yards.
Once I crested the hill, we were in the ball field behind the school, not in the woods anymore. We basically rode the perimeter of the field, zigged and zagged a little, went over some barriers, and then found our way back ‘round to the start again. Oh boy! I thought, how many laps of that are we going to do in 40 minutes?
So we lined up to start, and I was in the second row. My teammates, who are more daring than me, were in the front row. Once the group raced around the corner towards the curb I sat up expecting a major disaster, but there was only one rider that smacked it and endo-ed. It sounded like carbon cracking…ouch, that hurt. I saw my teammate take the hole-shot and head down the embankment like crazies. I hopped the curb, focused on pedaling, and decided I would set out to see how many riders I could catch during the race (since I was starting from the back). I was cautious on the technical sections, and put the power down on the wide open sections. I think I caught and passed more than 5 riders per lap (some of those folks might have been pre-riding the course for their upcoming race).
The laps blurred together after a while, I think we did 5 or 6 total, but I remember seeing the 2 lap to go card. My lines I found in my pre-ride were working great and I felt good. I had a cramp at one point in my side, but I worked through it. I was tired as heck running up the hills (ok, I was walking at some points), and sweating like crazy, but I had great recovery, and I was able to power it on the open sections and pass other riders. As I was passing one of the other riders in the woods, I asked him if he thought we were top 20. He scoffed, and told me that we had to be “further up than that”. I was pleasantly surprised to hear his opinion. I thought we were mid-pack, but then again I hadn’t been counting.
It was a very fun day. I’ll definitely be back next year. Congrats to my teammates Lance who got the win, and Dave who grabbed third. Two expo guys who cashed in on prize money…and three guys from our club finished inside of the top ten for the cat 4 field. So it wasn’t only a fun day, it was also a very good day!
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