BA Cyclocross 5 - Boughton Farms 2006

November 26, 2006

Thanksgiving holiday was very nice. As the temperatures started to climb throughout the week, I did a nice long MTB ride with Brett and friends on Thursday, lots of yard work on Friday, a nice ride on Saturday... add lots of sleep and it's all good for racing on Sunday.

Usually, it's a huge issue figuring out what clothes to bring to the cross race. You want to have enough clothes to be warm, but not so much you overheat. So I pretty much dump everything I own in the race bag, and make the call on the line. Unfortunately, I wasn't totally prepared for 65 and sunny in late November. I remembered the short sleeve jersey, but not the shorts. So I raced in knickers... I keep forgetting, is it "65 degrees, cover the knees" or "60 degrees, cover the knees"? Whatever, race what you brung, and I'm covered.

With a sunny, warm day everyone was out racing cross. The C field had 23 including 8 juniors. 48 B's, 15 A's and 6 master's. I was surprised we had 70+ in crappy... er, I mean CX weather, but I was just as surprised that there were over 90 this weekend.

The team was again well represented with Sam and Nicole Miranda racing the C race. Gary, Rick, Pat and Linda racing B's. Then Brett in the A's and I in the Master's field. With 48 B's I guess a wreck in the start was inevitiable, though it surprised me that it happened at the first mud on the course instead of the first barrier. So the hole shot is VERY important in large fields.

The Course
Boughton farm is... a real farm. The start had us behind the barn right before a shallow left hander that led about 150 meters along a tractor road through a field. I didn't recognize the crops this year, but in the paste it's been cabbage. The field is mostly flat with a slight crest. Around a long, bumpy dirt 180, and return the 150 meters to the finish line, another long dirt/gravel 180 and back across the field, this length had a soft wet spot about half way up. If you held your line through the center, you could float through it. Either side, and you'd get wet... hence the start crash in the B field, it's warm, but don't get wet! At the end of this length, another long, grassy 180 that I was often close to a two wheel drift and repeat the length to the first barrier set. The barrier set forced a dismount before a small water crossing. It was really too wet to call a mud pit. No sense remounting there, might as well run it. Remount and do another 180 around the gas well, and back up the field about 100 meters before turning into the next field by way of another grassy, nearly drifting 180. Then sweep along the bumpy grass section at the edge of the field before the first single track section. Serious single, since the trees were tight, with some twists for fun. Down a slight hill, and then head back up through the second barriers that required some hill running before remounting. Back down the hill, and into another single track section, across the edge of the field into the wide paths of the back woods. Then around the back side of the third field, which historically has been wet, but was mostly dry this year. More bumps and soft grass along the shallow uphill grade before the shallow descent along the back side of the field. At the end we turned left off the farm, and headed through some more woods, then along a stretch of backyards. At the end of this, we hit a culvert crossing, leading to 2 long road sections that delivered us back to the start area.

A nice long course at 2.5 miles. Nothing super technical, though I did attempt to ride the culvert about 10 times before deciding it would just be faster (and safer) to run the thing. The single track would slow me down a bit in the tight sections, but it was mostly flat, mostly wide open. The wind could be a factor, and we all expected a fast day. I had brought the trainer, but the weather was nice, and the course was pretty dry, so I did the warmup on the course. I'll save the trainer for the nasty weather.

Dry course, I ran the Tufo's. I did have a bit of trouble in warmup with the shifting, but tightened the cassette before the race, and it was much better. Enough wrenching before the race, I'm tempting fate here.

Race

On the line, the A's were commenting on no wrecks. I really wish I would have seen it. A well, with only 6 master's, I'm sticking to the "no sense killing it, until it counts" strategy.
The A's take off, and a minute later, we're racing. On nice feature of the 1 minute lag is the A's are out of site by the time we start, so we're not "distracted".

Off we go, and I'm following the standard lead 5. Bill got in front of Jeff, though so it's a bit out of sorts for the first 2 passes of the field. As soon as Brent and Rudy start to pull away though, Jeff jumps around and it's all sorted out. I'm on Bill's wheel and Brent is pulling Rudy and Jeff away.

The first lap, I'm just trying to hang with Bill. He ends up with a gap of about 30 yards, and I'm just content to peg that solid, and work my way around. As we come through, I note the lap time of 10:08. So we're a little behind the 10 minute flat average lap times of the B race winner.

Second lap, I start to bring it back. I'm close enough to see Bill as he crosses the culvert, and follow the road into the fields. It takes me 3 of the crossings to close the gap, and I know my best strategy is to attack hard when I catch him. I've got to convince him that I'm going fast enough that he can't catch me. Then open the gap so he won't be able to close it. So I work the plan. Catch, and attack hard. I get a decent gap before the three wooded sections, and see Jeff is alone up ahead. So now my goal is to catch Jeff, and get out of Bill's reach, and site.

Third lap, things are going well, though I'm not very smooth through the barriers or the culvert crossing. I like to think I've got an advantage on the barriers, but I certainly didn't feel it today. Remounts are fine, I'm just not running well. Still Jeff is coming back slowly and I'm still opening on Bill.

Fourth lap. I'm closing on Jeff. Can I get into a fight for third? Through the line with 2 to go, and Jeff is about 20 yards ahead. The last two times through the wet section, he's gone off the line, and had some squirrelly back end going on. I get through once really nice and make some time. This time, though I do almost exactly what he does. Around the grassy 180, my goal is to catch him, then I'll try to attack him like I did to Bill.

Unfortunately, the course bites instead. Once back on the straight, I hear something rubbing my spokes!! I look down, and I've got a course flag wrapped in the lower derailluer pulley! I stop, lean over and pull the wire out. The flag is still wrapped in there, but I've got to get moving! Arghh!!! I get back on, and the bike feels really sluggish. Through the barrier/water crossing, and back on... I've totally lost my rythem. I start to worry about Bill coming back at me, wondering if I can regain my lost ground. It takes me through the second set of barriers to get back to what I think my pace was, but I still feel like I'm dragging a bit. Jeff has opened his gap again, but I'm pretty safe from Bill. I've now got about 100meters to Jeff. Back to work.

Fifth lap. I've got to hold off Bill, and still try to get Jeff. I really haven't done a final lap sprint all season. I either haven't felt good enough, or just forgotten that it's part of the race. With this on the line though, I dig in and start the sprint. Give it all, and see if I can improve my place! It felt really good... It didn't really work, but it was fun.

Post
So, I finished 4th out of 6, 30 seconds behind Jeff and just over a minute up on Bill. I'm a bit disappointed about the flag. After the race, I pulled the plastic out of the derailluer. I probably had those 30 seconds right there. Not that I'd have taken Jeff, but it would have been fun to try.

Brett was running Tufo's also. Being dry, ran his at about 60psi, I ran mine closer to 45... mostly because of the mud puddle and soft grass sections. It turns out Brett rolled his rear when he hopped the rear end on a turn. He started to run it to the pits, and decided he didn't want to run that far, so he force the tire back on the rim, and rode it gingerly to the pits for a wheel change. Probably a good strategy in such an emergency, and one I'll try to remember in case I'm presented with a similar issue. Sitting DFL after the change, he then drilled it and fought back to 11th out of 14 finishers. See his posts at Brett's Blog

Oh well. Next weekend we're back at the farm for the final race of the season and it's supposed to be cold. Really cold.