Orrville: Orr Park - 10/21/2007

Orr park is NOT my favorite cyclocross race. Last year, I felt like total garbage in the B race, and came in 8th. Probably my worst race of the year. First off, I was racing "down" and then did pretty poorly. Bleah! Not only do I feel guilty about racing the B's but then I don't even do that well.

Now I've set an overall tone for this report... Dave Steiner picked me up with his girl friend Katie for the trip down. I felt pretty dry, so I made sure to drink well on the trip. We arrived with plenty of time to get about an hour of warm up in. I took about 3 or 4 laps at varying speeds to get the feel of this very mountain bikey course.

Course
The start is a 100m sprint to a barriered run up a sled mound. There is practically no elevation changes in the area (with the exception of ravines) so they built a sledding hill by dropping a 25 foot mound of dirt in the middle of a field.

Down the hill, across the rest of the field into the first single track section via a sweeping turn that ends in a pretty tight 90. The single track twists up a slight grade, then around and back through the woods before dropping to the first bridge crossing. Twisting through some more woods including a nasty off camber turn into a short uphill that my tires tend to drift through. Out of the woods, and around a lake, we take a 90 turn onto the second bridge. Across a little dip, then up and down through a power section of lawn that leads to the third bridge. Then a nice little up and down turn over a small hill, leading to a tree turn and drag to the second barrier that forces a dismount before doing a creek ravine run down and up.

The ravine remount leads to a 100m sidewalk, then left turn into the 200m headwind pavement, gravel, field section. Tight left turn along the fence at the edge of the soccer field and back into more loose single track. We pop out along the soccer field again, before diving back into more twisty single track. Pop out of that near a baseball field, where we turn into a tight path along the outfield fence that twists along a single/double track width to the finish line. There's about another 100m of grass and a sweeping 180 that leads back to the start field.

The laps were pretty short, maybe a mile and a half... which seems much short than last weeks 1.6 mile Fairport Harbor. It's also more than 50% single/double track. During warm up, I tried the Michelin Mud's and decided to run the Tufo's. The course was extremely dry and dusty. With sunny skies and temps in the 80s, it wasn't going to change much.

Race
Orrville had the 60 minute A race and the 50 minute Master's race both running at 3:15ish. The fields were listed as starting separate, and given the choice, I decided to do the A race for the extra time. It's not like I'm going for points, and the prizes aren't the real reason I'm racing.

The field was pretty stacked with about 15 or so As, and 8 Master's. Jeremy Grimm, Shawn Adams, Matt Weeks, Rudy Sroka, Steve Twining, Jeff Braumberger... it promised to be fast and hard.

At the line, I got squeezed between Shawn and Steve Twining, two of the very fast guys (FFG's in the local sense). And on the whistle, I'm in the wrong gear. Way too easy, so I loose places instantly. Sprinting along the bumpy field, trying to shift and make up places... I realize, I don't really feel like racing. I don't feel like racing? I've never had that thought before....

There's plenty of bumping and jostling and I get over the barrier and up the hill with Dave about half way back. I'm able to come around him going into the single track, but I'm just following others around the course. On the sweeping turn that I usually drift through, one FFG (on the road anyway) goes down pretty hard. We all get around him so that through the second barrier onto the sidewalk, and I'm about 10 back.

I'm really having a hard time getting my head in the game, when Dave comes around and yells at me to get going! Around the soccer field woods, and coming out, Mike Gorman comes around me on the right and squeezes between me and a fence post. That pissed me off, "HE ALMOST TOOK ME INTO THE BRUSH!". It also helped to get me moving. Out of the woods, and I aggressively passed him back by squeezing between him and the ball field fence, nearly taking him into the brush.... apologizing as I tried to hold it in close to the fence. Lot's of shouting from the group behind at my move, but Mike made it through and I got a small gap on him and the rest of that group.

That move finally kicks starts my racing... Dave leads me through the single track on the second lap until I give it the gas around him in the power section leading to the third bridge, which opens the gap that I need to get away.

I'm away, and in pretty good shape. I can see I'm sitting maybe 7th overall. I just need to maintain my position, and I'll do all right. I've got some pretty good lines through the single track, and I'll just roll this.

So I settle in, and am maintaining my gap when Ed Delgros comes around me like a rocket.... good thing he won't race with the A's, so I don't have to worry about how badly he's beating me (no editorial comment there). I try to hang on, but I'm already way out there as far as efforts go. He's away and closes the gap to the group in front of me pretty quickly. At the same time, Zak bridges up to me and sits on for about a lap.

I'm holding the gap to the Delgros group of 4 pretty well, the front 5 are gone, though. Into the headwind section Zak attacks... I try to hold his wheel also, but I think this train is about to blow. He opens his lead,and I've got another guy on my wheel. He sits for about a lap, and by the cheers, it's Lorson racing master's. He sits for about the next lap, then at the headwind section I back off, hoping he'll try the attack and that I can follow him. It works, and I get some respite. I followed him through the single track and back to the run up. I attack him up the run up, and pass him, but I can't hold it. He comes around again, gets a gap, and I try to hold that one steady.

Since I'm not seeing lap cards, only the clock, I have no idea how I'm doing. I figure it's close to 40 minutes so I only have 20 or so to go... and I start to guess how many laps that is. I hurt all over. Braumberger passes me, and I figure I've been lapped, so I don't even try to push to grab his wheel. Gorman comes back around me as I start to head backwards. There are a couple of Spin guys behind me, and I'm about cooked. Not a good feeling.

Heading into the ravine crossing, I catch a glimpse more lappers... Grimm and Twining are coming up. As I hit the headwind again, Grimm blows by me. I half attempt to jump on, but I also expect Twining to be right there. Into the turn, he's is still lagging, I don't really want to get in his way in the single track, so I half sit up to let him by... stupid! I'm yelling at him to get moving! As is Grimm's dad... but I think he's just laughing.

Once Twining comes by, I jump on his wheel through the trails. I'm following fine, which makes me feel good about my lines. We pop out, and he's got a bit of a gap. I start to accelerate to the ball field, when one of the Spin guy comes flying into the turn with me. He's a bit wider than I like, and this isn't the first lap anymore. Two bikes into the space where there's really only space for one, and I'm soon into the bushes... then the front wheel dives into a hole, and I'm pitched over the bars... into a huge rose bush.

Damn it! That move sucked! I'm now pretty scratched up, and really pissed. I don't care if I'd used that same move for Gorman, it was still sucked, AND it crashed me! By the time I get back on the bike, that guy is gone... and I'm just sulking, licking my wounds for the next half lap. Next time.... urgh! I hope that place was worth it! Double URGH! Dave caught me in that half lap, and asked what happened... I'm fine, just really pissed off. Then I realized the guy wasn't that far ahead and I should chase him down. At the time I was going to take him into a fence or tree... or something, but I'm really too nice for that. I didn't catch him. But I did at least try to finish out the last two laps at a race pace.

Post
The guy that took me into the bushes did apologize after the race. Which was really cool. He said he thought we'd get pulled since we'd just been lapped... so he was going for the placement! Then Dave tells us I deserved it since I shouldn't have been back that far anyway. Nice having friends around you.

I can't stay pissed off at the guy, since I'm really glad that the Spin guys have all manned up and raced in the A field this year. They, like me, are not really in it for the win, but are still doing that biggest race in the area. Getting more guys into that race can only help make it more fun... for everyone. It sucks to be racing in a small, spread out field... effectively just racing your own demons. Well I guess that's really who we all race against, but it's easier when you can see others and maybe help their demons beat them up a little.

I still don't like being taken into the thorns, but it really was just aggressive racing. I see no other way for him to fight for that place... because of the design of the finish. They probably should put the finish in the field near the start... then sprints for places would be more open, and safer. Better than through the tight spots near rose bushes. My legs look like a wild cat decided to go through them to get away from a bath.... real mountain biker legs, except I shave.

A big part of why the Spin guy had the chance to do that at all was because I sat up a bit to stay out of Twining's way in the single track after Grimm passed me. Stupid again, I kick myself every time I do that... and then I do it again in another race... I still try to stay out of the way of the front guys. Twinning basically sat up when Grimm attacked him there... a big part of the game is to demoralize your competition at the right time. It was all over Twining's face then.

Which is pretty much the way I feel my race went. Every time someone passed me, I got a little slower... until I'd had enough. I did not like the single track, though I felt smooth through there... it just felt slow. Yet the overall race speed was much faster than the sand at Fairport Harbor. So, not my best day racing. Hopefully, like last year, it will be the worst of the year. Actually on the upside, my lap time data shows a slightly different picture than my perception did. I certainly slowed down when Zak went by. Then after the Lorson lap, I picked up again chasing again... then the crash. That's bike racing, I'm such an optimist.

Lap			Time	Avg HR	Avg spd
1			5:35	169	16.6
2			5:45	175	16.2
3			5:50	172	15.8
4			5:45	171	15.6
5			5:45	171	15.3
6			6:10 (after Zak dropped me?)	169	15.4
7			6:10	167	15.0
8			5:50	167	15.1
9			6:45(Crash!)	166	14.4
10			6:05	167	15.3
11			5:50 (this is the short one)	169	15.0
Total			1:05:40	169	15.2

I figure the weird average speeds are cumulative averages... maybe? It is interesting that I was still working hard, even if I wasn't racing my fastest... Might just as well race if I'm going to be working like this anyway.

...and thanks to Katie for taking some pics of the race. Some of them are really artsy shots... not just "faces of pain". Very nice stuff! Check them out on flickr I don't really understand how flickr works, so you may have to search for them soon if Dave and Katie post more shots.

All right, I'm letting it go now, and looking to improve for the next course that rumor has will be more 'cross like... off camber turns, open race. My kind of course.