Euphoria Cross #1 9/3/08

It's HERE!!!!!! It's cross season now. No more road racing (not entirely by choice), time to get into the real season.

This is going to be a busy year. Mostly because Spin Bike Shop is sponsoring an 8 race Euphoria Cyclocross Series Wednesday nights near the airport. It's also sponsored by Euphoria Fitness (no link that I can find yet), as they own the land (strict series only use was announced).


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The course is on all those trails you see that are not streets, with a long paved section along Emerald Parkway to connect it all. Lot's of sandy gravel mix, with some nice terrain, and a bit of single track. Just enough roots to make it interesting, though there were flats.

I arrived late, since I didn't have a nice map like the one I included.... so I had enough time to ride a small section.. enough to know that 30-35 psi in my tubies was not going to work in this race. So I went to the van and pumped up some more, got a little more of the course in view, and was the last one to line up. I don't know the exact count, but I'd guess there were close to 50 in the A and B race. The A race had about 30 with some pretty fast boys turning up. Ernesto, Brent Evans, Matt Weeks... a bunch of the spin guys.

I felt guilty getting to the line last, and going straight to the front of the field... so I started near the back. Some announcements, and we're off pretty close to the 6:15 start time. Got to get it off on time in order to finish in the light. 9 laps for the As and 6 for the Bs.

We get about 100m to the gravel stuff and a gap opens up almost immediately with about 10-12 guys riding away from my group before the first set of barriers. The lead guys dismount almost stacks him into the first board, he's going way faster than he can run... but he does manage to stay upright. I think I better get past these guys and see what I can do to get to the next set. It's all training especially with a bad start position.

It takes most of the lap to get to the front, and since I haven't seen the whole course yet, I screw up the winding trees before the pavement. It slows me down, and the guy that almost stacked it gives a bit of a shout about my cutting the course. I assure him I'll get it right from now on. I hit the pavement, and drill it to open the gap... I'm away. So begins the solitary part of the race.

For the remainder of the race, I'm trying to figure out lines get used to my tires and how they drift, and get the barriers clean. The group settles in pretty quickly with Ernesto off the front. Matt, Brent and a couple others in chase. Zak, Greg and Brad from Spin are spread out behind them. Then there are 2 Spin multisport team guys and Gary working behind me. I may be missing some places.... but that was the race I saw.

I was doing fine for the first 20 minutes. Brent flatted, and went off course for a bike change. He managed that and still stayed in front of me. But he gave me another target to follow up front. Especially when he flatted the second time, and I was able to pass him making a wheel change.

At about 20min one of the multi guys caught me. It's probably the longest I've had my heart rate that high since last cross season. So I figured it was time to start conserving a little, but keep him close. I managed to bring the guy back on the smooth stuff, but he was opening on me a little in the woods. I had him on the single barrier, but dropped my chain and had to manually replace it... letting Gary get me also.

I followed Gary around for about a lap, when he slid out on a corner.... I heard his fall, and backed off so I wouldn't run him over. Then I encouraged him to stay with me as I came by. It didn't really work as he went down pretty hard, and had to do a little bike work along the way. On toward the next guy again. I just tried to keep it going, the guy was coming back slowly. With three to go, I figured I had plenty of time. I closed and came around him as we headed into the single track. That was the last I saw of him... I think he flatted shortly after I went by him.

With 2 to go, I started looking at who was next up the road. Greg, then Brad. I don't know if Greg saw me until we got to the pavement with nearly one to go. He was close enough. I just need to ride hard and clean and I thought I could get him. He probably was thinking the same thing... "if I'm not careful, John will catch me".

With one to go, I was getting the feel for the course. I was feeling confident and hoped I could use it to my advantage now. I didn't see Greg, but knew he couldn't be that far ahead. Then through the woods, I tried a different line... and slid my back tire out at the same place Gary went down. ARGHH! I got back up fast enough, but my knee took a but of a scrape. Now I was sure Greg was gone. Not much race left to go, just get moving again. As I hit the twisty trees, I could see Greg had 200m or more, but Gary was also gaining with the other Multi Spin guy. No great worry, I just punched it on the pavement to maintain my place.

It was cool to see Gary sprinting it out with the Multi Spin... I still don't know who took that. I figure I was somewhere around 10th. Matt won after Ernesto flatted while WELL off the front. Good thing for me cause he probably would have been close to lapping me. Matt's group was at least a half lap ahead of me if not more.

Rick and Tim also raced As, way to man up there. I'm just hoping I wasn't the guy that cause Rick's start troubles. Dan, Sadie and Anna did the B race, and MattO took pics... cause he doesn't think he can race a mountain bike in cross... we tried to convince him that he's wrong. I'm hoping I didn't forget anyone.

Overall it was a great turn out for a fun race. I'd probably like the course more if it was wet. The gravel and roots took out a lot of tires. Which certainly helped me, since I started poorly and I didn't flat. Next week we were promised a totally different course, and looking at the area, it offers a lot of options. I'm hoping for rain too.

Hats off to Spin for doing the work to run this event. With these, I'll have close to 20 cross races this year. I'm going to need to figure out how I'll find time to write about all these things.

Here we go... I can only get faster.