Kirtland Park 2008

I missed last years edition of Kirtland park, and was bummed to hear about the course additions that I missed. I like this park first because I got my first taste of cyclocross here, and second because it's a cool venue. On warm ups, Bill was saying how much this park felt like the Java Johnny's UCI race at Sunset Park in Cincinnati. Small rinky dink park, with a fantastic race covering about every available inch of ground.

I arrived in plenty of time to get lots of warm ups laps in. I started warm ups in the parking lot above the amphitheater, and promptly dump myself on the second 180 turn. How in the world do you skin both knees... above the knee cap? Great... all told I think I dumped it about 5 times in warm ups... including a nice one before the east end stair run up, that I have no idea how I ended up on the ground. I was already off the bike, close to the shoulder move, when I flipped myself and the bike down. Great! Rick assured me he didn't see that... I hope not, cause that's exactly why I was looking around... "Did anyone see that?"

The good news was, after riding the course a lot, and practicing the amphitheater even more, I felt pretty good about cleaning things... and I wasn't the only one with issues on sections. It's all about NOT loosing time.

Cool thing about the downtown race, was at 12:45, a pair of F18s did a fly over!!! Wow Cyclocross is going big time with fly overs and everything! Then military helicopters TOO! Oh, the Browns had a 1:00 kickoff, and Obama rally started at about 1:45 (I think). I like the CX big time explanation better.

I lined up on the second row next to Bill and Derick, combined start today, so we're off!

It looks to me like there are about 40 racers, and I'm sitting around 30th at the start. At the 180, I see an opening next to Bill, so I take the inside line close to the tree. There's a bit of contact, and Bill and I have a little chat about it as we accelerate to the next turn. It was literally a little chat. Up the west stairs, and the race is already well sorted out. I figure, I'm sitting around 6th in the Master's with Bill up the way a bit, and Rick on my wheel, and Derick behind by a reasonable gap.

I'm not firing on all cylinders after yesterdays efforts, but I'm about where I should be in the master's field. Then some of the A racers start passing me, that I think I should be able to hang with or beat... so that plays on my head. Rick is stuck to me like glue... which also works on me.

So 20minutes in, and I touched the front breaks on the first 180 into the amphitheater... and go down HARD. again to cheers of the crowd YAY! My foot is stuck in the pedal, Rick is by me, Derick comes by while I take my chain beack above the chain guard, and I'm now playing catch up. I was real close to just packing it all in... and going to eat some cookies. It takes a while for me to get my head back into the race.

I figured out my front brakes are a bit grabby... it must be time for some adjustment. So I take the feather touch for the remainder of the race. Up ahead I see that Rick isn't pushing it as hard without someone to follow, and Derick catches and then leaves him. I've got my own issues with Stephan from RGD in his first CX race of the year. He passed me when I first revisited the amphitheater, and was getting used to it again, so I had to take a lap to get by him, and leave for Rick.

I end up catching Rick when Mike Plank(SPIN) returns to the race after what must have been a hard fall on the service garage off camber. He tried an attack through the start finish, and I latched on. Mike got around Rick, and I couldn't get around before the 180. When he accelerated away, it was Rick and I again. I passed Rick at the remount on top of the stairs, and went in search fo Derick.

I managed to not loose a lot more space, but Derick was not coming back. I was soon caught by the Pflug/Ernesto/Martin train... right as I was approaching the single file gate out of the ball diamond... so I sat up and let them through. Then went back to work knowing I only had 1 lap to go. After conceding my goal for the day (to not get lapped) My new goal was to not get caught by anyone else... and that took some serious work, cause I could see one guy coming, and then Brent and Matt Weeks fighting it out.

Run for my life! And I did.

Turns out Bill had a mechanical, so I finished in 6th place in the masters... that would be about 35th overall maybe? I haven't seen the results yet. Overall not happy with my legs this weekend, but it's still better to be racing, and I'll still return for more punishment next time... I've got 2 weeks to find something, anything.