I am not a road cyclist, much less a time trial rider. So naturally I had mixed feelings going into the first day of the weekends cyclocross racing. The day was in two parts. The morning started with a 1.18 mile hill climb and the afternoon was a single loop of the horse / mountain bike trails. Early on I had the idea of bringing a road bike, or at least road wheels for the hill. Friday I decided that I did not want to either dismount on concrete or try to ride off the road and through gravel on road tires. So, the climb happened on my cross bike with the Dugasts. There were parts of the hill that were STEEP! Coming up into the parking lot at the top of the hill the legs were finished, but there was still a parking lot to ride through and then up a log and 50 meters to run to the top of the hill. It hurt bad, but that was it, I gave it absolutly everything I had. I posted a pretty good time. Yesterday they said it was 4:52 or something, today it was posted higher at just over five minutes. Then there was a four hour break before the off road lap was to start for me. So, we had lunch, went for coffee and generally just sat around shooting the breeze with different people.

 

The lap is where my lack of time trial stradegy seemed to take a toll. I started strong, but the further I got into the lap the more I would have that dialoge with myself. Am I going fast enough? Should I be pushing it harder? Am I pushing it too hard? There were three sets of barriers spaced through out the lap. One set was on an uphill where the first was on the bottom and the second was at the top. Then there was a sketchy loose downhill turn. I went fast through curve on the downhill and started cruising down the rest of the hill. I totally forgot there was a sharp right at the bottom and went sailing 20 to 30 yards into the tall grass. I made a B-line for the trail praying that there were not any holes or rocks hiding in the grass. And there were not. My confidence shaken I had trouble sticking with the best line in the middle of the path, which was packed hard. The problem was at points it became a deep rut with tall sidewalls that would could catch your tire and flip you down. So riding cautiously outside of the beaten path meant I was riding on the more safe sides of the trail that made it more work. The twisty trail opened up into a long straight stretch allowing me to get my head together and put some power into the pedals. Around a turn put me at the bottom of another steep hill with a pair of barriers right at the top. Power up, remembering the mornings' effort, a clean dismount and over the bearriers with the gusto of a flat course. Back down the hill into a 180 degree corner that gave me every bit of carve that it had. A short stretch before pedaling down a hill and across the finish line. On saturday the time posted was 14:23. When we arrived on Sunday it was 13:53, giving me the third fastest time of the day. It also completely changed my race stradegy for Sundays race.  Took second under Casey Masterson in the Cat3 group on the day.

 

Dan and I stopped at Kettle before returning to the lake house for the very end of the Fall Color Fest. Saw the end of the raffle, had a beer (thanks Kevin) and talked with some people. Back at the lake, Dan and I watched some football, had some burgers and went for a short road ride with some sweet screaming downhills.  Thanks to everyone standing around shouting.  Jeremy snapped the picture.