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Posts Tagged ‘cyclocross’

Cyclocross Crash: A Photo Essay

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Remember when I mentioned trying to power through the mud pit and taking a face-first dive in front of a photographer at my cyclocross race last weekend? Here is the proof.

It actually makes for a pretty funny little photo essay.

Here I am attempting to power through the mud, hoping I can just somehow skim across the top and make it back to dry land ASAP. Instead I bounce off of a mud covered tree root, and it all goes to hell after that.

Something tells me my wheel isn’t supposed to be pointed sideways.

Yeah. This definitely isn’t looking good. Foot planted, bike flying up from under me.

“Oh Crap!”

Wait, where did Jamie go?

Face first in the Mud.

Another hot picture of my ass.

No time to play in the mud! Up and running with a big smile on my face. Thankfully I didn’t even get a scrape on me. Time to RUN!

Despite the blurry ass shots, the photographer is actually really good and got some pics of other racers looking way faster and more bad-ass than I do lying in the mud. Check out his pics at these links:

http://flickr.com/photos/beastgp/

http://picasaweb.google.com/beastgp

Tags: crash, cyclocross, mud | Posted in Cycling, Race Reports | No Comments »

Cyclocross Mudfest

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.

Better quality version of the video is here.

I gave my second shot at cyclocross this weekend. It had rained on and off for the past few days and I was prepared for a complete mudfest and even caught up with local tri blogger Elaine (TriGrilPink) during my warmup lap and chatted for a bit.

Thankfully the men’s Cat 4 race was first, so the course wasn’t going to be nearly as beat up as it would be later in the day for the faster guys.

I did a hell of a better staying with the pack when the gun went off, but DAMN. Even in the Cat 4 race, these guys are fast. I’m still getting used to ramping up to top speed so quickly. When I pounded it up the first of two run/ride ups, I even got to a new max HR on the bike! 187 bpm baby! That is the highest I’ve gotten it on the bike recently, maybe ever. (I can already hear Brett yelling at me for not sticking to easy base workouts, shhhh!) Needless to say I did better than last time about making sure I didn’t have as much left in the tank when I crossed the finish line.

The whole course was pretty muddy and technical, but this one 75 meter stretch turned out to be the great equalizer. Ankle deep mud hid big roots and extra deep trenches that sucked you down and stole whatever momentum you were able to muster up. Even being able to stay on your bike and not having to run through the mud was an accomplishment.

During the first lap through the huge mud pit, I got stuck in a rut had to dismount to run the rest of the way through. The second lap, I had a new plan. Get a ton of speed and just force my way through.

That didn’t workout so well when my front tire hit a root hidden under a few inches of mud and my extra speed threw my bike off to the right as my body slammed down to the left and I went face first into the mud. It was actually really funny, especially as I looked up there was a guy with a camera who got a series of shots telling a pretty funny story about my mud bath. I found him after and he said he would post his pictures online. If i find them, I’ll post them later.

UPDATE: Check HERE for the all of the pics.

And now, for evidence of the mud fest that was the Boston Road Club Cyclocross Race…

Can you tell where my knee warmers ended?

I think there is more mud than shoe in this picture.

My road brakes actually didn’t do too bad in the mud. My road pedals? That is a different story alltogether.

My muddy stallion. My Fuju “Angela” is such a tank. I love her.

Tags: brc cyclocross, cyclocross | Posted in Cycling, Race Reports, Triathlon | No Comments »

Lessons in Cyclocross: Canton Cup Race Report

Monday, October 20th, 2008

I finally did my first cyclocross race this weekend and it was freak’n awesome.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.

(If you are viewing this in a feed reader, click through for some video I shot at the race)

On Friday night before the race I went over to the local baseball field and rode around in circles for about a half an hour, just doing circles in the dark by myself, practicing my running dismounts/carrys/remounts. I was actually staring to get a handle of it. Big confidence booster.

Sunday morning, I headed down to Canton bright and early, and threw on a few extra layers to shake off the morning chill while I headed to the registration tent and did two laps around the course to actually start to build some confidence that I can handle this thing.

My new tires are awesome. They make my bike feel completely differently, but it still haven’t gotten used to the fact that I can power through tight dirt/gravel/grass corners without worrying about going down. I’m a little heavy on the brake into corners because of it, but hopefully that will pass.

Now on to the race…

I didn’t have very high expectations for my first race, but given that 40 minutes of all-out riding, switching up positions and gears often, sounds a whole lot like spinning class (something I’m very familiar with) I didn’t expect to be too awful. I’m a solid MOPer in triathlon, and sort of expected the same here.

I settled in to the middle/back of the pack at the starting line knowing full well that I had no business in sprinting for position in the beginning. I never even heard a gun or bell go off. People just started going. I followed.

People were going nuts and exploding up a short paved hill and about two or three went down and clogged up the whole works. I didn’t think that I was lagging that bad, until I looked back and saw only one or two people behind me. Damn…

Once we got into the first dirt/grass section, I was able to pass a few people and hold a decent pace to close some gaps. I was able to get over the first set of barriers pretty easily, and was in a good mood.

Slowly (very slowly) I was able to pass a few more handfuls of people to climb my way up the field. But for every guy that I passed, either some 14 year old (no exageration) punk kid or tiny little girl would come up and fly past me. I’ve heard of getting chicked before, but getting babied? These kids weighed like 80 pounds. WTF? I was at least able to have a little confidence boost when I was able to hold off one of the kids on lap 3 of 4.

Sad. Right? I know.

Now that my ego was sufficiently checked, I just settled in, stopped focusing on place and made sure I had a nice consistent effort level and kept the rubber side down.

My three goals for the race were:

Don’t be DFL
Don’t fall on my face
Have a kick-ass time

All were done pretty well. I definitely wasn’t DFL, but it was pretty lonely in the BOP where I was for the entire 47 something minutes. I don’t have an official time/place, but hopefuly they’ll post it online soon. I’ll update this post if they do.

I definitely have a lot to learn, and my bike handling isn’t awful, but definitely needs some work. Most of all the things that I learned today is that cyclocross racing is COMPLETELY different from triathlon racing. But, I love learning new things, so I will definitely be trying my hand at another cyclocross race in the near future.

UPDATE:

The results are in. But they say that I DNF’d! WTF IS THAT!?! I may have slogged my way through slowly, but I didn’t get lapped and I sure as hell didn’t DNF! I don’t care as much if my time isn’t right, or my place is wrong, but to not even pay attention when I cross the line and say I didn’t finish is a whole different story.

BOO Canton Cup! Boo to you.

According to my bike computer, I finished around 47 minutes. That only puts two other non-DNFers behind me.

Next time, even if I am dead last, I’ll just have to throw my hands up in the air and start making such a ruckus that everyone has to notice me and take down my finishing time.

UPDATE 2:

Results are updated and I’m no longer a NDFer! Apparently I placed it says i was 47:19 (which sounds about right) and beat 5 people. Wooho! I guess the bar is set pretty low to PR my next race! HAHA.

Tags: canton cup, cyclocross | Posted in Cycling, Race Reports, Videos | 11 Comments »

Cyclocross Conversion

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

I’ve finally gotten around to converting my road bike into a cyclocross bike, or at least something that closely enough resembles a cyclocross bike to get me through a few races this season.

Here is my regular triathlon race setup.

And here is the setup that I’ll be rocking at my first cyclocross race this weekend.

I basically just stripped off the bottle cages and saddle bag and put on some special cyclocross tires. Those big knobby tires make her look like she is ready to get MUDDY! I love it.

This is definitely a half-assed job since I would have liked to switch out to different brakes and better pedals, but this should work. The brakes I’m running now are not built to handle my new wide tires and I actually have to remove one brake pad every time either of the wheels off to squeeze the wider tires through. Annoying, but what can ya do? I’ll have to remember to bring a wrench with me if I do any long rides with these tires.

My back tire is a 34 and my front tire is a 32, in case anyone cares. I had to switch down to a 32 in the front since the bigger size was rubbing against the fork.

Now that I’ve stripped her down, and given her a good cleaning and lubing, I’m totally psyched for my first cyclocross race this weekend. I’m expecting nothing more than making a complete ass of myself, so anything more than that will be a good day.