There was a good ol' rain coming down last night, so I brougt enough raincoats and clothing changes to swim across the Atlantic...and it was sunny, gorgeous, beautiful, all day. Thank you, California.
Still, water had fallen from the sky, and not all of it could drain away before the 'cross races started. A 10am start for the B race should be easy enough to get to, but I still managed to sleep in and dawdle to the point where I hadn't time to pre-ride the course. It would've been a good thing: frankly, the mud freaked me out at first, and there were some changes from last time's course that left me wondering to the end of the day what the right lines were. On the bright side: no blood! It was also a little exciting when my rear tube exploded (bang!) right close to the end--hadn't done that before. I'm curious to find out what failed and how: that tire may have earned its pension.
The CCCX schedule also gives a very reasonable 2+ hours to recharge after the B race before trying out the singlespeed race. Had lunch al fresco (well, al back-of-carro), made meaningless tweaks to bike, and had just a wee bit of time to watch the women's race (Lloyd won speeding away, but I couldn't help wondering if/what Kerlin was holding back). My singlespeed start was atrocious even for my standards as I pushed off heading straight into some other guy's back wheel; in retrospect, I don't know which of us was swerving more, but it left me flailing at the back. In the 2 hr of sun and breeze between my races, the course had dried out to become mostly flat, tacky stuff--the good stuff--with the occasional mud puddle to liven things up. I caught a few wheels in the first 3-4 laps, then the gaps to the riders ahead of me started getting bigger...time for safety mode (still no blood!). I tried goading Jeff/Geoff from Altezza to make up the 5sec gap I had on him, but he was pretty blown too after the 35A's so I got to hold my ignominious spot in the results. Just good ol' fun.
Now I have a large Bag of Filth to deal with, thanks to the flying chunks of peanut butter and glop and ooze on the course that have sunk into jerseys, gloves, shorts, socks, shoes...Digging the stuff off my derailleur pulleys was a non-trivial task. I appear to be dealing with Bag of Filth for now by ignoring it.
Something very noticeable during the singlespeed race was how many bad lines had been cut into the corners. One person leads, another follows the wheel, and eventually a berm gets molded that is not where you (well, I) want it to be. Not only that, but all the dirt that got pushed out of the way mucks up the better line. Someone give the C's a tutorial on apexing, wouldja? (As if I know what I'm talking about.)
Downer about the double race is that socializing and photographing become well-nigh impossible, which makes for pretty dry reportage. I didn't even remember to ask Lauren to get an envelope for me when she's in Manila. Many thanks to Swiggco for storing my keys during the races, too.
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4 comments:
Love the one about the envelope. My kind of humor.
there's a good pic of you on the little side bar thing on my blog.
you're funny.
frank: hey, just trying to keep things G-rated somewhere on the internet.
lauren: good pic, thanks! I'm thinking I need to get away from the bold solid colors, though--they're making me look like a bit of a chunky monkey. On the bright side of that, chunky monkeys tend to break course tape and poles instead of getting knocked down...
canadian bacon.
stella gave me some chocolate bacon ... she got it from some wisecracker a while back, then handed it off to me.
... and now, it awaits transfer to you.
a worthy link in the chain of choco-bacon spreading through these parts.
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