CX Santa Rosa #2 - Thick friggin' mud

By the end of my racing, I was sweating mud.

The forecast was for heavy rain on Saturday, not so heavy on Sunday--so we'll see whether Candlestick gets sloppy for tomorrow's race, but today's race in Santa Rosa seemed a lock for wet, soupy mud, and it was delivered. In the car on the way there, a little voice in my head was anticipating the conditions, as my best-ever results, a couple C wins, were at super-slop races. There wasn't much time for daydreaming, though, as Hwy 101 had little floods and heavy spray--definitely high-speed windshield wiper conditions.

I arrived a little after 11 and watched the women's race: dirty, dirty women...seemed sort of ominous. The spectators beside me were C racers who had finished and cleaned up, and reports were of inches-thick mud on the backside of the course.

With that little bit of intelligence, I went back to sit in the car, pin numbers and gear up for the 12.30ish start of the 35+B/B/45+B race. When time got close, I did a single lap to scout the course...and soon was filthier than I've been in a long time. Some of it soupy, some of it goopy, some of it spreadable like peanut butter, all mud. The bike was OK with it, except for one little catch of the chain that would come back to haunt me.

My B wave started at a gap behind the 35+B's (logic? don't know) with a short sidewalk stretch before hitting the good stuff. A makeshift plank bridge crossing a waist-deep creek led into the really tricky bit of mud, and the wiser little voice in my head told me to get off and run...so I did, and started passing all the riders trying bravely and "honorably" to pedal through the stuff. A more rideable stretch followed, then more thick muck that I ran--and it seemed as though, just maybe, I was leading the B's and tickling the back of the 35+B field!

All for nought, though. When it came back to the rideable sections, that little skip of the chain came back. I can't tell if it was a sticky link or a front derailleur issue, but if I tried to power down (which happens a lot in the mud), the chain would jam between the cage and the rings and forward motion stopped. After much swearing and a couple forced dismounts, I figured out that backpedaling could get the chain to reseat itself, so better; but there's a reason they don't teach you the cha-cha (two steps forward, half a step back) on a bike: it doesn't move you very fast. Soon, I was losing positions, and more positions, and more forced dismounts...

I would've liked to ride more. It felt good to be pushing under those conditions, and being able to run the ugly bits was really helpful in the B's, but if the bike don't roll, y'ain't gonna do so good. We'll see where I ended up in the results.

Once the B's were through, I suited up for the singlespeed race right afterward. Dave C. pointed out to me that the SS bike was perfect for the conditions, and he was right--who needs gears in all that goo? Things didn't start well in this race, as I almost immediately took a great glob of mud straight into my left eye, which took some furious blinking to clear out (I'm still scraping mud out of my eyesockets now). Three laps in, Josh S. lapped me, my back and a knee were whining, and I was too tired to be able to solve those sections of the course that perhaps I could've ridden earlier with a working drivetrain, so I pulled myself and was done.

Cleanup was a bitch. I would hose myself off, turn to cleaning the bikes, look back at myself and I was dirty again. So: sweating mud. Even after a shower, I'm sure I'll be picking grit out of crevices for a while. And there's yet more 'cross racing tomorrow!

Sorry, no pictures: it was pouring rain and after just a little bit of riding I was filthy enough to dirty anything I touched. Several photogs were prowling the course, though, so I hope some of those shots (though not those of me) end up circulating. Alternatively, I am totally empathizing with the top-flight riders in Belgium today: there are some glorious mud shots in this gallery at cyclingnews.com.

Surf City film

Putting together a cyclocross video was sorta fun the first time, so when I felt no inclination to actually race this past Sunday, it was pretty easy to fall back on Plan B and wander around, camera in-hand, to see what I could film. Did I miss stuff? Heck yeah, like the hecklers on the runup and the entire elite men's race, but one man can only do so much.



Love it? Hate it? It may not be "hardcore"; instead, it seems sorta like a promo video. Probably someone else would make different edits given the footage I have.

I did learn:
--Do not mess with your iPhoto folders when using iMovie--my first draft was all for nought when I tried importing some pictures and messed up the file structure.
--No matter how cool a song seems at first, after listening to dozens of bits and pieces of it for a few hours, it gets old.
--The dismount at the front of the cluster at about 1.42 is nifty, and smoothly executed. Had he been practicing foot-over-top-tube?
--Youtube compression plays hell with video resolution. I don't know if uploading a more detailed (and larger) file would help. The audio seems all right, at least.
--Without me publicizing a darn thing, in the 30 minutes since uploading the video to the time I'm now typing this, it has 5 views. Ah, the randomness of the internet...

Pink

I tried to get some clips and photos at the Surf City race today, and we'll see if I can cobble together some of the footage; but the only photo that I can tell turned out in full, unretouched, uncropped glory is the following, which perhaps does capture some of the spirit of the event. (Click on it for full-size...)

Training plan of champions

Took a week off to sit in a car, drive to Vegas and back, and hike around the mountaintops.

Did one 'cross race (CXSR #1), more than adequate to blow my engine and render me hopelessly incapable of following up in the singlespeed race (didn't stop me from trying for a while--it was free, after all--and hurtin' some of the soft tissue...).

Flew to Ottawa for a long weekend and Canadian Thanksgiving--including massive amounts of dessert (why have just one?):



So, my last three weeks or so have not been a paragon of cyclocross preparation. With Pilarcitos #1 at McLaren Park looming this Sunday, the holy c#$@ instinct to actually do some prep kicked in this morning. 20 minutes of hill intervals were enough to make my legs rubbery and leave me feeling vaguely nauseous once off the bike--those are good signs, right?

One week's vacation

All the kiddies should be stuck in school and their parents should be making sure that the kiddies go to school, leaving the roads and parks open for me to go see some Things I Have Not Yet Seen.


A far from comprehensive list but one that's relevant to the week ahead:
Hwy 120 through Yosemite NP
Death Valley NP
Las Vegas
Interbike (Actually, I probably won't get in, but I can be in its presence)
Cross Vegas
Hoover Dam (maybe)
Sequoia and King's Canyon NPs

Would've left already except that glass class starts up again tonight. Hopefully I can wake myself up early tomorrow and get on the road.

That's not supposed to happen

It's a bad thing when your chainring bolts get loose at any time, let alone in the middle of a cyclocross race. It made for some good spectating and a pseudo-heroic finish, I hope.

CCCX #1 was held at the Fort Ord DOD building, a roughly counter-clockwise loop of the roads and sandy singletrack. My B race at 10am went OK, but the field was clearly much stronger than the LAPRD field. The CCCX course was also hillier than LAPRD's, so I got to say hello to my back muscles for the first time this year...Got 11th out of 18-19, and frustrated that I couldn't figure out how to ride up the sandy climb.

After two hours, lunch, and some advice from Josh Snead on how to ride the sandy climb, I lined up for the singlespeed A race. I had a reasonable start, but spun out/slowed down before the first corner and that was the last I saw of most everyone else in the field. It gave me time to think more about lines through the loose stuff (having my speed governed by the fixed gear ratio probably helped too).

Last corner, just after getting lapped by J.S., I hopped back on after the last barriers, pushed on the pedal, and rather than moving forward, I bent the bejeezus out of my chainring (see pic above). Since it was the last corner, I picked up the bike to jog over the finish line, no effect on final results. I had heard suspicious pinging noises from my drivetrain somewhere and thought I might've broken a spoke, but it seems to have been a chainring bolt or bolts coming loose. I lost two of five in the end. Yes, I feel a fool, but let my story be the cautionary tale: when's the last time you checked if your chainring bolts were tight?

Thanks to Gannon M. for advice on tire inflation, J.S. on the riding advice (worked a charm), the SS field for the commiserations/mocking, and Rod for not making me do another lap post-Chainring Incident. We'll see if I "man up" to a 42t or replace my girly-man 38t...

Big X

I moved to California ten years ago today.

I was supposed to have moved to California ten years ago as of yesterday, but a little confusion while coming through the immigration desk the first time meant that I got to watch my flight leave the gate and take off while I was standing in line to come through immigration the second time.

Two suitcases and a bike box...and now all this crap around me is mine!