Pilarcitos #3 at Sierra Point - 11/15/08

Bob Roll is one of my favorite Tour day France (France not Frahnce) announcers. Some of the expressions he uses are perfect descriptions of how a cyclist feels. And most of us being cyclists, we can relate. Well, Bobke's expression for me in today's race would've been, "He went deep into the pain cave... and barely made it back out." That was a perfect description of today's race. And this was confirmed as just about everyone I ran into said that I looked terrible at the end of the race. Thanks, love you too... :)

(photo credit - Steve Woo)
I've been sick for the last week to ten days (and still not fully over it). So I probably had no business even racing today. But the cross bug has bit me hard, like a drug, and I need to feed the habit. So I loaded up my frankenMoots and headed to a familiar venue - Sierra Pt - the location of the Track Fights a few months back. The weather of course was spectacular today - actually wouldn't have minded it to be a bit cooler. Low 80's at race time. So much for the muddy cross races fought out in the bitter cold. This was a hot and dusty race.

I registered and slipped onto the course after the 3pm race. It was a bumpy course, but pretty darn fast with only one forced dismount. Couple of steep power ups but all rideable (except when for some fit roadies with no skills were in front of you and lost their balance you dumba$$es). My frankenMoots would be what I thought was a perfect bike for the race - 700c wheels with high pressure, Fox F80X fork in front (no bob), and the excellent Moots YBB rear end with just over an inch of travel. The only thing that concerned me was that I was using my aero road bike wheels with 16 and 20 spokes (front/rear). Oh and riser bars - jeeze, I felt so at home on those riser bars... :)

So at the start it is a fairly wide paved stretch of parking lot and then a bunny hop over a curb onto the dirt. I settled in a few bikes behind Schlachter and was actually feeling good with the pace. But the first lap is always the easiest since things are sorting out, and there is some conga line action going on. Well, on the first little power up, an aforementioned dumba$$ has to dismount and I try to go around him. But I lost my balance as I was way off the good line and that would be the last I saw of Scott. I mean I saw him on the course as it crisscrossed a bunch, but never got to within the few bike lengths to him. Probably wouldn't have anyhow.

For the rest of the race, I fought as hard as I could. But most of the time it seemed like I was getting passed. At one point I was behind a guy who had a front flat and could barely keep up with him. Sheesh. I'd look back at the course where it crisscrossed and didn't see many people behind me. But the leaders hadn't lapped me yet so I still had motivation to push on. Then I hear the bell lap and think cool, I can mash it for one last lap. I probably did my fastest lap of the day and as I neared the finish line I see the lap card person holding up a "1" and pointing at me. I had crossed the line with another guy and he pulled off. I was confused and then a bunch of the Open B's hopped on the course to warm up. I could've sworn I was done, but I decided I better keep going. So I had to work a little harder to pass the B warmer uppers and managed to finish one last lap, thankfully without a sprint finish. Good thing I did apparently. Maybe that was Lorri Lee Lown doing some funny bidness while officiating... I'll teach that Gin... muwahahahahaa!!!

So I'm not sure what the hell happened there, but I was just glad it was over. After being told I looked like death warmed over by my teammates, I went back to my car thinking that if I puke, I would like to do it in private. But that never happened, but man, was I toast. I drank a ton of water, which was about the only thing safe at the time. Sat down because standing up seemed like too much work. Finally after about 15-20 minutes I started to feel somewhat normal again. People said I looked better too. Still very tired though.

My finish wasn't stellar, but I did manage to finish on the lead lap - just barely - I was the second to last guy of the non-lapped guys. 48th place out of 59, not including the DNFers. So actually considering everything going into this race, I was happy to have finished on the lead lap - that was my goal. Schlachter took a very respectable 30th, which included riding a couple of laps with a loose handlebar and taking a pit stop to fix it. I think he was about 2 minutes in front of me. I finished just over 5 minutes behind the leaders.

Thanks to all that were there supporting us - Matt Walters for the occasional feed and his significant other, Kathleen and sons, Allan and Roz, Paul and Jenny, and the other people I knew out there cheering me on (the Meeces and Altezza40 folks). It is amazing how that does keep you pushing forward despite wanting to quit or mysteriously have a mechanical...

So right as I was getting ready to leave, the Open B race started. I said, "Hey Matt Leonard got his first call up to the start line - let's go heckle him!" So we got over to the fence and were positioned about 30 yards down from the start. And they're off! And right in front of us, one guy eats it big time - the ensuing pile up was nasty - I turned away at one point because I didn't want to see the carnage. The sound was enough. Ugly. And guess who got caught up in the crash? Leonard. He wasn't hurt, but his bike became unrideable - the brake boss on his fork was bent and the brake was pushed into his wheel. What a bummer. He was clearly disappointed. We asked him if he wanted another bike. And he said yes. So there was my bike, right there with the same fantastic Crank Bros. Eggbeater pedals, which is what he uses too. I handed him my bike and off he went. He was dead last by a lot but managed to finish pretty strongly. He caught a lot of people but that crash set him really far back in a fast field. Not sure where he finished, but might have cracked the top half. Way to fight back Matt! And the frankenMoots held up nicely under him too. Matt Walters raced the Open B's and did well - he got caught near the end by the lead guys, but nothing wrong with that. Those guys are freakin' fast. Way to suffer with the fast boys Matt!

Full results should be published probably tomorrow. Super fun event - watching the folks race under the lights was cool. Reminded me of the days when we tried to pull that off at Club Moto with the Dirt Crits back in the late 90's. We were so far ahead of our time... :)

Now a nice break from racing - after racing 9 weeks in a row, I'm looking forward to the Turkey Day holiday and some R&R. The body can use a break.

Thanks for reading!

Mike

******************* Race Report by Matt Walters *******************

Ah nice report Mike.

I got there a couple of laps into Mike and Scotts race. I must say it was pretty cool to see all the racers on that tight course, the dust being kicked up and the setting sun made for quite the pic. The course looked damm fast and pretty rough.

(photo credit - Steve Woo)
I lined up for the B's hoping that my race would last more than 5 mins last time, knowing that half way through i would love a mechanical. I managed to aviod, just, the big pile up at the start and settled into the suffering. It basically went something like this sprint corner, sprint, straight, corner, sprint take air out of the bowel, corner, sprint. All in all quite good fun. About half-way though some guy passes me complaining about bloody mountain bikers - and that was the last i saw of Leonard! After that i just kept plugging away, getting lapped towards the end - thank god cause i was dying.

I got to say that i had forgotten how much i love racing cross, definately gonna be doing a fair bit more. Now all I need to do is some training and get fit, or continue to suffer at the arse end of the B's.

Matt