DAS Beaver CX

Cat 4/5

Sean gets the honor of being the first to don the
new team kit atop the podium!

Sean was the lone CCR racer out there today and he capped off a great late-season run by taking 2nd place on the day. Here is his recap:

Today started like yesterday, an early start and frozen ground; I decided to run about 28 PSI front and rear.  The pressure would turn out to be an interesting choice.

The start was a free for all and I managed a first row spot of the 30 plus riders.  We got a 2 minutes to go signal.  About 20 seconds later we were given an under 1 minute warning.  I removed my jacket as did the rider next to me; an NBCC rider (I think).  At the same time we got the, ‘whistle can come at any time’ warning.  As my jacket hit the ground to the side of the field the whistle blew.  I and the rider next to me had a total of 4 feet on the ground.  As we were overtaken by 20 or so riders I finally found both pedals.

The start was a slight uphill wide dirt road.  It was easy to move around and I made up a few spots quickly.  Next up was an inverted ‘W’ on a hill.  I made up a few spots on the uphills and things started to spread out as we headed back down hill towards the start.  The first barriers came next after a 180 turn.
A fairly long section of flat allowed me to put some space on my followers and close down the gaps ahead.  A 180 at the end of the flat pointed up quickly uphill.  Taking the inside line I gained another two spots and 1 more before I crested the top of the climb.

Now comes the fun part, the rock decent.  A stone/rock road took us down to water level.  I had pre-ridden the course and knew I could clear it, but just had to let the bike do its own thing.  The worst part was the bigger loose rocks at the very bottom.  By the time I was taking pictures, a line through the upper part of the downhill had formed, but not so at the bottom.  I passed a rider on the way down and saw another grabbing his shoulder at the bottom of the descent.  He ended up at the hospital with a dislocated shoulder, fortunately not a broken collar bone.
By this time I was somewhere just outside the top ten.  I could see the leaders coming at me on the long out and back.  I started counting riders; the leader had a few bike lengths on a chasing group of four.  There were scattered riders between me and them.  I went into the drops and pegged it, passing a rider and coming up on the next.  At the end of the out and back we had to get back to the top of the hill.  This required a dismount, a walk over some large wet flat rocks, 2 stairs, across a cement bridge, down two steps, across even more large wet stones and finally a long single wide staircase.  I kept my head down up the stairs each lap and pushed until I saw grass.

Fortunately I got a bit of a rest on the downhill.  What goes down must go up in bike racing, and the course pointed right back up the hill.  I gained another spot on the uphill.  I was now sitting somewhere around 7th or 8th.  The next part of the course was a series of twisty winding tape where you could see and be seen by those around you.  A short triple set of barriers forced me off my bike before heading into a short woods section.  The woods were very tight and a double switchback proved faster to run than to ride.  This completed the first lap with me sitting in 7th or 8th.  

The field had spread out even more.  A lone leader and a small group of pursuers had a sizeable gap on me.  After the second rock downhill I made another pass on the long grass straight away and saw a rider walking his bike off course.  I was now sitting 6th, like yesterday.  I had a pursuer that was not making ground on me, but I was not getting away.  I pushed and pushed and pushed and after 2 laps saw no laps-to-go sign.

On lap number three I made up more ground on the 5th place rider.  I eventually passed him on a flat section and was one spot up on March Farms.  Around this time I started to notice that I was bottoming out my rim on the rock decent.  What I was doing was working for me so I did not change my riding at all.

The last lap was almost uneventful aside from the knots in my stomach as the fear of not making the podium continued to increase.  It must have spurred me on as I widened the gap on 3rd place.  When all was said and done I held him off by 18 seconds, and was 40 seconds off of second. My first cash prize ever.

No comments:

Post a Comment