Adam says: "No jumping, Justin. Only lifting of the legs, like Edwin Moses. NO JUMPING!" And I thought I had my technique down...AUGUSTA 'CROSS 2k10!
Let me start by saying that Saturday was a complete bust. I woke up early and made my way towards Rock Hill for another training race (on the site of the future permanent cyclo-cross course-funding was approved Monday), about 15 minutes from Rock Hill my car started shaking and my check engine light came on. After consulting my resident mechanic/step dad we decided it best to turn around and head home... I was going to be late anyway.
So Sunday I woke up, not as early, packed the borrowed van (since my car wasn't making it out of state) with beer and bikes, grabbed the Cycle-Smart bouncer and headed down to Disgusta, GA for the second race of the Georgia 'Cross Series.
This was a bit of a different experience for me in that: 1. I had a teammate here; 2. There were people to hangout with whom I actually knew. CRAZY!
In all honesty, I was kind of taking the Georgia racing scene a bit lightly. I mean, I race in the NCCX! Those guys are hard as fuck! But, Georgia racing is nothing to scoff at and the boys and girls in Augusta set up a great course and there was plenty of competition.
The course started on an uphill pavement section, turned right off of the pavement towards an awesome run up, around a baseball infield, TWO sets of barriers, back around towards the pavement. The start/finish stretch was LONG, and this would prove to be bad for me later. There were nice transitions from the grass to the pavement, including two gravel sections that made things entertaining. The course wasn't about being punchy out of the corners, but getting through the obstacle, getting back up to speed and holding it for a long time. There were tons of sections where you'd go from 20mph to a near stop to navigate a turn.
I've been told to focus on my starts lately, so today I had plans to rape, pillage and burn everything once the whistle blew. Only problem: as I was ending my last lap of warm up, everyone had already lined up. We still had plenty of time before the start-- or at least we thought we did, my C-S teammate missed the start while making a bathroom stop. I assholed my way up to the second row and when we got going, I acted like I was running from the devil. A crash in the second turn made my job a little bit easier and after the run up I was in sixth and in the second group on the course.
By this point, I had glory in my eyes, I was planning on getting around the two dudes in front of me and bridging to the front group. At which point, I would work with them for the majority of the race before gapping them and winning on the last lap. Unfortunately, I never bridged up and about halfway through lap two I was feeling the effects of my start. I probably could have warmed up better...
Coming to the second turn on lap three, I had already been gapped, and I was looking for a faster line through the pinestraw. Except that trying to avoid the big ruts of straw put me in deeper piles of straw and sent me to the ground. Shortly after this I was caught and began losing places.
The more and more tired I got, the sloppier I got. At one point on the last lap, I literally could not get out of my left pedal coming to the first set of barriers. I slowed way, way down to get through the barriers cleanly. After the first two trips up that mountain of a run up, I was getting sloppy there too. Mistiming my dismount and taking longer to remount. Funny the things you start to do when you're tired.
On the last lap, I was riding in front of two of the ACC guys. One of them got around me on the pavement and his tire blew out just after transferring to the grass. I don't know what kind of pressure you have to run to make your tire explode like this, but it happened twice today... wtf?
The second dude bitched at me once about riding my brakes. My response was to ride the rest of the lap like a total asshole. Every time I felt him start to come around me I cut him off. I would have been happy putting him into the tape. Rubbin's racin, right? Plus, if I was so slow, why didn't he get around me? I led him all the way to the pavement on the start/finish stretch. I was basically just leading him out though. I kind of saw it coming and I was hoping to get on his wheel whenever he came around me to try to sprint at the line. When he passed me though, he made it seem like I was standing still and grab his wheel I did not.
Limped across in 12th. Not a terrible day. I would have been happy with 12th at this point last year, but I came into today with plans to finish top 5 (upgrade points!!!), so after such a strong start and such high goals, 12th was kind of disappointing.
Once I got across the tape I looked for a soft patch of ground and fell over. Dry heaved a couple of times and coughed a lot... so at least I know I gave it pretty much everything I had. Got back to the car to talk shit, tell lies and hangout for the rest of the day. Had a recovery New Belgium 1554 and gave out beer hand ups (just down the course there was a group giving out donuts, awesome). I've said it before, even on a bad day 'cross is more fun than any other racing discipline.
Greenville this weekend. I hate that golf course. It's going to be a hilly grass crit with sand. I don't like any part of that at all. After that I'm staying home for three weekends to get pumped for the State Championships and the North Carolina Grand Prix. Still hoping to race the 2/3 race at NCGP, but we'll see how it goes. I may just plan on upgrading after NCGP, before the big block of winter racing in December and January.
Still nine points till CX3.
Fellow Columbia 'cross enthusiast Mark Merrills' account is found here:
http://colabike.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-leg-hurts.html
And here's a helmet cam from the first race of the day, the masters race:
http://www.vimeo.com/15757717
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