Whiskey Island CX

Bike Authority series started at Whiskey Island / Wendy Park today. A picture perfect day, except that as I went to snap a great photo of the 'C' race with sailboats and sand volleyball as a backdrop, I realize I left the camera battery charging at home...damn.

Stark Velo had several people entered in all the different fields today. I was the lone entrant in the 'A' race. Having won the 'B' series last year, I felt it was the right thing to do, even though I had a good idea how it would play out. I was amazed at the turnout. I'd like to see final figures to help prep for our race in two weeks, but I'd estimate 180 or so. The B race was enormous.

I lined up with ~45 in the A field. The goal for the day was to start aggressively to make it through the initial technical turn sections near the front, and then settle into a hard effort pace, but one that I can maintain. The A race did not have the traffic jam problems that the B race had, but the initial turns were crowded with most making it through OK. I was just ahead of someone sliding out on the off camber mound before the dirt pile thing. That seemed to cause a gap behind me for the moment.

I lost several places on the first lap after the out and back to the coast guard station, and continued to drop more places on lap 2. The heat was getting to me and I felt pretty weak for a while. After recovering, I was able to find a group that was close to my pace. Racing in the A group this year, I will try to find those near my ability and basically race against them within the race and also see if I can improve versus them week to week. I won't be able to be in the lead group, and not sure how close I will even be to the lead group.

So the remainder of the race was a battle to hold my position. I wasn't able to gain any places with the guys that were near me on the mid-race and late laps. There was some great camaraderie our there as a couple guys prodded me to grab their wheels as they passed, trying to help me pick up my pace. Alas, there wasn't much I could do to hold their speed.

The other goal I had for this race was not to get lapped. As the lap cards came out with 4 to go. I saw the 'lead group' about a half a lap up on me. They were basically on the other side of the pit area at that point. That gave me encouragement that I would finish on the lead lap. However, when climbing the hill after the walkway with a lap and a half to go, I noticed Matt Weeks solo off the front and charging hard. The 'lead group' was actually the first chase group. That put pressure on me to not get lapped, so I tried to step it up a bit. Cyclocross courses like this really allow you to gauge where you are relative to others at multiple points. I realized that Matt was gaining at a fast rate. On the final lap, I was rounding the coast guard station turnaround and only had a 10 second gap. He passed me at the top of the climb just after the walkway. Damn...

Lake Effect did a great job hosting again and the course was very fun to ride...easy to say that now as I'm sitting here drinking a beer and enjoying a cool breeze at 10pm.

Hope to see all you racers in 2 weeks at our inaugural CX race at KSU - Stark! I believe it will be the first ever CX race in Stark County...someone correct me if I'm wrong.