Breaking All The Rules

A sweet Ozzy referrence for the post tile.

I broke one of my own CX rules this weekend: bring everything you own, and bring two of it. Especially in November. Forecasts can be way wrong; and boy was it wrong Saturday. And since I packed my bag based on forecast rather than the rule, I was not prepared for the conditions.

39 and rain. Hypothermia anyone?

This weekend was the big Cinci-nasty UCI 3 race weekend. I skipped Friday, so it was the big Cinci-nasty UCI 2 race weekend for me. UCI races are the biggest races in country, so they bring bigger fields for all races as well as top pros for the pro races. Cool weekend to be a part of.

Saturday's forecast called for low-mid 50's, 30% chance of rain. That's short-sleeved base layer, long-sleeved skinsuit and light gloves racing weather. It rained pretty much all day and the temps never reached 50. Word was at the start of my race the temp had dropped to 39. And it was raining. That's nasty, nasty weather. And because it had rained all day, the course was totally muddy. So after about 1minute of racing, your caked in cold mud. 

So this race just started off bad for me. I was shivering uncontrollably before we even started. I got a decent start and held a good position for mot of the first lap. But there is a feature that they use at this venue called "the camel hump" that is a big hill jutting out of nowhere. Some years it's been a simple up/down but this year it was traversed 3 times, two of which were off-camber (both off camber up and off camber down). It would have been difficult in the dry. But wet, it was very hard. I lost places nearly every time up this thing. I don't know how many laps we did, 5 maybe, and I made it up all three parts of the camel only 2 (making it up meaning riding up). And the times I didn't make it up it wasn't a graceful momentum carrying dismount either. It was a 'struggle, struggle, stop, half fall over, get off and start pushing' type of affair. 

The Cinci-nasty Defeet socks flyover

I know how to ride mud, but it was pretty much a crap race. I really just didn't handle the cold well. I think I finished 24th or something.

I didn't know it, but I was being chased/sprinted to the line. I sensed it late and barely held Will off.

Miserable after the finish line.

 One interesting thing did happen during Sat's race though: I ran over a squirrel. I was on a short paved section and I saw a squirrel running toward me from my left. I was watching him thinking his timing was about perfect for me to hit him if he kept on. Keep on he did. I ran over him square with my front wheel and he flew up and bounce off my leg. I was transitioning off the pavement and onto (mud), so I couldn't really look back to see what happened to him. But the guy behind me was yelling "that was unbelievable!" I was glad I wasn't the only one who saw it. And I hope the stupid squirrel is okay.

Sunday was a new day but with a similar forecast: mid 50's and very little chance of rain. The difference was it was accurate this time! Thankfully I did have the good sense to pack two racing suits. Otherwise I may not have been able to rave Sunday my black suit was so messed up.     


The course had some mud on it from the rain the day before, but overall was in fine shape. I've raced at this venue (Harbin Park) since I started racing CX. It has long uphill sections, which tend to suit me better than short, steep 3-4 pedal stroke "climbs." The course is a good mix of technical cornering and more open sweeping turns; I usually like it.

This race starts with a long pavement straight, then onto the grass with some turns. About 2 or so minutes into the lap there's a tricky down/up, down/up off camber that if you're outside of the top 10 or so, gets balled up and is most likely going to force you off your bike to run it. I did not want to have to get off for this section, meaning I either had to be toward the front, or off the back. I got another good start and was able to easily get through this section without getting caught in traffic. I help position well, but I hadn't gotten a chance to ride the first section in my pre-race sighting lap. So when we hit the first (of the two) sandpit, which is on an uphill bias, I started riding it on adrenaline, but got bogged down ~3/4 through and came off. That cost me a few places, but I rode well otherwise, battled with a few guys throughout and finished a respectable 13th in a big UCI Elite Master's race. Having biffed the sand on lap one made me know better than to mess with it again, so I dismounted and carried every other lap. It was much faster.

It was a good race and I was happy with my result.

This weekend is the Louisville stop of the USGP of CX, The Derby City Cup.  That's back-to-back weekends of double racing and watching the best pros in the US race. The weather looks really good this weekend, but I'm packing everything I own just in case! This is always a pretty fun weekend. Looking forward to it. 
And that's that. This post is later than normal and probably incomplete, but whatevs. Busy weekends and busy weeks. I'm sure you can find better things to do than wait for/read my awes-rad blog posts anyway...or are you that bored?