The Bike
When I started riding bikes a couple years ago I went low end and spent too much money upgrading until I finally replaced everything by building race-ready bikes from the frame up. So for cross I rationalized that I would save money by going high end from the start and bought a Trek Cronus CX Pro through the Bike Line race team deal. The bike was pretty sweet right out of the box but the wheels were heavy and the Avid Shorty 6 canti brakes were spongy. A used set of Edge 68 tubulars w/ DT190 hubs - both w/ Tufo Primus cross tires already glued - solved the wheel problem. The brakes were replaced with TRP's EuroX Carbon and the difference was amazing. The Edge wheel/tire combo shaved off 1.5 pounds and the brakes shaved another 1/4 pound. After the mods the bike weighed in at 16.5 pounds! Sweet. The SRAM Rival groupset is the middle value line but it's snappy and reliable and I'm liking it. For now. I took the XTR pedals off my Lynskey mountain bike and I was race ready. I got a lot of compliments on my bike setup at the race and it was cool to see what everyone else was riding. Just like MTB races, there were a wide range of bikes from full bling to full ghetto. And yes, I got passed by some full ghetto bikes during the race. I did notice that TRP canti brakes were on a LOT of bikes and I can see why. Love those brakes.
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| What exactly happened in my life that I wound up wearing a pink skin suit at age 43? At least my bike is rad. Photo courtesy of Dennis Smith. |
Bad Health
Around the time I was putting the bike together (July) I suddenly started having bad problems with pain and swelling in my hands and feet. I mean real bad. At times I couldn't even open a water bottle let alone change a tire or ride a bike. Two months of doctor visits and blood tests and everything came back negative. Finally a rheumatologist figures out I have "psoriatic arthritis". 43 years old and I have arthritis. Supposedly laying dormant all my life...and it came out swinging. Awesome. It's going to be two or three months before I work through the progression of light to heavy meds to figure out what sends the disease into remission. Meanwhile I usually have a couple days a week where I feel good to ride...or race. So I'm just trying to stay positive and assume by end of year I'm back to normal. Phil Mickelson has pretty serious psoriatic arthritis and he wins golf tournaments. He has to take an Enbrel shot once a week. If that's my future...fine with me. Whatever works. Meanwhile, I missed two weekends of cross racing at Nittany and Charm City because I wasn't healthy enough to race.
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| Looking nervous and ready to puke at the starting line. Shit is about to get real. Photo courtesy of Dennis Smith. |
The Whirlybird race was coming and I could tell by Friday morning that I might feel good enough to race on Saturday. Only problem being I was not in race form. I'd been riding once or twice a week and had a few stretches where I didn't ride or exercise at all for 3 weeks at a time. I kept telling myself I was here to learn and to not worry about being competitive - my goal was mid-pack and to get some experience. Yeah, right, sure. I'll be happy with mid-pack. I was registered for the Cat 4 men's open class. The "C" race. Beginners. Yeah, right, beginners. Sure.
I was in the 5th or 6th row because I had registered pretty early. The race was full so there were close to 125 riders. 40 or 50 in front of me and 75 or 80 behind me. I've been in 10 races since I started cycling 2 years ago - all mountain bike. I've had no experience with road or cross racing. I've never ridden in a group road ride and I know nothing about riding in tight packs. The gun goes off. Baptism by fire. It's total madness. The bikes are way too close. Bikes are swarming around me. Elbows bumping me. Rear tires cutting across my front. What the fuck you maniacs!? I am hammering hard and still 10 or 15 bikes have blown past me on the opening straightaway. Okay, shit is getting serious. Is this how you boys like to play? I feel myself switching from being scared to being pissed off. Hey, I can be a dick too. The first switchback is coming. I take an aggressive line toward the inside even though I can sense a front wheel alongside my rear. "Easy dude", I hear. I get out of the saddle to accelerate back to speed but still they are swarming around me. In my head, my subconscious is clicking off the tally...started with 40 in front of me, now 50, now 60. Damn man, time to stop the hemorrhaging. That is when it really occurred to me that I was in an open class. I start to notice 25 and 30 year olds all around me. And they don't look or ride like beginners. Shaved legs the size of tree trunks. Jesus. Hey, no excuses, I tell myself. Show these boys! My heart is pounding out of my chest. I am full of nerves.
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| Cat 4 start. I'm way back in that mess. Probably haven't moved yet. Photo courtesy of Dennis Smith. |
There is a short little hill climb up a paved road coming out of the prologue. I love hills and I love climbing. I get a bunch of spots back going up the hill. At least 5 or 6. Coming off the pavement back onto the grass I saw it happening in slow motion. A hard left through the grass was coming up. Something told me to get far right...this was looking like a clusterfuck. They were going way too fast going into that turn. I heard it before I saw it. "Ugh" from someone and "Fuck" from someone else. Crunch and more crunch. Then a rear wheel going up high. The rider is going over the bars. I could have reached out and touched the wheel. It glances off my shoulder as it's coming down, swinging around violently. Something or someone kicks out of the tangled mess and knocks into my rear wheel...it skids my rear tire to the right...it helps me make a perfect slide through the turn. I never came unclipped. Wow, that was lucky shit. I take a quick glance back. It's total carnage. At least eight bikes and riders are tangled up. Some on the ground some straddling their bikes struggling to get free. Riders are trickling through on one side. We are only one minute into the race.
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| Gracefully navigating the barriers. Like a gazelle. Not. Photo courtesy of Dennis Smith. |
I was relieved to avoid the crash...but more because it forced a separation and now there were no riders trying to swarm around me. Now I could focus more on the riders in front than defending from behind. From here on out it was a lot like my mountain races. Settle in, get myself up to my max breathing and max heart rate and do the best I can with what my legs could give me. Nerves started to calm a little and I started picking off riders in front of me. I mean, I got passed by some riders too, but I was happy with the small number of riders passing me and how strong I was feeling passing guys on the straights and on the short hill climbs. I think I got passed by maybe 8 or 10 riders throughout the race...but I got around 20 or 30 in that same time as well. At one point I was trying to chase a rider down going up a paved section that ends in a hard right down a grassy hill...I called out, "coming through right side", and made the pass entering the turn. Someone in the crowd called out "Nice pass man. Smooth!" Another cool thing about cross racing...more people watching...cheering. Very cool atmosphere.
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| Looking out over the course at Bensalem High School. Photo courtesy of Dennis Smith. |
I lost a couple spots on the final sprint because I didn't realize we were on the last lap. I wondered why these guys were out of their saddle blowing themselves up with 2 miles to go. I assumed we had another lap because my computer showed 35 minutes and the race was supposed to be 40 minutes. But it turns out that was the last lap. I was later told they ring a bell when you come through the start finish to signal last lap. Anyway, it's hard to imagine being happy with a 47th place finish but I was totally stoked. I learned a lot about cross racing and bike handling in 35 minutes...and finished a little better then my goal of mid-pack. I washed out on an off camber section at one point and lost a couple spots gathering it back up. I also got passed a couple times coming out of the barriers so obviously I need some work with barriers and the dismount/remount stuff. I'm not yet sure if cross is going to be a win or fail in terms of placing well once I'm back in shape, but it was a hell of a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next race already. In my book cross racing definitely qualifies as a gnarly ride...dude.
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