Fort Ritchie CX Race (1st Place - Cat 5 & 17th of 38 - Cat 4/5 Men)

I was up at 4:30am, and since I had everything packed and ready to go the night before, I had some oatmeal, said "see you soon" to the wife, and I was out the door by 5:00 am. The 1.5 hour drive was tiresome, but thanks to the reviving sounds of Disco, Techno, and the occasional Dubstep song I was able to make it to Ft. Ritchie intact, not to mention really early. When I got there I prepped my bike (30/35 with tubes on my Sammy Slicks) and took the time to just ride around the course to see why it was so bumpy, and thanks to another racer's advice (he was from Carlisle, my old hometown) I was able to find some great lines on the course. Around 8am I met up with Austin and TJ and passed along the information I knew and recommended that the only hill climb in the course should be a "riding to run" attack. 

By 8:10 we were all lined up for the Cat 5 race and ready to go and then the gun went off. I took Tony's words to heart and didn't blow up on my first lap, so I just hung on to a wheel of the guy in front of me. My dismounts were smooth and my straight-aways were fast, and when I got to the parking lot to hill climb section I put the hammer down, ride/ran the hill, and bumped myself from sixth to third place. After that I hung on to the second place guy till about the wasboard bumps and then I attacked and took them both for the lead. I held the lead for the second lap only to loose it at the top of the cantered hill turn, I just lost grip on the tires and went down and the second place guy came right up on me. In the heat of the moment I hopped back on and was off like a bat out of hell. I kept about a solid 20 feet from him on the third lap but I couldn't seem to grab his tire, I was also starting to tire out here. Nearing the end of the third lap my luck changed and right where the tree line straight aways the leader's tire pinched flat, and I took my chance to move out. I hammered it again realizing that there was no one behind me for a solid 30-45 seconds after I crossed the finish line. I took 1st place with a time of 28:04.00.

The AFC Crash-5 Team... Austin (left) and TJ (right).

My second race (Cat 4/5 Men) was a little more crowded and since I was already beat from my first race and taking photos all day I did what I could with what reserves I had left. Same rules as before applied... don't blow up, keep on a wheel, fast on the straights, smooth on the turns, and don't finish last. I knew the course fairly well except this time it was way more dusty and I felt my tire slip from time to time. I raced hard, I kept a solid pace, passed everyone I could, and rode up the hill climb each time (instead of running it). I held my ground for the 45 minuets of racing and only one person passed me, nearing the end I again dropped the hammer and finished strong. I circled back to cheer on the remaining racers to the finish line. 

The sad part of my day... driving home after doing two races... 

SSYCX Underground Race - 5th place

Let me set one thing straight... I am really starting to enjoy my decision to jump into this crazy thing called cyclo-cross...

Yesterday evening in Colmar Manor Community Park, near Hyattsville, MD, In The Crosshairs cycling team put together an impromptu race called SSYCX. Silly me decided what better way to learn CX, without making myself a complete fool, then to enter into this race and see how if I'm cut out for this type of racing! I literally just bought my Cannondale CAADX Ultegra Disc CX bike a week prior and I didn't want to reenact the whole "Sugar Hill MTB race new-bike-rear-wheel-taco-fiasco", so I figured this "underground" race would be the perfect setting (not a lot of people means less chance of crashing). The good news is the race director did a course pre-ride with us two times around, so at least I knew how things would go down. There were two groups set up, an A group (which was seven laps) and a B group (which was four laps)... B group seemed fine to me! We all lined up and I pretty much stayed in the back just to heed caution to the more experienced riders and watched what they did during the race. Of course I have watched a few CX races in the past and have had a couple of practices with the AFC team, but this being the first time racing I didn't really know exactly what to expect.... So in the words of David Farragut, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" and that's exactly what I did.... at least until I got to the down slope S-turn... This is where I need work! This tight turn psyched me out every time, though three out of four laps I was able to stay inside the cones, my speed was very slow. My mounts and dismounts were decent, though I did catch myself trying to "hop" a couple of times, but I told myself to slow down and do it right. By the third lap I was in the middle of the group and was keeping a pretty solid pace with everyone else. I figured if had plenty of steam to run a strong forth lap so I picked up the pace, but caught myself making a dumb mistake, which was jumping over the barriers with both feet off the ground instead of running with one leg over. So I self corrected and kept going, telling myself the motto "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"... 

At one point in the fourth lap I was schooled in the ways of "Bandit CX" to where the guy behind me said that my rear tire was dangerously low and suckered me into checking it out... I didn't know better! Either way he passed me as soon as I realized that I got punk'd, but it was short lived! I tore off after him and within maybe 1/8th of a mile I was in my old spot and moving to drop 'em. I had a good bit of reserve power and by the last leg I hammered down and took off... and ended up with taking 5th place. All in all not bad in my book. 

Anyway the course was pretty straight forward with some tree turns, loose gravel areas, a barrier set, a short but steep climb, lots of grassy areas, sandy area from a ball field, and a "use your imagination" off the bike hill climb. The course was solid and only a short 1.5ish miles per lap. Thanks In The Crosshairs for a good time, looking forward to the next one!