From Murrysville 'Cross 2009

Yes, muddy. Much warmer than last year, though, which was a good thing. I went into this race without much actual fitness, since I’ve not raced since July, and haven’t done any real “training” since August. At least I had commuting miles in my legs. A pre-ride of the course revealed that the course changed a bit from last year, with a nasty little climb on the backside of the course, as well as some re-routing around the playground, with the double barriers also becoming more of a factor, with a tight uphill corner just after them. The course was very wet, but only muddy in spots–but those spots promised to get muddier as the race went on. On particular section was basically unridable, even during the pre-ride, which meant three dismounts per lap. Hopefully my legs were up for it.

I managed to squeeze into the second row for the start, and this made all the difference. I hit the first grass section in about sixth place, and gaps formed almost immediately. I pulled into fifth at the run-up, but could never close the gap on the leaders. Alan was trading places with another riding just behind me, and I was cautious to maintain that gap best that I could. At the end of the first lap, I closed the gap to the fourth place rider on the tarmac, and we exchanged positions for the remainder of the race. It was interesting–he was clearly stronger on the technical sections, powering out of the turns and gapping me, but I routinely closed the gap and passed him on the tarmac. We did a good job holding our pace, gapping Alan.

I sat on his wheel entering the grass on the last lap, hoping to save some energy, but in retrospect, this was a bad idea. I should have tried to get a gap on the tarmac. I stayed with him through the climb (again, probably should have made a move), but he dropped the hammer on the techy bit, and I couldn’t pick it up. He even went down, but I could not summon my legs to attack. Such is life, I guess. I finished fifth without any problem. I’m pretty happy with that, again, given my fitness.

This was a good reminder that cyclocross is about 100 times more fun than road racing. Despite not being at the front, it was still a good race, exchanging places with another rider (and laughing about it afterward) and riding hard. In the road racing world, this would be an epic fail (of course, in the road racing world, we would sat in the pack for 39 minutes then had one minute of extreme effort). Perhaps next year should be experimentation with MTB racing and ‘cross, and avoidance of the rat race that is road racing….

Posted on 24 October 2009