Race Report - Surf City CX #1

Race Report by Isaias Job

Hey All,  

Uh-oh, the wife will not be pleased! I think I found a new addiction. In a few words: cyclo cross racing is - chaotic, squirrelly (rigid fork and narrow tires), gut-wrenching, and exhilarating...I'm hooked.  

Once upon a time...  I wanted to buy a road bike to train on, but instead a friend of mine suggested getting a CX bike because it would be more versatile. I thought well OK, that kinda makes sense and the next thing you know I own a CX bike. I've been riding it on the road for a few months now and as XC racing is winding down I thought, what the heck I'm gonna give CX riding a go. So, I started riding the CX bike on the dirt.  

So, with only 4 CX rides on the dirt and a week before the first CX race(SCCX#1), I 'm still undecided and not really motivated to do the cx race. So, I talk to a couple of  friends who are pretty wild about CX and they are like, yeah man you gotta try it so fun. By now I'm starting to think that it would be pretty fun to do the race. I asked them what class I should race and they suggested starting CX racing as a beginner in the "C" class, good choice.  

The race:

I show up at Aptos High School at 755am and it's like 45degF outside...brrr. I throw on some warm clothes and head over to the registration both. For a warm up I decide to ride a couple laps on the course (about 2miles, I think) and then continue riding around campus until it's race time.

Time to line up. The Senior Men's C class is behind the Master 35+B and Mater 45+B group. As the first groups go off, my stomach starts to churn a bit and I remind myself that this is just for fun. My group is up and were off, I start of pretty hard and am up front with about 10 others. The course start uphill on the pavement and then veers off road and right into the first run up section. Oh man, this run-up is probably about 50ft, steep and dusty. I jump off my bike and shoulder the bike and take off running up the hill. I pass a couple people and as I'm frantically making my way up the hill I ramp my head right into somebody's rear tire, I exclaim, good thing I'm wearing a helmet.  

Next is a little downhill section, with an s-turn, nothing to big. Then it's back across the same road we came up on to the first semi-technical section, a dusty steep switch back. I ride through without having to dab. It's funny how a section that would be totally non-technical on a mountain bike becomes way more technical on a CX bike with no fork and narrow a*s tires. I hit the straight away after the switch back and pick up some speed to make it back up to the road where you wind back down into some sort of grassy field. The next notable section is a series of s-turns through a parking lot. Man, I've never leaned my bike over as much as I did trying to maintain speed through the turns...very fun and very cool.  

The next section is the coolest. You come barreling down a paved parking lot and then you make a right turn up a fairly steep hillside. If you hit it with good speed, you don't even have to pedal much to maintain speed to the top. Then at the top, you hit the first setup of classic CX barrier standing about knee high. So, trying to mimic what I've only seen other cx racers do, I ride up to the barrier at close to max speed and at the last minute I swing my right leg over and hop off the bike, while at the same time grabbing the top tube and leaping over the 3 successive barriers and then hopping frantically back on to the bike. That felt good, it felt almost natural...weird. Next you hit a sketchy steep, grassy downhill section with a couple turns and then you are almost back to the dirt parking lot where we started.  

Then it's up and over a few more barriers and up two more little hills and then it's time to repeat it all over again. We did this for four laps. The entire time I was redlined and was just waiting for the cramps to start, but luckily they never came. On the fourth lap, I turned to the announcer and asked how do we know when were done and he's like your done...whew. The results later revealed that I came in 2nd place, 1:26 behind first place. DOPE!

  The after math, today my legs are toast, they are sore in places that haven't been sore since the start of the XC race season and more sore even than doing Downieville and Billy cross back-back. Wow, it's amazing how much power is output in only 30minutes.  

You can expect to find me at many CX race this winter season. CX rocks!  

Isaias

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