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CDGolden
Posts: 343 Member
SO are you?
My first race of the season is Saturday morning, I switched my commuter into cross mode and took it out today for a ride, I liked it. Saturdays race is 45 minutes, will be mostly dirt trail, some open plowed fields and grass, don't foresee any run-ups and should be several barriers.
So if you have already raced this season, lets hear about it.....If you have some coming up, lets hear about it.
Pics are always nice.
My first race of the season is Saturday morning, I switched my commuter into cross mode and took it out today for a ride, I liked it. Saturdays race is 45 minutes, will be mostly dirt trail, some open plowed fields and grass, don't foresee any run-ups and should be several barriers.
So if you have already raced this season, lets hear about it.....If you have some coming up, lets hear about it.
Pics are always nice.
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I love...no...I LOVE CYCLOCROSS. Doing ten races this year. Did one last year as my introduction to the sport. Got 90th out of 100 and was hooked. I have never hurt so bad while having the time of my life. For this year I dropped weight and am focusing all of my riding for the cross season.
Did my first race of 2012 last weekend. Got there 3 hours early to pre-ride the course, warm up and be relaxed. Got called up in the 6th row of 12. Course was maybe 1.5 long, dry and dusty with a two set of barriers, a barrier at the base of a run up, some off camber stuff and a flyover. My goal was to finish in the top 80's of 100. First few laps were good. No real issues.
On the last turn of the second to last lap, I crashed. Did a superman slide on the grass and dirt which drew some oohs and ahhs from the crowd. Got up and got my chain back on and finished the race. I was in the 60's before the wreck and finished 74 of 100. Got to sprint a buddy at the end but he nipped me at the line. Fun times. I'm thinking my crash will be on youtube soon.
MFP member StevieDrew1967 and sons were also racing at this event as well. Good times all around.
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Hi! Thanks for starting this thread. My older son and I are new to CX via my younger son and I love it.
I raced last weekend (same race as midschool22). We were both in the same group, Cat 4b, along with my older son. My younger son raced the Junior 15 - 18 race earlier in the day. This was my second cross race ever and I came in 88 out of 100! It was a four lap race but I was lapped just at the end of my 3rd lap by the winner so was pulled at the end of three laps along with the 5 or 6 guys behind me. There were also a few guys that were DNF. There were probably 500 racers at Hopkins Park and both the Cat 4 races were maxed out at 100. For me, as a new racer, I found the start to be the most difficult and stressful part of the race, followed by the single track section, primarily due to the jostling between riders in such close quarters. The barriers, run up, and flyover were fine. Fitness wise I have a way to go but I finished and wasn't last.
My first race was was in Lake Geneva, a few weeks ago and it was the beginner race, which was 1 lap around the course
Lake Geneva was quite challenging with two run ups, a flyover, several barriers, and a sand pit (which I ran). I crashed in that race when I lost traction going up a steep hill. My tires were totally inappropriate for the race (basically a commuter type tire) and I have since switched out to 700x33 maxxis raze. My younger son raced in Lake Geneva as well and won, but he was on the stock cross tires that came with his Focus, 700x35 Continental "Cyclocross Speed", which were total crap. He now has Clement Crusade PDX 700x33 clinchers and they are awesome.
My two boys also did the USGP race in Madison a couple weeks ago. I did a warmup lap with my older son before his race (Cat 4) and opted out of racing. My back was killing me from the Lake Geneva crash and the course seemed too technically challenging for a novice like me. Both my boys did well and this was my older sons first race.
Here are some pics (of my kids) from the races:
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I wanted to try while I lived in Portland (Cross Crusade is amazing!) but never got to it. Now it's a minimum 3 hour drive to get to a race. Drive 3 hours for 45 minutes of exquiste pain and suffering? Somedays I wish I could, just not right now.0
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I was a spectator at this race and I remember this kid!! I cheered for him up that hill with the rail road ties!!! I love CX! (but not a racer) It is a goal to race one or two next year.0 -
That is so awesome! Give it a try!0
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Here are a few pics I shot from the USGP two weeks ago in Sun Prairie WI.
Ryan Trebon and Jeremy Powers lead the elite men into the barriers.
Rapha Focus elite women riders Julie Krasniak and Gabby Day take the barriers
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I don't see myself anywhere near the fitness level to come in any place but last. But it sure looks fun as hell.0
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Raced this morning, Heiser Farms, Dayton, OR. first face of the season, and my 3rd time at Heiser, they changed it up a bit from last year. Heiser is a local race so a smaller turn out, maybe about 30 in my class, "Beginner", I should probably start racing "C" or Masters but I'm not sandbagging yet so I am ok with it. I finished mid pack, official results aren't posted yet. Tomorrow is the kick off of "Cross Crusade" in Portland, which will be HUGE, but I am still on graves and work tonight..:( so I cant make it in time for my start and then enough sleep for work on Sunday...OH well.
It was chilly in the morning, I could see my breath, wearing bibs, base layer, jersey and arm warmers, ended up being perfect. No rain yet so the course was hard, field grass was long, in and out of the pine trees (you could smell pine in the air), some gravel double track, one set of barriers, and new this year were 3 large packed dirt rollers like on a BMX track, interesting.
I ran my Garmin, running my HR pretty high for the speeds I was averaging, I planned on setting a lap each time but I forgot, also planned on stopping it at the finish line, again forgot, so my finish was just over 42 minutes.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230628557
if you want to take a peak, view in Satelitte, OR "Player" and you can watch it, again in "Aerial" when you play it.
EDIT pics are to big0 -
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Me after hitting the deck superman style. Going nowhere without the chain on. Thanks to Amy (velogrrl on flickr) for the snap.
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Today was my 2nd race, Dan Ryan Woods in Chicago. I finished and I was not lapped! Both of my sons raced with me. My youngest got 27th, my oldest 40th, and I was 79th! The field started at 100 but there were several DNS and a few DNF, so in the end there were about 8 people behind me. Conditions were very dry and dusty and the single track section of the trail was the most difficult for me as it was all uphill with lots of roots.0
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Hopefully these are resized small enough to fit.
Photo credits to my 6yo and 10yo daughters
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Great pics!0
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Here is a pic someone took at our race yesterday. This is NOT me. They had a set of three shorter barriers in a row. The good/brave riders bunny hopped them three in a row. The brave novice riders tried to bunny hop and crashed. The conservative riders, like me, ran them. This section was FILLED with hecklers during my race.
Dan Ryan Woods Cyclocross by KyleMistry, on Flickr0 -
Race report #2...Where to begin...when the thought of riding in mud was a definite probability, I had two feelings. Excitement and concern. I have never raced in or on mud. I arrived a tad late to get in my usual two/three warm up laps so I made do with the one I got. One set of double barriers, sand pit, flyover and greasy mud in lots of the corners. While chatting with a buddy, I missed staging and started near the back. If you know cross, you don't want to be there.
Race started, did ok. Tripoded lots of the 180 turns due to the greasy mud. Barriers went fine, sand was no problem and I FLEW up the flyover. Seems I'm pretty fast at stairs or shouldering my bike. My only trouble (I'm sure others had this as well) was the off camber greasy straightaways. I seemed there was a gravitational pull sucking me down to the bottom. The other issue was I was going WAY TOO FAST for them. In fact, yes, I wrecked once coming into a gravel section. Fell on the same dang knee from two weeks ago. F-me! Guy who seen me do it yelled out, "you ok?". After that happened, several riders flew by me. At that point I was P.O.'d for crashing. Within several minutes I had reeled in all the riders who passed me and left them in the dust. The field had strung out so far that there really was no one within 5-10 seconds of each other. Came across the line, bruised and bloodied, again. ;-) 32nd out of 48 starters. Had I not crashed, I was on my way to get my first points in the series. Get em tomorrow. I love this sport!!!!
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I raced the 4b race today in Carpentersville, IL. There were rain showers, thunder storms, and tornado warnings throughout the day and the Cat 1/2/3 race was canceled due to weather. The Cat 4 races are always last and the tornado warning eventually ended, allowing us to race. My younger son raced the Junior 15-18 race earlier in the day, placing 7th, and was lucky weather wise and also raced the 4b race with my older son and I. He did great in the 4b race, which was very competitive, and placed 12th out of 74. I got 66 out of 74 and my older son, whose rear brake broke during the first lap, placed 38th!
The course was very challenging due to the mud, which was ankle deep in a couple places by the time I raced, and the weather, which was a combination of high winds and heavy rain.
My wife didn't join us today so I didn't get any pictures of the race during the rain storm but have included a couple of my younger son below from his junior race.
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Oh man!!! A shouldering section!?!? I would have ruled on that!!!
<kicking self hard for not going...> :sad: :sad: :sad:
Good job on placing!0 -
It was supposed to be ridden but by the time we got to it everyone ran it. The mud was way too thick to ride the bumps.0
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Awesome! Which race are you doing?0
