Oxmoor Cyclocross Aftermath

The first race is behind us and it was a rude awakening to the season. I had a pretty hard training week so I felt a little blocked for the race. My CTL was negative but only in single digits. I isolated my problems (excuses):

1. I started out way too fast. A stupid mistake I never make. A little bit of ego I guess. I usually like third wheel unless the holeshot is important.
2. The adrenaline rush was too high. I was calm at the start but then on the first lap my adrenaline kicked in making me feel too jittery.
3. I did not know whether a rider that came between me and the first placed rider was a 45+ or 35+. The promoter did not assign different race numbers or stagger us so I thought he looked like he was over 45 years old and I guessed wrong.
4. I drank too much before the start and had a nice cramp in the ribs through the first 3 laps. It eventually went away.

So, thirds was not bad but I would have liked to have stayed with Jay W. (the winner) a little bit longer.

The Course

The course was a tight, technical tour of a local park. It had a little of everything including a water dismount that bama cross is somewhat famous for. The start began on pavement and after 200 yards crested a steep hill (the eventual finish line). From there is was a short grass section and then a double log dismount, more grass and then into the woods. The entrance to the woods had some sand and was a bit twisty. This gave way to a nice long off-camber section downhill to a double barrier dismount, a hard 90 degree left over a wooden bridge. The course then went alongside the back of a couple of baseball fields which was grass but had been irrigated recently turning it into a nice 100 yards of mud. The mud got pretty deep in spots and to me was the hardest part.

We then zig-zagged over gravel through the pits and to the steep drop off to a stream. You had to dismount at the top, run down the embankment, through the stream and up the other muddy side to more grass. From here there was a log that I could ride over but some folks had to dismount later in the race. Then we had a strange little detour around a light pole that took you down an embankment and then 180 right back up. You could ride it in the 39 but I had to run it on most laps. After this we had more grass and a drop down to a ditch that was a risky proposition to ride or not. I chose to risk the endo and ride it on each lap. You were riding down the hill, hit the soft mud and hoped you had enough strength to pull up before you went over your ass. This led to a threesome of 180 turns and back onto pavement. A short grass section and through the pavilion (no beer) and then up to the hill again.

I think we did 7 laps in 48 minutes and it was a lot to take it for a first race. Very technical and as Jay proved, if you got away it was very hard to make up ground. there was just no place to get momentum and you could only be so smooth through the various obsticles. then again, he was just as smooth so you never made up ground. I think He beat me by over a minute.

Hopefully in 2 weeks I will be riding with him and not too much behind him!