FT3 : Time to Start Training for the Next Event

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Time to Start Training for the Next Event

For those of you who weren't aware, last week the USA Cyclocross National Championships were held in Reno, NV. Yours truly was there representing FT3, attacking in red and black on Thursday and cheering the elites on Sunday. BIG shout out to FRO who made the trip up to watch my race on Thursday. As I navigated my way down the off camber switchback downhill section I heard someone yelling "go Captain, Pass him, go Captain..." being so focused on the trail in front of me and racers around me I could not look up to see who it was, to my surprise I found Fro after the race. Very cool, nice push.

So a quick break down on the race report:

Drove up to Reno early enough to button on a ridiculous amount of numbers, (4), then pre-ride the course during the window made available between 11 and 11:45 am. During the warm ups I figured out how to bunny hop the Belgian stairs, determined that the gully was also hoppable and found the best lines on the hill section. My goals for the race were four-fold. Bunny hop the Belgian stair section, hop the gully, drill the hill, up and down, and keep moving forward from my back of the pack position. After the pre-ride, I laid down in my car and amazingly took a short nap. Woke up an hour before go time, positioned NoHandle's sweet cross bike in the pit and warmed up for the race.

I lined up in row 13 of 14, like 92 of 98. There were four to six dudes on the row behind me. When the starting gun went off I just began trying to find my way through the masses.

My starting position.

There were a couple of pile ups, nothing major but I managed to avoid them. At the first concrete 3 stair I was literally at a standstill. Once beyond that I made it to and through the sandpit, then the gully, and on to the stairs. Still making forward progress but feeling the pain of my efforts to catch riders. The first effort on the hill I saw riders durfing the climb and tri-podding the decent. FT3 skills prevailed and I continued to make forward progress. Back around the course to the hard false flat before the concrete stairs and on to the aforementioned features. I began to cramp a bit this lap and had to back off a bit. The good thing about starting in the back, is that mentally, passing as opposed to being passed is a bit less disheartening. I didn't get passed much, maybe four to six times once things got spread out a bit. The cramp subsided and I was able to keep that forward progress going. I caught up to a Sacramento local racer and friend, we battled back and forth a bit for the final two laps. On the last lap, I rode the Belgian stairs and got out in front of him, then he passed me back, but I passed him on the hill. One the way down the hill I could see and hear that the leaders were coming through. So I began to haul ass as if running from a mountain lion, as I did not want to be hanging my head in the pictures as the leaders celebrate across the line. Fortunately, I was able to cross the line before they did and in time to turn around and watch the final sprint.

I finished 63rd out of 97 finishers. Felt pretty good about it all, there were a number of really good California racers in the results close to me. In my class, only 7 riders from California were in the top 40. Pretty crazy.

Then on Sunday, Fro and I went to watch the Elite races. Good times.