Saturday: We cat 4s got the 8:30 start (apparently an improvement over last year's 8:00 start, which happened to be two minutes before sunrise), which meant that most prerace preparations happened in the dark. by 7:45 it was light enough to preride the course without a headlight. I wish it had still been dark, because what we saw was the promise of sweet pain, a gift from the rains on Thursday and Friday: wet, boggy straightaways, greasy off-camber turns, a mucky down-up-and-back-down through a soggy drainage ditch, and four (4) rideable-but-only-on-the-right-line sandpits.
I lined up in the middle of a one-hundred-odd man pack, and when the whistle blew I got the best start I've had yet this year. Long paved start where I moved from fifth row to about second (row), a sweeping left across the field, left around a tree and then a curve right down into the drainage ditch (aka "the money pit") -- ran it the first lap in the crowded carnage (rode it otherwise), and moved up a little more -- up and then down right back through it. Turn through some trees and then a sloggy straightaway to the barriers, which felt deceptively high after grinding across the muck. Under the Green Monster (renamed "The Jolly Green Giant") and toward the pits. Over the pavement and a couple of twisties, and then the first sandpit, which had a drop-in to a nice (narrow) hardpack line where you could pick up speed all the way through. Left turn right out of the pit, so don't carry too much speed or you're breaking tape. Not much later you hit the second sandpit, which was hardpack for half, and deep sand for the second half: if you carried speed through the first part, you could get through the second without much pedaling. I know this because I dropped my chain first time through, and made it to the end coasting (more like flailing, but hey, it's my story, right?). Pulled off to the side, watched the lead group ride out of sight and a bunch of the others pass me as I forced the chain back on, hopped on, and rolled down the off-camber to a paved section. Back up through some muck, around a tree, down and up a tricky little grass-paved-grass off camber, and eventually you hit two more sandpits, both rideable (first one hardpack all the way through, the second a sloggy grind, but not too bad).
Somehwere in here on the second half of the course (or right after) was the Bob's Redmill RR-tie runup, as well as a long headwind straightaway so sloggy that I thought it would never end, the very entertaining off-camber positioned right near the beer tent (many slideouts with many beery "Ooohhs!"), and finally a straightaway toward the Green Monster: for me it was hoist the bike up, get up there, throw a leg over and let go, trying to at least get my feet (or one foot) on the pedals for the down ramp, followed by another downhill off the shoulder of a former tee-box. A real-live roller-coaster-type whoop-de-doo. Get around the corner, clip in if you haven't yet (and I hadn't, believe me), and pedal toward the start-finish area: loop around a tree and head out to the road. For all the manmade and other barriers and features of the course, the last 20 meters before the roadway on Saturday were the cruelest: flat, swampy, slower than slow, with speedy pavement sticking its tongue out at you just a few feet away. Finally back up on the road, and let's do it again!
On Saturday we did four laps: by the fourth I was pretty much on my own, although a Bob's Redmill guy was hanging with me, catching up on the technical stuff and after remounts. He slid out on a corner, but got up and rejoined me. Then, on the second sandpit (the same one! my nemesis) I came off the hardpack into the deep stuff, and saw a rut going the wrong way: sideways. It ate my wheel, took me down and bent my right shifter in. Got up seeing a few stars and rolled the rest of the lap solo, finishing 21st.
I was very happy, both with the course and atmosphere, and with my race. I had made a good start, and (I thought) except for my chain dropping, had put myself in position for a pretty high placing. I had kept an eye on the riders I know have scored in my OVCX field, and think I fared pretty well. (The plan as I understand it is that the OVCX scorers will separate out the age-group categories for purposes of that series -- all cat 4s regardless of age were scored together this weekend in deference to the "big show" in town). Plus, I knew there was tomorrow, which held out the promise of fairer conditions, and where I could work on improving some things from today.
Heh. More on that later... But before I go, let me give a shoutout to all the Rogues who put up with me this weekend. Special thanks to the OVCX Commissioner of Results Agitation Brian Segal, who not only put up with me, but put me up for the weekend. Those Rogues act all tough, but they're a bunch of softies, and they love their CX. (photo by Marcia Seiler)
1 comment:
Good job, Shannon. You're doing us proud.
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