Lansing Cross

I was the only Get a Gripper to make the trek to the south side for the Lansing cross race this weekend. It was a pretty basic course with sweeping turns and 0 feet of elevation change per lap.

The best part of the course was the sandpit. The cuttin crew, half acre crew, and xxx crew were hanging out there acting loud and rowdy offering encouragement and mockery every time someone came through. Their mockery motivated me to ride the sand pit the second half of the race rather than run it. Once I found the line and the technique, it was the only part of the course where I felt like I did fairly well.

The 1/2 field would have been small but they added a collegiate field to the race. I also noticed a lot of the guys who did the masters race were lining up for this race to pull off a double.

I tried out a new strategy of going all out at the beginning of the race rather than my traditional way of racing by putting out even splits. The first lap turned out pretty good and the leaders were actually still in sight. On the second lap gaps were starting to grow but I was still going pretty fast but wondering if how long it would be before I blow. Third lap I crash and once I gathered myself I found out I had nothing left in the tank. I wish I had brought some Gu's and Gatorade with me. I shifted down to my small ring and did lap after lap wondering when I would finally recover. 3 or 4 laps to go and I am able to put in a few hard efforts but still not feeling great and finish mid pack.

Collegiates from Lindsey Wilson College came out to the race in full force today and took the overall in the men's race and the woman's race. It's a small college but they have a stacked cycling team.

Next week I'm considering racing Woodstock, or a double race weekend in eastern IA or a 2/3 race in Michigan. The season is getting short so I might as well take advantage of any opportunities left to race and start chasing upgrade points.

Save Farris

The last few weeks I have been really burned out on training. I can hardly muster the strength to do any hard intervals durring the week. On top of that the temperture has noticibly dropped to near freezing levels making training rides more painful than they should be. After Saturday's ride in driving wind, drizzle, and temps in the 30 - 35 degree range, I was ready to call it a season. Training is not fun anymore.

Then on Sunday I showed up to the Save Ferris cross race in Northbrook. After walking around the course and watching Tim's 3 race, I was excited about cyclocross again. The course had 2 difficult stair run ups, a fast and slippery ride down the sledding hill and plenty of off camber sections, muddy sections, roadie fast sections and tricky turns to keep it interesting throughout.

Once I got out there and raced, the course was as fun as it looked. I might hate training right now but I still love to suit up and race on the weekends. I might as well enjoy the last few weeks of the season, because once the races stop I know I will miss it.

Tired of getting my butt kicked at Chicross races and in search of a victory, I drove up to Ann Arbor for a weekend of cat 2/3 races.

Saturday I felt flat. The pace off the start line felt slow, but I just couldn’t dig deep enough to find the motivation to move up. A mediocre start and someone crashing in front of me just as he makes a pass puts me mid-pack halfway through the first lap. The rest of the race I watch the 2 leaders work together fairly well to put time on the field every lap. I eventually work my way up to fifth, and then with 2 laps to go move into 3^rd and that’s where I finished.

I usually feel much better on the second day of back to back races. Now that I knew who the contenders were, I knew who to watch and where I wanted to be positioned. Unfortunately I’m not that smart of a racer once the race starts. After the start I am way back in 7^th or 8^th and I watch the guy I wanted to draft roll off the front and immediately get a 10 second gap. After the first lap I move from 8^th to second and try to chase down the leader. Unfortunately only one guy jumps on my wheel, and he made me pull in all the hard sections. So while the leader was not building a huge gap on us, we were not working too well together to cut into his lead. The guy I was riding with was the Wisconsin state criterium champion, so I knew if I didn’t drop him before the last lap he would use all his roadie tricks on me and out-sprint me for second place. With one lap to go I started to push hard in sections I didn’t push hard in before. The plan worked and he started to fade back. Then I noticed that a lead I thought was once insurmountable now seemed possible to overcome. The lead riders lead shrank from 300 meters to 60 meters on the last lap. Unfortunately, I ran out of real estate and had to settle for second. One more lap and I think I could have taken him.

Thanks to the wonders of chip timing I was able to see that I was able to catch him not because he faded, but because I really stepped it up in that last lap. My last lap was the fastest lap of all the racers laps in the race. This is a good sign my training is paying off and that I have the ability to be more aggressive than I am right now, especially at the start.

Photo by Zach Maino