‘Tis the winter season in California, which for cyclocross means dry, fast, moderately warm racing. A far cry from the Belgian scene, let alone the racing in places like Portland, OR, and the Midwest. It doesn’t take any of the fun out, though – just means the bikes are a LOT easier to clean (and ride!).
The CCCX series (Central Coast CycloCross: http://www.cccxcycling.com/2015CROSSPAGEfull.html ) down in the Monterey peninsula is a great series of races that started quite early (September 6th) and runs through mid January with a total of 9 races. If that isn’t enough, there is a small but more competitive series in Santa Cruz (The Surf City series: http://www.cyclo-x.com/ ), and finally the super popular and crazy competitive Bay Area super prestige series (http://www.bayareacx.com/). So much cyclocross in just a few months. Who knew???
Because it is local and fairly low key, I’ve been enjoying the CCCX series, and started out this year committing to the Masters 35+ B group, which was a little daunting because that is supposed to be roughly equivalent to a Cat 3 on the road (i’m a moderate 4). This category has the smallest fields, but the fields are combined and usually there are 40ish people on the course at the same time, but it does get fairly spread out by the end. I’ll just give a quick set of highlights of the races to date:
CCCX#1: 5/10
This race reminded me how much of a roadie i’ve become… Struggles in the more technical sections (and a couple crashes) really sapped speed and a tentative start kept me off the leaders pace. Mid pack finish despite my fumbles was OK with me.
CCCX#2: 4/7
This race reinforced my previous race’s findings. This time, in addition to a spectacular (read: lame) crash, i had the good fortune of ripping my shorts on a (not) gracefully botched dismount which cost me 3rd place. Note to self – get those dirt skills back, and be more aggressive at the start.
CCCX#3: nope – family stuff
CCCX#4: 8/9
My performance was waaay better than my results. I went into the first corner with the sad realization I had a flat tire. Someone tried to offer up a wheel, but didn’t fit. Brian to the rescue (thanks!!) with a sprint to the car and a replacement wheel + about a 4 minute penalty. Given that I almost caught up to the last few riders, I was OK with that… technical stuff was feeling more comfortable (but this was not a technical course)
CCCX #5: nope – family stuff
CCCX #6: 1/5 (WOOT!)
Finally things came together! This was definitely the least technical course which may or may not have suited me, but I got a good start, no crashes, no ripped shorts, no flats. I was able to get around the guy in front of me on the long straight away just out pedaling him, but had my eye on the cushman rider behind me. He was always within eyesight, and seemed to be slowly reeling me in on the straight/fast bits, but when we got to the back side of the course with the singletrack and high speed corners, I seemed to be able to pull away. There were a couple sections in the course we were going opposite direction separated only by tape, so it was easy to gauge the gap. On the 2nd to last lap I saw him give up a bit as he was coming out of the technical area and I had increased the gap. This was good because I was getting tired! It was a good race and I’m optimistic for future races.
Brian is a convert – give it a try, you might join the dark side, too (and by dark, i just mean a dusty brown color).
Enjoy the ride!
-Damon
Andrew Shacker
Great post!