One word: Sandy
To the credit of the CCCX race organizers, race #6 was a very different course than previous races. The CSUMB course was flat and fast… where you weren’t slogging through thick sand. This was a course suited for the freight train power guys, which I am decidedly not. The previous time I “raced” this course, I was a DNS because I broke a spoke in the practice laps. I can only explain that with my off-road radness (and used wheels). Having survived the practice laps this time around, I queued up with the…5? other masters 35+ Bs. The field in front of and behind us were easily 20 each, but we were clearly not a popular category that day, so we started with the elites.
Did I mention this wasn’t my kind of course? Sand is probably one of the hardest things to ride a skinny tire through and is not a skill I have developed. What was truly eye opening, though, was the remarkable difference in speed you can carry through a good line in the sand vs. a bad line. The only slight problem is that sand is 99% bad line and 1% tiny strip good line that everyone but you can find. On each lap, I could sail through 1 or 2 of the (many) sand traps, but never string together a full lap of speed. Fortunately, though, there were enough racers out there to keep it interesting to try and stay ahead of someone or to try and reel someone in, but not congested. At only 1:30 off the podium for my category (5th in 35+, but would have been 5th in the elites, too), I can’t help but wonder how much the sand played factored in (or if not riding enough did it…).
Technical courses come in all flavors, and are part of what I like Cyclocross for. It is the only race you can do on a road bike where going in a straight line can be really freaking hard!
If you haven’t made it out to a ‘cross race yet, I highly encourage it. A silly good time. Bring a mountain bike if you have one and just try it out. Maybe you are a sand master and didn’t know it!
Andrew
Awesome! Makes me want to get into cyclocross racing..