Complete Turnaround: Race Report

Last weekend I did my first two cyclocross races. My first race was the beginner Cat 4 race at Psyclofest. The race was only 30 minutes long and the official decided that everyone could complete three laps in that time. The course was fast with lots of flat sections on packed dirt or pavement, but the run up Phil’s Hill was quite brutal. Only seven people signed up for the race which was kind of disappointing, but I was expecting this kind of turnout. Everyone at the start of the race was pretty timid and things were pretty slow for the first lap and I remember thinking that my practice lap with Chad Bishop was faster than what we were going. The group was still all together when we reached Phil’s Hill for the first time and I decided to make things interesting and went up the hill hard. I looked back shortly after I remounted my bike and discovered that I a pretty sizeable gap, so I went with it and never looked back. Two laps later I won my first cyclocross race and I was pretty excited. The guy in second came in around a minute thirty after me and third came shortly after that. I went and got my trophy and it has a guy running on top of it. I’m thinking about gluing a toy bike to the guy’s shoulder.

I was feeling pretty good, so I decided that I would do the Middle Park Madness race too, but I did the Cat 3/4 race instead of the Beginner Cat 4. This race was forty-five minutes long or about 6.5 laps (we started in the middle of the course) and there were more hills and corners than the Psyclofest course. It also had a run up, but it wasn’t as bad as Phil’s Hill. The Cat 3/4 race was much faster than my other race, and for the first two or three laps I was hanging around 6-9 position, but I couldn’t hang with them for long and slowed down for the rest of the race. I finished 17th out of 21 which was fine with me considering the competition I was going against. A lot of riders that race Cat 1/2 on the road did this race, so I can’t be too disappointed with my result even though it was a complete turnaround of the day before.

Tomorrow is the first day of Jingle Cross Rock and I’m racing at 9:30 in the morning. Hopefully I will put up a good result and/or win a door prize. I’ll post a race report and photos from the Dice races and Jingle Cross sometime next week.

Psychosocial

My first cyclocross race is less than 3 days away and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty stoked. I think it should be an amazingtastic time. The name of the event is called Psyclofest which reminds me of a new song by Slipknot called Psychosocial. The race is in Bettendorf and I plan on doing the Cat 3/4 race, but I might switch to the beginner Cat 4 race instead. I've spent a good amount of time the past week practicing getting on and off the bike, so I'm sure I'll do fine no matter what race I enter. I haven't decided if I'm going to Middle Park Madness yet, it depends on how well I do in my race at Psyclofest.

On a different note I am very disappointed in the lack of the State Crit in the 2009 schedule, without it I feel the that August is a little lacking than in year past. The also moved the State Time Trail back a weekend and falls on the same weekend as the Pigman Half-Ironman. However I look forward to May with the addition of the Rasmsmussen Crit and Road Race and the Cedar Rapids Crit will be a nice race close to home.

I'll post race results sometime next week. Wish me luck.

A New Begining

I was sitting in my dorm room last night, bored to tears, and there has been a lot of things happen lately that I would love to share with anyone who cares to listen. For example the cyclocross bike I just put together.

Last month I was reading cyclingnews and some blogs about cyclocross races. The more I read the more I became interested in doing some cyclocross races, so I bought a frame and some parts off ebay and a guy named Nor help me put it together. The whole bike only put me back $500, which I think is a steal. The bike is a Motobecane with 105 shifters and rear derailleur, a FSA Gossamer compact crank, and a pair of Mavic XP30 wheels from my brother. One funny story about my bike, I ordered the handlebars, stem, brakes, and seatpost from one person off of ebay and as an added bonus he gave me the left crank arm of Truvativ Rouleur, so anybody reading this need a left crankarm let me know.