Underground CX - Wed Sept 22

[Plawless]

Where are the reports? Who was out there in their skinsuited glory?

[Roland]

I was there, in a skinsuit. I got dog poop in my face. It was terrible.

[Josh.E]

I was there. I met up with Dylan and Gavin at 4:45 at the switch bridge. We rode out the goose towards sooke, and turned around to meet up at the spot near the entrance to royal roads at 6:00. The caravan then proceeded through a bunch of single track trails towards the course, meeting a few joggers along the way.

The course was pretty cool, mostly open single track, nothing very technical, but very few spots to pass. I started up around mid pack, and then, after waiting for a couple traffic jams, started picking off some slower riders, with james cameron as my perpetual rabbit, about 10-15 sec up the trail.

I came up behind Gavin, pushing his bike up the one steep uphill section, swearing about how he kept having to get off and run there. I followed him around for one lap until we got to that section, where he again had to get off and run. I managed to ride around him as he again said some unrepeatable stuff about what he thought of that section.

On the last lap fatigue had definitely started to win out over bike handling skills, and I washed out my front tire and fell on on the corner of the bottom of the same uphill section, and had to run my bike up the hill for the first time in the race. Holy crap! I was dead after that effort, and I understood what all the swearing was about. I went down pretty hard on my knee and elbow, so I pretty much limped in the last half of the last (6th) lap. Not too sure where I finished in the pack, somewhere around the first 3rd of the group.
Good training. I bet my heartrate never got below 175 for the entire race.

[gav_eaton]

I seem to have a 2-lap curse - last week I flatted at the end of lap 2, and this week I had a crash on lap two!

I was going really well until my incident - strongest I've ever felt on a cross bike. Was getting into a good flow and was hanging just a the back of the strong guys at the front. But then I had a little slip up the steep section Josh refers to (I actually loved that section - just had bad luck on it 3 of 6 laps!). A rider just in front of me and spun out on the climb - I tried to get around and did, but then slipped as well and had to run. I sprinted up the hill, and as happened to Josh - my heart rate spiked to 195 and I tried to do a quick remount. As soon as I got back on there was a really tight corner and my front wheel washed out and I ended up on my face in a big tangle. High heart rate and big face plant make for a spiny head that's hard to recover from!

After that, it was all down hill from there for me. Totally lost my confidence and just couldn't get back into a flow - at which point riders started streaming by me. Also managed to pull out of my pedal on the steep part the following two laps (hence the swearing in front of Josh as he passed me) but cleaned it on the final two.

Lesson of the day: my strength and skills are definitely there this year - but need to work on the mental part this year. Small crashes are inevitable in cross - but you can't let them get to you, otherwise you will go backwards through the pack like I did last night. Ignore the little distractions and mishaps and just keep on hammering!

[Katie]

Loved that course. Technical sections, fast sections, great traction. I was able to ride the whole course each lap, which I was really happy with. The steep section Josh & Gavin mentioned looked chewed up at the bottom, so I was never sure if I would be able to ride through it, but I actually found it quite grippy each time. Going into that section I tried to give myself enough room from the person in front of me so their mistakes wouldn't take me down, and then often ended up passing them on the climb anyways. I was really pleased that I could ride that section and even be able to accelerate up the hill. I'm sure I would have struggled with that hill last year.

Other than that, I really focused on finding a wheel to chase through the twisty sections, and not letting it get away. It was a lot of fun.

I'm amazed there weren't more pinch flats.

[EricS]

What Katie said!

Awesome course, thanks Drew and crew. Like my favourite type of mountain biking: smoothish, fast and non-technical. I also rode the whole course (mostly) as I was able to go around the two logs instead of dismounting. Probably cheating, but when you can only do 5 laps in the time it takes everyone else to do 6, I'll cheat ok. The hill also caused me some grief Gavin, I only cleaned it 3 out of my 5 laps.

All in all, a fun time. And for my second CX race, I think I improved. Drew only lapped my once this time!

Surreal moment: being in a race and having Max Plaxton watching. It was backwards land. Oh, that and seeing Roland wiping his face with a fern during lap 1.


Thanks to Lister for getting me out there just in time.

[4827north]

Yeah! Super course. Very underground.. the long dark journey through singletrack just to get to the course had me wondering if this was Drew's notion of a mass suicide plot! Then the canopy opened up a bit and there we were at the S/F "line". I rolled to this course with a bad head-cold.

Thought It'd be good to shake the germs out of me. Then I tried the warm up lap. Next I found myself at the starting line. Off we all went. I was going fine until a big stick went into my spokes. Bike okay, carried on until the bronchial coughing took over. 3 laps in, I stopped and watched everyone else race with s*it eating grins.. great course, and so 'underground'.

48km by the time I rolled into the house just in time to say goodnight to my kids.. with a big smile on my face

If you all haven't noticed by now.. 'cross is fun! Good luck to those heading to Cumberland. My first Rock race will be Nanaimo.

p.s. anyone know if any of the camera crew posted photos?