Tripleshot Cycling

Well? How was it? Muddy, Wet I bet! Please do tell...

4827north wrote:Well? How was it? Muddy, Wet I bet! Please do tell...

Expert Men: Holeshot acquired!

With or without skinsuit?

AdamD wrote:With or without skinsuit?

With

Roland, if a skinsuit is good for CX, wouldn't this be even better?
They would look great in the TS colours. Hey Paul, they may also be good for casual wear for when we are not riding.

opps, picture missing...

It wasn't all that muddy, surprisingly, after all the rain they had up there the day before. It was cloudy this morning, with a little bit of sun. As I was staying up there for the weekend, I got to the venue before 11:00am, so I could get a good number for call up.

That didn't work out so good. After the beginner race finished, Gavin and I came meandering over from the parking lot to the finish line area, and I happened to look across the field to the other side of the park, and see a big group lining up. I say "oh, sh*t, is that our race?" Gavin says "oh sh*t, I think so!", so we both go busting across the soccer field. By the time we get over there, the entire field has been called up to the line, and no one is about to move out of the way for us, so we line up last two in the field.

The course was really cool, I liked it a lot. It started out with an asphalt/gravel straightaway, about 125 meters along the edge of a road on one side of the park, it then u-turned and ran back for the 125 yards on the grass on the edge of the soccer/baseball field. At the end it came out into a muddy/grassy field where they had a whirly-whirl set up. Really bumpy and rough through that section. It then went through the finish line area, where they had three barriers set up before heading into a sort of slightly hilly grassy section that wove around through some big trees, with a whole lot of flagging tape. Coming out of the trees, you came back right beside where the barriers were, and hung a hard left, and headed over for a full lap of the BMX track. That was a blast on the cross bike for sure. Out of the BMX track you turned through a chain link fence gate onto some single track with a run up to an old coal train berm that you had to dismount for. The berm led to a sand pit u-turn area, then some gravel road into a tight little bumpy dirt area. I think it might have been an old dirt jump park, or something. Out of there, back to more gravel road, and back around to the start straightaway.

I had a good race in intermediate, apart from having to start DFL because I missed my call up. I spent the first lap in a major traffic jam riding most of the time about half speed, then started to follow Gavin around on the second lap, as we started picking people off and moving up through the pack. The BMX track was fun, and a good spot to really pass a lot of people.
We managed to move back up quite a bit during the race, possibly back into the top 10, but I really don't know how many people were still up the trail by the time I got into the clear. I also had no idea how many laps we were doing, as I also missed the instructions being given at the start line, and only figured out we were on the last lap when we were 3/4 of the way around it.

All and all a great day, great race. CX rules.

Ya, what Josh said, plus this:

http://connect.garmin.com/player/50725659

Make to check out heart rate!!

Note to self for next race: Get to the start line on time, and you might actually have a chance at being competitive in the race.

I spent the first half of the race just trying to pull as many people back as I could, and then exploded into a million pieces and just suffered away just trying to maintain my position (which didn't work out so well).

But CX definitely rules - no matter what, it's impossible to have a bad time at a cross race. Great course, great weather - what a fun day! Already can't wait for the next one!

frick, Gavin

you had your heartrate up to 180 by the first u-turn 125 yards after the start. that's awesome. I got stuck on the first straightaway, but I can see why you had 5 spots on me right off the gun.

My first race in expert. Race strategy was go for the hole shot and then see what happens.

Luckily, I was called up first, so now I had to go for the holeshot. I gave it 100% off of the start, going into the first turn I had a 5 bike length gap on the entire expert field. Insane. I maintained my lead on the second straight, finally giving it up second corner to Russel Anderson, but we still had a gap on the main field. I gave in up in the next few corners and drifted back to where I belong. I was having a good battle with Mitch & Derek until Mitch gave up and DNFed and Derek had a mechanical and dropped out. I kept fading until I eventually got lapped by Drew Mackenzie right before the start of my last lap. I paid physically for going for the holeshot, but I don't regret it one big. Highlight of my season so far.

Stats until I dropped my gps again: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50775879

What does the hole shot mean?

shawnc wrote:What does the hole shot mean?

First rider through the first corner.

13 women started, 12 finished. I finished ahead of 2 women that had previously always beaten me, and was not lapped by a number of people who had lapped me every race last year. May sound silly to many of you to celebrate only being lapped by 3 women (Mical, Dawn & Joelle), but it represents a big improvement over last year and I am quite excited about it.

The course was a lot of fun - a bit of everything including a bmx track, a sandpit, twisty grassy treed section, some muddy bumps and a lot of hard bumpy grass. All pretty much flat!

I decided that I would do whatever I could to stay with Glen & Jen for at least the first 2 laps. This was a pretty good plan and I managed to stay pretty close to them until I crashed in the muddy bumps. That cost me some time and I lost sight of them. I battled back and forth with Niki for a few more laps until she crashed in the bmx track. From that point I was on my own for the rest of the race.

The challenge for me was in maintaining the optimal speed in the different sections. In some sections it was really easy to carry too much speed (never been a problem for me before!): the pump line in the bmx track was very nearly disastrous when I picked up way more speed than I could handle, then too much speed in the muddy bumps took me down. Other sections it was challenging to maintain a high speed: the bumpy grass and twisty corners were speed killers and took a lot of energy to power through.

Regardless of how you do in the race, Cross on the Rock races have an awesome atmosphere and its impossible to not enjoy the day. If you haven't been to a Cross on the Rock race, you really should come out and give it a try. Or, just come watch 'cause then you'll want to race the next one for sure

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50722211

Not to sound repetitive... but 'cross rocks! Cumberland was a great course again with a mix of everything a kid could ever want. the full use of the bmx track was my favorite, and second was the always asinine whirl whirl. Amazing turnout! Over two full rows at the start for the women. Definitely hard not to smile and have fun at a cross race - come out and give it a go and/or cheer! It's way more entertaining than road racing!

So if all these posts haven't convinced you yet that 'cross rules, here's two more reasons to come out: watch Jeff Beeston bunny hop 3 barriers in a row! the only rider to even attempt this on Sunday. and second you can listen to Roland blow his horn and ring his Buckerfield's cowbell. i have a new appreciation for the cheering Roland was doing for all the other races when i attempted to get revenge, errr, i mean, pay back the favour... i wasn't very successful. Katie, Gavin and I didn't have enough lung capacity between the three of us to keep up the horn for one race!

Next 'cross on the rocks race is holiday Monday, October 11th in Nanaimo! Check out the new website: http://www.crossontherock.com that Roland is running!

BearPope Recruit wrote:Check out the new website: http://www.crossontherock.com that Roland is running!

The new website rocks, especially if you're a nerd like me who likes results and stats. People are going to want to do more races to get a higher ranking in the stats.

shawnc wrote:What does the hole shot mean?

Porn star

Roland "God of 'Cross" Rabien

Awesome. I nominate that for new website front page pic.

Awesome. I nominate that for new website front page pic.

+1