Georgia-Cross CX #6, Barnsley Gardens, 11/22/09

If you can only go to one cyclocross race in a year, I would of course recommend you attend the joint FM/Sorella sponsored series finale at the Intl Horse Park in Conyers. It will be December 6th this year. However, if you can only make two races in a year, I would definitely suggest the Barnsley Gardens race. If missed it yesterday, you'll have to wait until next year...

Barnsley Gardens was a great venue. It is a golf resort, so I'd never been there, but I have seen the signs on 75N on the way to Chattanooga. They had a discount on rooms for the racers, the cabins are big, and they have a spa and massage and all kinds of amenities, so next year we plan to rent one and make it a weekend.

The weather was awful, but that made it fun (sort of). I love our warm, dry Georgia weather, but it's nice to have at least one race a year with that real Euro/New England/Oregon cyclocross feel.... meaning cold, rain, and mud.

Photos courtesy of Jeff
Photos courtesy of Trish

It was a fantastic muddy course. If you remember Kurt's description of the mud-types at DSG, this was not glud or crud or any of that - it was pretty slippery but it shed nicely off the bike so it didn't weigh me down or kill my brakes. There were also a lot of nice (but cold) puddles that helped keep the drivetrain and tires clean...

After the start was one really awesome berm that you could get real air on if you wanted, though maybe not smart, b/c the grass after it was slick and it turned into pea-gravel just after that. there was about a quarter mile of that gravel in a longish climb and then a longish descent. Neither were very steep, but my brakepads are crappy when they're wet, and at the bottom was a sharp left and a 2-foot drop into the mud-bog, so I took that part as slow as I could.

My main g

oal was to keep either my bike or my feet under me the whole time, and I failed gloriously. There was no way through the bog; you had to take one side or the other. The first lap I took it wide (right side) but the left looked a lot more solid, so the second lap I went that way and around a tree, which was much better. The third time I had more confidence and I came into it with too much speed - tried to go left again but it was too tight so I hit the corner of the bog and did a sideflop into the 6-inch thick mud. It felt good to provide some entertainment to the spectators who braved the cold drizzly day to make our race funner.

After that was an amazing creek crossing. There were a few different approaches to it but they all pretty much required at least two steps into 10 inches of water with and an awful muddy bank to scramble up. Next up was the first of two 200-300ft singletrack climbs - not really technical but there were some good-sized roots to avoid so it required some attention to the line. We don't get a lot of that in cross courses so I appreciated it. I was running 39/18 and I think it was the perfect gear for the course because I was able to ride that hill every time and never spun out. The only place I could have was the long gravel hill at the beginning and I didn't want to pedal there anyway because it was pretty sketchy...

Anyway, at the top of that hill was a grassy field with some off-camber 180-degree turns that absolutely kill your momentum, then back into the woods. The second hill might have been rideable by some folks, but there was a sharp left and a barrier strategically placed at the bottom, so it was a run-up for me. At the top, it popped out into grass again but it was still slightly uphill and there was another 180 so I found it best to stay off the bike another 25 feet or so before remounting. Some more 180s and an S-turn, then a long straight in some long grass that was deceptively innocent looking but it really grabbed the tires. Then a section on sidewalks and through a gazebo to loop back into the area near the cottages, and the race ended with some really fast barriers THROUGH THE BEER GARDEN!!! It was awesome because there was a firepit and it was a great place for the spectators to yell and cheer and drink beer, leading to even more yelling and cheering.

Not a bad day for my first race after a month of bronchitis. I feel so great today...