Once again I'm slow to regale you with our tales of cycling domination, but good things come to those who wait.
So a few weeks ago some mustachios took on the rest of the Georgia Cyclocross followers on the battle field of Paulding Meadows. For those of you who aren't familiar with this arena of cross madness imagine lots of hills, good long steady climbs followed by some muddy techy descents and a few forced dismounts over a standing creek. With all of the flooding and rain that has been hammering Georgia the lower part of the course was a sand pit. The upper part was super fast and smooth. The run up/hurdles were in the same spot as last year on a tight corner in the middle of a terrible run up hill. The pain level on this course 7 out of 10 I'd say. Just as a reference I'd give Dahlonega a 9 out of 10. My family showed up to see the madness, and now they think I am crazier than I was before. It felt like being 12 again and having my family come out to see me play soccer. My mom thinks I'm going to break a bone if I keep this up. Guess she saw a few yard sales.
So for my epic tale I began as I normally do racing C's and somewhere near the back of the pack. I shuffled. I sprinted, but I was basically racing the 3 guys around me the whole time. The sand pit was unmerciful in its lines. If you got out of a groove or into a bad one someone else cut you would be going down. I had one fall, but was quick to recover by running out of the slog. After the sand pit was a small mud pit that was very slick and just before a stair run up. You had to dismount into the mud and run up a set of wooden stairs. This made for some fun dismounts and remounts. The climbs on the course separated the boys from the men. I was certainly in boy category, but did manage to sneak past a few people on them. The added a climb just after the start that wasn't there before for more punishment and quickly thinned the pack right after the start. I ended up finishing 26th out of 41. One of my better finishes, but almost got snaked on the last straight away by 2 riders tailing me most of the race. I thought they'd sprint me to the finish. When I got on the final flat I big ringed it and hammered my way to my psuedo victory only to look back and see them just barely eeking over the final crest. Ooops. Better safe than sorry right?
After this pain train mess of C's I said there was no way I could do SS. So I gathered my things drank some water and went to go heckle the SS. They in turned heckled me back and I got in line to ride the pain train one more time. The SS race pace is always much different than C's, but I like it. Having an open category really allows you to see how B's and A's really are masters of the art. I kept in the mix till I popped about halfway through the lap. I began coming back like a bowling ball, but managed to beat a few of the slower riders, some of which had also raced C's as well. I did get lapped by the leader in the SS and I must say having 29x2.3" tires certainly helps going through that sandy/muddy mess. I had never really done a side by side comparison as I've been running smaller tires all season on my 29er SS. It was like night and day on the techy stuff, but man did I pay for it on the climbs and flats. Maintaining speed with an 850g tire... not so much. I did almost debate bailing out on the SS race it hurt by the last lap so bad. I asked John Johnson "what are my chances of getting lapped today?" he replied "very good." This made me smile and slog through my 3rd lap, but as I got lapped on the last straight away I felt a bit of relief that the torment for that day was over.
I sometimes ask myself when I'm racing, why do I do this? Why go out and punish myself over and over? For what? Victory? Certainly not. Glory, pride, ego? Not so much. I think I do it for the people and the community. There is just a certain feeling you get when you are mixed in with your peers, your fellow commuters, the guy you play polo with and you are all challenged with the same task. Some excel, others don't, but we all suffer and its kind of what makes it worth while. A cult sport within a cult sport. But I digress.
Chris L, Eric N, Alex A, Kazz N all showed up and raced their faces off as well. Kazz brought a new junior to the scene. Elliot was confused on how cyclocross works, but he's learning. That's all for now. Thanks for the beer Alex!
See you all at GIHP this weekend.
