Quarter Mile Cross

Quarter Mile Cross 11/25/12

Yesterday was Quarter Mile Cross, which was a race at Bandimere speedway. It was another completely new course, and once again I had no idea what to expect. I was worried about this race, because I had been sick for the whole week before. I didn’t race the weekend before, and wasn’t able to get back on my bike until the Friday before my race. I wasn’t sure if my stomach would hold up during the race. I also felt very unprepared and lazy not riding for a whole week. I knew I couldn’t ride, but not riding for that long still made me feel lazy. At least I was itching to get back on my bike and mentally ready to race.

I woke up at 8:30 on sunday morning and started my race day rituals, or at least I tried. I had forgotten to run the dishwasher the night before, so I didn’t have any clean bottles. I also didn’t have the container to make my smoothie, so I had to wait for the dishwasher to finish washing. I had to rethink my morning. I decided the best way to fix it was to do everything backwards. Which meant the last thing I would do before leaving was have my smoothie, and the first thing to do was to eat an apple. I thought if I get still eat the same thing as always I will feel the same during the race, even though it wasn’t in usual order. If it was anything other than a smoothie and an apple, I don’t think it would have worked as well as it did. But even with these inconveniences, I was still able to leave on time.

    To get to parking we had to drive next to the course on a frontage road. From what I could see it was fast, technical, and challenging. The parking lot was huge, and we got an amazing parking spot right next to the start line. I got out, got my license out of my bag, and went to go register. I didn’t pre register, so I didn’t have a callup. But there were only five people registered, so I didn’t have to worry about getting a good starting position. From registration I could see most of the course I couldn’t see before. The first thing I thought about was tire pressure and grip. Half the course was on a very slippery gravel. Earlier in the season I crashed and sprained my ankle on a similar surface, so I was worried that I would take a nasty spill again. I put that behind me and went back to the car to change into my gear. I took off my lucky pajamas, and got into my skin suit. It was warm, and I didn’t have to wear any extra warm clothes. I drank some water, and headed out on my pre ride.
    The start was very interesting and very scary. It was on the ultra loose gravel. It was so loose that when practicing my start I had to sit down to keep my wheel from just spinning. The loose gravel didn’t end there. The first corner was on the same gravel, and it was so loose that I almost crashed. It was like this for four or five more corners before the course went up a steep bike path to a higher parking lot. That is where it immediately went into 44 stairs. I was ecstatic to see a long stair section, because that is my where I can get gaps without spending any extra energy. Then there was a deceptively difficult dirt section. There was a four inch drop into shallow sand that quickly bottlenecked into a trail about ten inches wide. On one side of the trail there was a wall of rock, and on the other was tape to keep people on the dirt. It ended with a four inch lip back onto the road that was parallel to the trail. There was two different approaches, that were equally awkward. The first option was to stay close to the lip and bunny hop sideways back onto the road. The second option was to ride through some sand and turn in to face the lip more perpendicularly to bunny hop it. I chose to stay close to the lip, because it was less awkward and faster. After that section it was almost immediately back onto dirt, but only for a loose switchback. After that it was down a paved hill and onto the loose gravel. There was three corners then a set of barriers. The first one was full size, but the second one was only half size. I debated on bunny hopping them, but I decided it was safer to run them. After the barriers there was a very fast loose downhill. It was treacherous, but at high speeds I could fly over most of the scariest spots.

Another technical and difficult part of the course was a very off camber 180 degree turn. It was hard to get the right line, but if you did it was almost twice as fast. Then it was back onto the road for short but fast climb. Then another switchback, then onto more dirt. Eventually after a very bumpy strait there was a runup. I tried multiple times to ride it, but it was just a little too loose. Running it was still challenging though. It was very sandy, and it was very uneven from the morning races. But it was short and after the runup was another road section. The road lead to more loose gravel, and eventually onto a steep road that led to the finish. I really liked to course. Mostly because it gave me a challenge. Some of my teammates disagreed with me, but I decided it was because they were roadies. I set my bike up in the trainer for my warm up, and I ate an apple. I had 20 minutes until I wanted to get on the trainer, so I talked with my teammates to kill some time. We talked about the course for a while. Mostly about the parts that scared us most. But after about ten minutes most of the people I was talking to had to start staging for their races.

My warm up was unusual for me. Halfway through my mom and stepdad showed up to say hello, but they left before my race. While they were there they distracted my dad, so I had to refocus him constantly. Which is hard when you are going as hard as possible, and almost completely out of breath from it. I was also facing my teammate while warming up. It was only weird because we were just far enough away not to talk, and he was one of the few other people in my category. At least my body felt great, and my stomach wasn’t hurting at all. My mom finally left as I took my bike off the trainer. I love when she is there to watch my races, but with my dad already there she was a bit of a distraction. I went to staging, did a few starts, and waited for the official to do callups.

They ended up not even doing callups, because there were only enough racers to fill up one row. Everyone was talking about the first corner. We all were scared of someone wrecking. I decided to try to get the holeshot to avoid any possibility of carnage. I heard the sound of the whistle, and I exploded off the start line. I was side by side with one of the adult racers. The gravel was deep enough to make everyone weave from lack of traction. Luckily the only person I had to worry about was the guy beside me. I let him go before me into the first corner. We made it through unscaved, but behind me someone went down. I couldn’t see who it was or what happened, but when I could look back all the major threats were with me. I passed the first placed rider while going up the bike path. For the first half of a lap I had almost the whole race on my wheel. At the barriers I did a double take when I saw Liam Dunn run past me. I have never been passed while going over barriers. I was a little bit stunned, but I got onto his wheel and followed him through another fourth of the course.

I was content with letting him lead. I was saving energy, and waiting to pounce on any mistake or sign of weakness. It wasn’t long before he overcooked a corner, and I went flying past him. It was the perfect launch pad for a successful attack. As he blocked the riders behind, I was full gas and gaining time. I didn’t lay off until the first lap was over, and I could assess the the damage I created. I was happy to see the whole race in disarray. There was only one person still close. So I decided to play a little mind game with him. I let up so he could catch me, then I acted like I was about to blow up. He came along side me and thought I couldn’t hold the pace. At the end of the stairs I was still in front, but he quickly tried to come around me. This time when he was parallel to me I accelerated. Psychologically he didn’t have a chance, and I was quickly leaving him behind. I know this is a terrible thing to do, but racing is war and I want to win it.

For the next lap the gap kept going up, until a chase group formed behind me. My dad was giving me time gaps at various spots of the course. I was holding the gap at 15 seconds. It stayed that way a while, but Liam was on the offensive again. The gap came down, and eventually it was small enough that I decided to do more psychological warfare. I did the same thing as before, and I wasn’t surprised when the exact same thing happened. This time the gap didn’t come back down. The chase group stayed 20 seconds back until the last lap. I knew that there would be a fight for the last podium spot going on behind me, so I sped up to keep far enough ahead. Even with the increase in speed the gap started to decrease. I wasn’t too worried, but I wanted to keep at least a ten second gap. Halfway through the last lap I went around a switchback and to my surprise Liam was a little close for comfort. I hit the gas, and made a gap of 15 seconds.

    This time it stayed 15 seconds all the way to the end. But I still got to have a sprint finish with a single speed racer. It didn’t really hit me that I won until I saw my dad. He was really surprised I won coming off a sickness, and frankly I was too. I was realizing that I am much faster than I had previously thought. After I started having confidence in my training, I really started to excel. Now instead of focusing on other peoples ability to beat me, I am focusing on being smooth and smart. Not having the burden of doubt allows me to have much more fun while racing, and be much smoother and smarter at the same time. Racing is starting to make a lot more sense to me, and hopefully I can continue this momentum for the rest of the season.

Mile High Urban Cross Chaos

Mile High Urban Cross Chaos

    Last weekend was the first inaugural Mile High Urban Cross Chaos, and I am super happy I got to race on this totally different course. I had never heard of urban cross before this, and couldn’t find much information about it, so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought it would be on all road and maybe have a flyover or a restaurant to go through. It was almost the opposite of what I expected. It had a challenging rock garden, dirt jumps, wood chips, logs, two run ups, a sand pit, and barriers all in one of the two small dirt sections halfway through the course. The best part of this course was that registration was in a small bar so we could get out of the 28 degree weather. Sitting in the bar eating some french fries, thawing out after my race was icing on the cake to a great course.
    My teammate Stuart and I got to the course two hours before my start, and the second we opened the car doors we knew it was going to be a very cold race. We both registered, got our timing chips, and went back to the car to get dressed. It was so cold out that I had to wear arm warmers under my long sleeve skinsuit along with my base layer, leg warmers, and my warmest gloves with liners underneath. When we finally got dressed, we went to pre ride the course. The first thing I noticed was the long straight sections of road. I wasn’t exactly excited to ride up and down the same street, but the other sections of the course would make up for it. The first section of dirt was a couple of U turns through some eight foot tall bulldozer tires. It was fairly muddy, especially where the dirt gave way to pavement. I knew the pavement would be extra slick from the mud so I went well within my limits around it. Next there were two more switchbacks on the pavement, and like the transition from mud to sidewalk they were muddy. Around a building we came to another mud section. I was surprised it they were able to pack eight features into an area that was so small. I really like this section because it was very technical, and required a lot of running. That was where all the time would be gained or lost in the race. After that mud section it was just a two straight aways linked by a switch back, so there was plenty of place to sprint.
    After the pre ride I put on more clothes for warm up and set up the trainer. It was still around 30 degrees, and our hands were freezing mostly because it took 20 minutes just to get the bike onto the stupid trainer. That was was the last straw and my dad finally gave in and decided it was a good idea to get a new trainer. Once we finally got the bike on I started my warm up, and with my dad timing I got a perfect warm up. The only problem was that the category four race was behind schedule so I had to wait for ten extra minutes, which let me cool down almost completely. When we did start I could tell I had lost a lot of my warm up, but it didn’t matter because of the large amount of road at the start. When we got to the section with all of the features I was around tenth place. But in a matter of seconds there was a pile up, and because I chose a different line I got around it. The next time I passed my dad he just yelled “What happened to everyone else?” I just smiled and stayed steady.
    The next two laps were uneventful, and I was just cruising along at a fairly high pace. I was barely feeling any pain, and was not thinking about anything. I felt like a machine, and felt like I could hold the pace forever, but then I saw that I had seven more laps to go. I didn’t know if I could stay on that pace, but I had faith in my training and pushed on. I was slowly gaining time, but only about a second every lap. By the fifth lap I had about 20 seconds on the rest of the field. My lungs and legs still were almost painless, but my arms felt like noodles from carrying my bike through the long running section. Because my arms were so tired, I rolled it through the runups. It was a big mistake, and I dropped my chain. The 20 second gap I had built up turned into a three second gap. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get another gap, but before I made finished the lap I looked back and saw an eight second gap. I was pulling away without giving away any more energy than before. Soon enough I had another 20 second gap, and slowed down to have a little fun and be safe through the technical section.
    On the ninth lap I was surprised to see someone passing me. But I didn’t have to pursue, because he was in the single speed category. Every time I see the singlespeed races I get blown away at how fast they go. At this race they started 30 seconds behind, and  the first place racer finished 30 seconds ahead of me. I tried to hold one of the single speeders wheel, but could only do it for about 100 yards before he dropped me. As I started my last lap I was passed by two more single speeders, but this time I was able to hold their wheel for half a lap. They dropped me just before the section full of features. This time when I looked back I saw the second place rider in my category. He was only about ten seconds back, so I buried myself on the run ups. I hit the road for the last time, and hammered my way toward the finish. I went around the last switch back, and could see how far back second was. I got out of the saddle and sprinted toward the line. I looked back to see him about fifteen seconds back, and crossed the finish line with my hands up.
    I was pretty excited to win my second race in a row, and got some pretty awesome prizes. I got a jersey, a handmade sculpture made out of bike parts, a jar, a certificate to say I won, and a six pack. My dad was pretty happy that I won a six pack. I almost didn’t get it cause I was underage, but they let my dad have it. This race was the second race where I was off the front the whole time, and I am believing in myself a lot more because of it. I have had so many problems with mechanicals, injuries, and asthma attacks that I stop believing I could even stay with the leaders of a race. I am starting to race smarter, and am learning my limits. Knowing my limits and lack experience was the biggest thing I was missing, but now that I have some more experience on the front I think I can win more races.

Tire Choice

Tire Choice

    Tires are the only piece of the bike that is in contact with the ground, and those two contact spots are very small. So it is super important to get the right tire for the right situation. It is even more important on a cyclocross bike because of thin tires, and lack of suspension. It also doesn’t help that there is a max limit of 33 millimeters. I am going to focus on cyclocross tires because of all of these limiters.
    First off there are three tire systems out there. The cheapest and most ubiquitous are clinchers. Almost all bikes come with clinchers, and for most people they are perfect. Clincher rims have hooks that hold the tire from coming off. To hold air they use a tube in between the rim and tire. One of the advantages of clinches is the fact that they are the easiest to maintain and change flats. They also have an almost unlimited amount of options for wheels and tires. But they do have a lot of drawbacks. For one they flat more easily than tubeless and tubular tires, and have less contact area. They are also much less supple than tubular tires, and most importantly they cannot be run at very low pressures. Pressure can be  more important that the tread pattern. The reason for this is because when running low pressure the tire conforms to the ground much more, and in turn there is more contact and grip. Probably the best and most popular clincher tire is the Clement PDX. The PDX has a very open tread pattern, and sheds mud very very well. It is also one of the most supple clinchers out there, but it is also fairly durable.
    The next option is tubeless, and is the middle ground between clinchers and tubulars. Tubeless systems work the same way as clinchers, but instead of using a tube to hold air the tire seals against the rim. I use tubeless for cyclocross and for mountain biking. They are a good option for racers on a budget who want a better performing tire. One major advantage to tubeless is less flats. Because they do not have a tube they are almost impossible to pinch flat. A pinch flat happens when you hit the rim when going over a square edge. The tube gets pinched between the rim hooks and the tire making a hole on both sides of the tube. Another way it prevents flats is the use of sealant. Sealant will plug up any small holes from thorns or small air permeable holes in the tire. Sealant can be used in all tire systems, but it is not necessary in any other except tubeless. Because there is less risk of flats you can run much lower pressures safely. However they are messy, and sometimes a hassle to set up. There is no tube to push the bead hooks of the tire into hooks of the rim, so a large volume of air in a small amount of time is needed to create the pressure needed to seat the hooks properly. Most pumps do not create enough pressure to seat the hooks, so a canister of Co2 or an air compressor is needed to provide enough pressure. There are also not very many options of tires and wheels available. It has been around in mountain biking for years, and there are almost as many options for tubeless as clinchers for mountain bikes. But it is a fairly new technology for cyclocross, and can be harder to find good tires and wheels for it. It is also fairly easy to burp the tires if they are not tubeless specific. Burping a tire is when the tire comes unseated and lets the air out of the tire. It usually only happens when going around a corner, and with the right tire it will not happen. I have found that the Hutchinson Bulldog with a carbon bead is the best tubeless tire for cyclocross. It clears mud very well, and I have never burped one even while running pressure below 20 psi. They are not as supple at the PDX’s but they make up for it with lower pressure.
    The third tire system is tubulars. Tubulars are the nicest and best performing, but the price is far more than both tubeless and clinchers. The tires alone are usually twice the price as a good tubeless or clincher tire, and the wheels can be four to five times as expensive too. But all of this is worth it if you want ultimate performance and comfort. Tubulars do not attach to the rim using bead hooks, instead they are glued to the rim. Tubulars are the choice of pros and serious racers. They can be run at extremely low pressures, flat less often, and are the most supple. The tube is sewed into the tire, and cannot be changed. Because there are no bead hooks for the tube to be pinched against, it is nearly impossible to pinch flat. The down side to sewing the tube in is that it cannot be changed, so it is not practical for training. Gluing the tire to the rim lets the tire have more contact with the ground because the tire is not restricted by the side walls of the rim. Gluing a tubular tire onto the rim takes at least three days, and is very labor intensive. Changing tires isn’t easy either. You have to take off the tire, clean the rim, and re-glue a new tire onto the rim. Pros will have multiple tubulars so that they can have different tires for the conditions. Tubulars are also supremely supple. They conform to the ground so much better than tubeless and clinchers. The added traction also comes with super light weights, and sometimes added durability. Tubular tires are not what’s light, but the wheels are light due to the lack of sidewalls. A nice pair of carbon tubulars could drop a pound or more, and are usually more durable. Carbon is ten times stronger than steel, but is still super light. I personally have not used tubulars for more than one race, but the most popular brands are Clement, Dugast, and Challenge. For pros and aspiring racers tubulars will give you the best performance and help you get to the top of the podium.