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TAILWIND CYCLO-CROSS RACE
SERIES Dave's Thoughts: Sunday, October 5 Renee and I went to the Bloomer Park Cyclcross in Rochester MI near Detroit. It was a chilly morning with frost on the windows of our car. Renee was calm and composed enough to eat a big breakfast while I nervously nibbled at my food. We arrived at Bloomer Park and discovered it is a hot bed of cycling with a wooden velodrome and lots of mountain bike trails. The course can best be described as flat and twisty. There was no climbing to speak of and there were tons of tight corners. The park was a seas of orange flags and ribbon tape as the first half of the course took place mostly in the open area by the parking lot. If you couldn't corner then you were going to suffer on that part of the course as there were numerous 180 degree turns. There was also a section of wood bark chips which I'm sure was a joy for those on cross bikes but wasn't too bad for those of us on mtn bikes. The course had the regulation two sets of barriers per USA Cycling rules. One barrier section was two barriers on a flat section. The second set of barriers was just after a corner on a slight rise and had three barriers. After doing the second set of barriers you headed down a slight decline and did some more corners before heading off to the farthest part of the course from the parking lot. This section also included a number of tricky turns a couple of abrupt uphills and an off camber corner followed by a cement parking lot bumper. This section also included a number of fast asphalt sections before looping back through to the start finish area. Renee's Thoughts: Personally I didn't expect to do super well as it was a fast course with only a few sections that seemingly favored a mountain bike. However, I was wrong. Number one I was kicking some butt in the barrier sections as the other gals were struggling with these sections. I also tried to use the superior traction of my mountain bike to carry speed in the corners and really hammer out of them. I also hammered the two abrupt climbs and carried as much speed as possible. Truthfully I started off in 6th out of 7 from the go. However, I quickly passed one of the other women on a mtn bike in the first barrier section as she hit her bike into it. I tried to power away from her and got a good gap after the second set of barriers in lap one. For the rest of that lap I just tried to get a good distance in front of her so I could maintain a strong 5th place. In lap two I continued to hammer away and by the time I hit the barriers again I was able to pass another woman. I figured I better really pick up the pace after passing her in the second set of barriers as she was on a cross bike and I knew she would have an advantage in many of the sections. She was on my wheel for a little while but I definitely pushed my advantage in the corners and got ahead of her. Towards the second part of the course on my second lap I was getting close to the 3rd place woman. She still had a gap on me but I felt like I was within striking distance. However, she maintained the same distance on me as we entered the start of our 3rd lap. However, as she reached the first set of barriers I could see that she was not strong in the barriers so I knew that I needed to push myself hard through the barriers to catch her. As we reached the second set of barriers she was slowing and so I came flying through and we reached the end of the barriers at the second time. I ran and jumped on my bike to the very best of my ability and was able to get by her. Once again I had to push myself hard through the corners to stay in front of her. By the second half of the course I had about the same gap on her that she had previously had on me. Now I was determined to stay in 3rd place I hammered the asphalt sections as hard as I could. At this point I didn't know if this would be our last lap or if we had one more to go as the referee at the start hadn't really explained how we would be finishing. I figured I better ride as if this was the last lap because I didn't want to risk losing a place. Of course, we had one more lap to go and as I went through the finish area I was suffering. I knew that the 4th place gal was not far behind me and with a strong surge would be able to close the gap. So once again I pushed myself hard through the barriers because I knew that was where I could put some distance on her. Because of the twisty nature of the course I was able to see her come through the second set of barriers and totally lose all of her momentum on the remount. At this point I figured I would have enough time to keep in front of her but I kept pushing hard as I knew in the asphalt sections it would be possible for her to make some ground if she was really determined. I sprinted it home and much to my surprise almost caught the 2nd place woman who was only 18 seconds in front of me. What a day! Third out of seven was a really rewarding finish especially since it was a hard fought race. The gals from Michigan were super nice afterwards . . . especially after I told them I wouldn't be coming back. However, it seems that I have inspired them all to practice their barriers because they were frustrated by their ability to slowly close the gap on the open sections only to have me open it back up on the barriers. It's a good thing I've been going to Thursday night cross practice at Westmorland Park as it has definitely been my saving grace in these C races!! |
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