ICX Indianapolis Cycloplex Race Report

No post in a month, so let’s start things off in style with a good old fashioned race report.  In which I earned a big DNF.

My first cyclocross race of the year got off to a less than encouraging start this past Saturday. The race was the Indiana Cyclocross Cup race at the Indianapolis Cycloplex.  Last year this course was dry and fast. Things changed this year. A batch of rain moved in the night before the race and stuck around for the first half of the day. The early races were pretty nasty with rain, cold, and mud.

By the time the Cat 4 races started the skies had partly cleared and the course was drying, although significant mud remained.

Thanks to my very early registration, I got a first row call up and had a good start, although I was not expecting to hold my nice starting position. The first part of the course is in a field with some very muddy spots.  After this the course ran parallel to a street (off camber and muddy) and up a very steep muddy climb up to the top of a ridgeline which had more of a mountain bike feel (this part of the course was actually used for a Marian University short track mountain bike race earlier this year). The climb was bad. Very few people were making it up all the way.

At the start. I might have been in the lead for a fraction of a second.
Photo: Beth Bragg

What comes up must come down, and the steep downhill on the other end of the ridge was a muddy mess. Thick mud with some nice diagonally oriented roots thrown in. 

A view from the top of the muddy downhill. Looks like someone
(one of many) wasn't able to stay on the bike.
Photo: Beth Bragg

I fared a little better than others on the descent.

 

 

 

Once you came down, you were faced with a steep switch back section which climbed back up the ridge before heading into a fast road section to the start line.

I had to run the switchbacks the first time:

 

 

But rode it the second time around:

 

All was going fine for the most part. I was a little more fatigued than I was expecting but seemed to be holding my own. I got passed, and passed some as well. The barriers were no problem. Lap times showed that I was in the top ten on the first lap.

Unfortunately, on the third lap I ran into trouble on the steep  muddy climb. As I tried to remount my bike I heard a nasty grinding sound and found that my chain and jumped over the cassette and wedged between spokes. Yikes. Never had that happen before. I rotated the wheel back and was able to pull out the chain, but my shifting seemed off.  I remounted and continued.

However, as I came upon the climb back up the ridge, I tried to shift into a lower gear on the back in preparation for the steep switchbacks and heard the dreaded grinding sound again. I stopped and sure enough the chain had leapt over the 32t cog and wedged between the spokes and cassette. Unfortunately, there was no pulling it out this time. It was wedged too tightly. Removing the cassette was in order. With no back up bike (and being half the course away from the pits) I got pissed and stomped off the course.

In retrospect, I should have shouldered the bike and at least finished that lap. Instead, I was in a surly mood and went home. Of course, I would much rather have a DNF on a cross race than one of the DINO series.  But still, it’s not fun, especially when I was feeling good.

I assumed the chain issue was from the mud, but while cleaning my bike I found that my rear derailleur was slightly overshifting (not sure that is a real term) the 32t cog and thereby pushing the chain over. Likely my fault. I had been “fine tuning” my rear derailleur earlier in the week, and while the bike was shifting fine on the rack, things are always different on the bike. My fine tuning probably pushed the derailleur a bit too far.

Well nuts. Ok, problem identified and fixed. Next week is a new week, and a new race. Hopefully it won’t be too muddy.

Now for the technical stuff. I used my standard 29er with the White Brothers carbon fork for this race because I refuse to purchase a separate bike for use on four or five races a year only. (although the negative heckling directed towards the MTB this year was surprising….seemed more positive last year).

I decided to experiment with tires and bought a set of Vee Rubber X-C-X 1.75 inch tires advertised as a fast cross country tire or larger cross tire. The tire is fast, and worked well for most of the course where the mud was more packed down or there was still grass. Off camber mud was not as good, and the steep muddy uphill was a no go, although that was true for many other tires. I think the X-C-X’s would have been better if used in slightly drier conditions (they are advertised as a dry tire) so I’m hoping next week has less rain. However, just in case I did order a set of advertised mud tires as well.

 

May also incorporate some stair running into the training regimen. I'm not used to running up hill. In the mud. Carrying a bike.

 

Photos courtesy of Planet Adventure unless otherwise noted.