More Cross Season Catch Up Because I Am A Negligent Blogger

Another cross catch up. I finished off the gray Goat Indy Cross season earlier this month and the final three races were all fun and ended up to be decent results. So, lets get into the gory details.

(Note: all photos courtesy of Chris Jones....he takes some fantastic photos. Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/cjonesphoto/?fref=ts) 

Indy Cross #3: Traders Point 

Traders Point was a standby during the inaugural season of the Indy Cross last year. This year, only one race was held there and it turned out to be an interesting day. Rain was threatening most of the morning and by the afternoon, bursts of heavy showers had broken out. Light rain was falling at the race site, although with the weeks of completely dry weather preceding it, there seemed to be little impact, aside from wet grass. I scoped out the course in several spots, and yeah, the grass was wet, but no sloppy gross mud. I made this comment to a woman next to me, and she begged to differ, saying that the racers were tearing up tons of mud on the back side of the course.

An inspection of the passing bikes didn't quite bear this out. Grass yes. Some dirt, yes. Full on mud...no.

I had brought my cross bike with mud tires just in case but in the end, I decided to stick with the mountain bike. I got a first row call up and promptly managed to miss my clip in. Not getting off to a great start. I settled into a position outside the top ten and started to do my normal work my way up the field. I was doing alright on the grass, although it was a bit slick.  I did notice that I was having trouble moving up in the field.

Bryan D., a DINO racer and a frequent cross adversary, was doing very well and was within the top 5. I kept trying to will some additional power to work my way up to him, but it just wasn't there, and at every sighting, he was a bit farther up. To add insult to what was apparently not my day to race, managed to crash on section of gravel road. The course merely crossed it, but I turned too much and my rear wheel losty traction and down I went. For once, no blood, but a Purdue rider did get past me. In the end, I sputtered in for 9th place. Still top ten, and I was glad for it. And kudos to Bryan D. who came in with a fantastic race and a podium finish at 3rd.

In review, I was trying to figure out why I wasn't enjoying the acceleration I had in the past. I finally pinned it on a 5K I had run the Thursday night before (race was Saturday). I only do one 5K a year, without training, and this time it fell two days before a cross race. All day Friday my legs were stiff and hurting, and while things were somewhat improved on Saturday, I think the recovery was still in progress, and the legs couldn't answer the call at the cross race.

Indy Cross # 4: Paul Ruster II (Halloween Race)

The fourth IndyCross race returned to Paul Ruster Park this time for a Halloween race. The Cat 4/5 field was smaller than usual, as were all the fields, likely due to the Cincy 3 UCI races being held that same weekend. Moral of the story...don't schedule a local race on the same weekend as one of the largest cyclocross races in the country, which also happens to be just over an hour away.

Being Halloween, I tried to get the spirit my zip tying a parrot hat to my helmet. While it was mistaken for a rooster by about half the spectators but it was well received. And it stayed put the entire race. 

And the race? Geez, I can't seem to recall the details. It was a good race and fun although the trail was not as technical as before. The trail sections from the first race were left out, although there were still multiple tough climbs up the sledding hill. 

I do recall launching a fairly successful attack the next to last lap. I was in a group with a World Bicycle Relief and Scholars Inn Bakehouse rider. The three of us had been maintaining a good pace for a few laps, but I could also count, and were were just outside of the top 5. Just after one of the descents from the hill was a straightaway which led into a series of twistys before the barriers and another climb up the hill. I was last rider in our little group and jumped while on the straight away and immediately got a gap. The gap continued to grow as we came into the last lap and I maintained it until the end for 5th place. , which 

Indy Cross # 5: Marion County Fairgrounds (season finale)

The Indy Cross finale was at the Marion County Fair grounds. I had only ever been here once (The county fair is kind of overshadowed by the State Fair) and that was back in college when I was dating a girl who was showing cattle at the fair.

My recollection was a mostly flat area with not much variety terrain wise. Kind of an odd location for a cross race, but I know venues can be hard to come by as more people become upset with the damaged grass so often associated with cross.

Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised. The terrain was varied than I expected, with some various small rises and a portion on a old bmx course on thr property. There was one step climb on the northern portion of the course which climbed a long man made ridge which divided the fairgrounds from the adjacent interstate. Overall, a very urban cross course. I had brought my cross bike (in addition to my mountain bike) thinking this would be a flat course. After a quick pre-ride, I knew the mountain bike would be in.

I enjoyed what has become the standard front row call up and took my place on the far left side of the grid, anticipating the wide right turn which was at the end of the start stretch. At the gun I promptly missed my clip in. Kind of a trend these past few races, and was immediately chasing as a good chunk of riders got ahead of me.

I was somewhere around the top 15 and was in the thick of things for the first lap. As things began to get strung out, I was able to make some forward progress and start picking off riders here and there. Aaron had passed me early in the race, and I caught up to him and managed to get by him and a few others as I zeroed in on the top 5.

I came up on a Veloworks Urban Cyclery rider but had a hard time getting around him. Coming into the barriers, which were on an uphill, I was on his wheel and popped out to his left. As I came up next to him to prepare to dismount I told him I was on his left side. As we dismounted, he all of the sudden angled directly toward me and forced me into the tape. My dismount was ugly and I actually came to a complete stop before the first barrier.

I few choice words later I was running of the hill after the Velo guy. I remounted and took of, admittedly slightly pissed. Maybe it was an accident...skewing off your line while dismounting certainly happens. Or, maybe he was doing his best to hold me at bay for a while longer. Whatever the reason, I was in full on chase mode as we rode down a straight away before a twisty section before the finish. Velo held me off until the straight away after the finish where I hit the case and roared past him. Off to the next one......

A rough count made it appear that I was in 5th. I spotted 4th place, Nick A, a ways ahead of me and tried to close the gap. Nick is a strong rider and had been mixing it up with the top 3 most of the race, but it seemed like he might have burned all his matches. I was steadily gaining on him and figured I would make the catch within a lap. As I went through the barriers and headed into the straightaway which lead into the final twisty section  before the finish I did a double take. The leaders had just crossed the finish and had sat up. And were shaking hands.

Shit. This was the last lap. I usually listen for the bell, but there had not been one this race. Just the electronic lap counter, which I had not looked on that lap. I gritted my teeth and pushed hard in the twisty section. I closed the gap more, but not enough to catch Nick and ended up in 5th.

Overall, it was a great race and my second top 5 (hooray for upgrade points). A large field with lots of strong riders and I was able to make steady movement up the field. Based on the strength of the top few positions, I don't think misstep at the start would have had any impact. I'll console myself by remembering that the top three were aged 25, 20 and 18....so my racing age 35 self was up against some kids. Hard to compete against that. 

This race was also the finale for the IndyCross series. the best four out of five races went towards the overall placing. Going into this race, I was in second behind Nick A., although he had about 20 points on me.

Unfortunately, several of the other top riders had skipped a race, so while I had four races, the others only had three so would be well down in the rankings. Since a few of these riders beat me during this race, they jumped ahead of me and I ended up in 4th place for the series.

Nice result and I get to stick around the Cat 4 races for a bit longer. Thanks to IndyCross for a great local series. Looking forward to the racing next year!