My first CX race...had a blast at the Stafford Lake CX!

[Ryan Gibson]

All I can say is WOW, CX is a blast! Short version=10th/33 in Pro/Elite (Cat 1/A), and super fun.

 

I have been interested in CX for several years, but have not had a CX appropriate bike, the time (young kids), and have always had an excuse. Not this year...figuring its a good fun way to keep motivated through the winter and try something different, I bought some really racy mtb tires (Specialized Renegades) and a rigid fork and converted my hardtail Santa Cruz Highball to be more efficient for cross and hoped it would be competitive. It has the great breaking of hydraulic brakes, the good handling of a flat bar and mtb geometry, and is light (~17lbs).

 

So with about a month to go before the Stafford Lake CX right in my backyard, I converted the bike over and did a few shakedown rides around Burdell, Big Rock, Big Trees, and Rush Creek. I was really pleasantly surprised how fun and relatively comfortable rigid with pinner tires was, and even took the last minute chance of racing it with this setup for a 50 mile mtb race around Lake Folsom a few weeks ago (which was a great decision...I finished 1st in Cat 1 30-39 and 3rd overall to two 17 year old super fast Norcal HS racers). Anyway, I had enough time on the bike with this setup to feel comfortable, and I did a little dismount/mount practice as well (I have never been good at bunny hops and figured I would dismount for all obstacles).

 

The week leading up to the Stafford Lake CX was super busy at work and I did not get to do much of any riding until Friday...so despite having a sinking feeling it was a bad idea, I seized upon the window and rode the hero dirt hard on my full suspension mtb for 2.5 hours and 20 miles. While I had a blast and PR'd all of the downhill segments that day, I figured I would pay for it...and I did-oh well. Saturday came and I met a friend at Stafford to do a few sighting laps and practice a few of the obstacles. All in all, despite feeling flat and heavy, I was really psyched for the race, especially because my wife, 6 mo old daughter and 3.5 year old son would all be coming to cheer me on and ring the cowbells.

 

I got a short 10 minute warm up and 5-4-3-2-1-GO. Wow, CX is redline start to finish! I tried to jockey for a good position from the start, and figure I entered the first tight turn in 15th or so. This was like a road crit race, with 10 wide and bumping and grinding into the first narrow section. I dialed back just a bit and played it cautiously, not wanting to get tangled up. Sure enough, not two feet off my front wheel two racers got together on the backside of the first lap and one went down pretty hard-I narrowly avoided the wreck and was thankful to see the field breaking up a bit. At that time I could still see the leaders, but had no ability to stay with them, so I settled into a 80-90% effort for the remainder of the race (heartrate probably in the 180s for the full hour). The course was a fun mix of power robbing stutter bumps/uneven trail, boards, a muddy stair runup, farm wall, and the LAGOON! (2-3' deep and 12' long). I had a blast and was able to pick off a few racers each lap, including taking back a few spots later in the race from guys that passed me early on.  The highlight of the race was definitely seeing the family each lap, especially with cowbells blaring at the lagoon.

 

Coming across the line totally spent I managed to pull off 10th out of 33 in combined Pro/Elite (open Cat 1/A). My seven lap average was 7:53, for a total time 55:16min, with a first/fast lap of 6:18 (Michael Hosey had the overall fastest lap at 5:59). Lap times after first lap were very consistent, ranging from 8:04 to 8:16. I was just seven seconds back of 9th place finisher and fast guy Cameron Falconer, and about four minutes off the winner Tobin Ortenblad, who had an average lap time of 7:18 and total time of 51:07! While I have no idea how I did against the Cat 1/A racers as opposed to the Pros (because they combined us), I believe it would have been a 4th or 5th place finish. Against the other 45 Cat 1/A age group racers (35+, 45+ and SS), I would have been 2nd.

 

Got to see a lot of friends, drink good beer, hang with the family and ride a super fun course with a good result in my first CX race to boot....made a GREAT day. Now a few days out I can certainly say that I learned one very important lesson...it really pays to do a little conditioning for stairs, walls, barricades, etc, as I am apparently very fit for cycling, but nothing else, and am still pretty sore. Recovery road ride today.

 

Thinking about racing the Bay Area Super Prestige night race at Sierra Point this weekend (perhaps include a trip to Cyclefest in Cow Palace), and maybe the Bike Monkey Santa Rosa Cup race the following weekend.