The Chicrosscup season started on a Saturday this year because of a scheduling conflict in the park. It was really different having to get ready on Friday for a Saturday AM Chicross race. I had to bake my traditional sandwich bread in the evening, and get the Falcon cleaned and tuned up to the best of my ability after commuting home from work.
My girlfriend Morleigh had made other plans that Saturday, so I was expecting to strap on a heavy backpack and make my way south by CTA bus and by pedal. My morning did not start out well, having awoke before my alarm to troubling dreams. But as I was eating breakfast on Saturday morning I got a text from my girlfriend.
Morleigh: You are not going to believe who I found?
Me: Who?
Morleigh: Look out into the courtyard!!!!
So I looked out into the courtyard, and there she sat, holding one of my pillows that had ended up at her house after the WORS race the weekend before. She had teased me about it being absorbed into her Borg-like collection of pillows all week. Her plans had fallen through that morning so she decided to surprise me with a ride to my race.
We loaded up her car, strapping a trunk rack onto her trunk, and headed south. We had more trouble finding parking this time than we did at the Relay, but we found parking by the golden statue, and made our way back to the venue.
We arrived in the middle of the Master's 40+ race and saw Newt crushing the field, and shortly there-after hopped onto the course for a quick pre-ride. The course was different, with the short-back and forth section being greatly improved by being rotated 90 degrees and filling the same space with longer straights, wider corners, and more opportunity for passing.
Chernoh and I took off for an extended warm-up, making the same loop we had two weeks before but in reverse. We returned to the starting area and waited for our time to roll into the starting grid. Based on my cross-results points I was being loaded in 51st out of about 90 riders. I chose a position on the inside fence in the seventh row, in what felt like a very narrow lane. My strategy was to sprint out in the clear as people pushed to the outside of the course to get a good line on the first turn. The whistle blew, the field surged and I sprinted to the best of my ability. Clearly there wasn't time to count, but it felt like I had moved up from the 50s into the 20s.
From there on it was just a grind around the course, working on standing up on each of the corners and pushing it on the straights. I tried to hold off faster riders, and maintain contact and reel in the rider who was in front of me. The race was smooth and blurry with vibrant greens and blue skies replacing the dreary gray rainy memories from the relays.
There were only two moments moments of note. On my second lap, as I was navigating the steep off-camber hairpin turn on the far south end of the course I pedalled too soon and ended up pedaling into the ground and lifting my rear wheel off the ground. I didn't wash out, but did lose all momentum and was standing there on the uphill straddling my bike. It was too steep to put a foot on the pedal and try to ride, so I had that momentary pause as I wondered how to extricate myself. Do I dismount or waddle? I waddled a few steps up this hill, and hopped back up on my saddle and kept going.
The second moment was on the final lap, I was about 3 seconds behind a teammate, and was wondering whether or not I could close the gap before the finish. When he washed out in the long grass I had my answer. I continued to push the pace around the corner, and just as he was getting back up to speed I coming out of the final corner and building up a head of steam. I did have a moment of guilt passing a teammate after a moment of misfortune, but it passed as I hammered down the home straight and crossed the finish line.
My goal for the race was to get into the top 30 and earn some ChiCrossCup points so I could get better staging. I finished 28th, and transitioned into photography mode very happy with my performance.
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