First Cross Race of the Season

Sunday marked the start of my cyclocross season. The weather was still warmer than usual, but not bad. The race was held in Louisville at Tom Sawyer State Park (just a few miles from where Kate's parents live). The race was billed as the "Tour de Louisville."

This was my first race using the 2 speed setup that I have on my cyclocross bike right now. I would try racing single speed, but I am too much of a wimp. Needless to say, I was the only person racing on a 2 speed (actually there wasn't even a single-speed racer in the field, bummer).

We lined up at the start, and I got a 2nd row position, about half way back in the field. Starting position in cyclocross is really important (at least if you are about trying to win races), as the race will quickly bunch up and come to a stand still at corners or obstacles, especially in the first lap.

At the gun we all took off, but I ended up going the wrong way .... backwards (at least in comparison to the rest of the field), because I missed my pedal and did not get clipped in fast enough. So, in the first 100ft of the race I went from about 20th place to dead last. When I finally got my pedals sorted out and up to speed, it was just in time to get caught behind a crash and a few other inconveniences. Needless to say by the time the field had worked itself out I was probably 400m or so behind the leaders. Not that it mattered much, as my goal for the race was to not finish last.

I started to work my way up through the field, catching a few people here and there, and jumping a few groups to work myself back into the middle of the pack. I ended up staying there the rest of the race. There was a group that I could see ahead of me for a few laps and was able to catch them, but I was also caught by a few people. A racer from Biowheels, a team out of Cincinnati, and I traded places back and forth for a lot of the race. But by the last lap, I was nearing the edge of my energy. I tried to drop the other racer in the first quarter of the last lap, but he hung on and we caught one more rider. The Biowheels racer and this other guy then proceeded to ride away from me after I lost some distance to them on a run up. At that point I just kind of put it in cruise control to try and finish the race in a lucid state.

So, I ended up 17th out of 35, which is not bad. The speed of this series has certainly picked up a lot since I won the overall a few years ago. I cannot say that I was greatly pleased with where I finished, but neither was I really disappointed. I am mainly doing this for the fun of it now, and it was fun to be out racing again, especially as this race was the biggest that they have ever had in Kentucky with close to 150 racers taking part.

The 2 speeds worked fine, but I think that the best way to race with just 2 speeds is to spin a high cadence with the small ring in the front and save the bigger ring for short bursts of speed.

After the race I decided to switch the cog in the back from a 17 tooth cog to a 15 tooth. It really is a mixed bag in trying to do this with just two gears. Too small a cog in the back, and the big ring in the front is too hard to spin easily, but too big a cog, and you simply spin like crazy in the small ring up front and don't go anywhere.

I had the 15t on before, but felt that it was too hard to get up to speed with the big ring in the front. But then I was trying to use the harder gear too much I think.

And now, I think I have completely confused even myself over what I was trying to say about the gearing on my bike. I just hope that we get some rain soon so that we have a muddy race soon.