Starcrossed Lover

Saturday was the big event on the local cyclocross calendar – Starcrossed.  I was out at Marymore Park in Redmond from 1:00 till 9:30 and loved every minute of it.  Cyclocross

Sophia asked "why does your face look like that

racers are a bit eccentric, I think most of them walk Clark Kent style through life – normal by all outwards appearances- but get ‘em at a race and the horn-rimmed glasses come off.  There is no shortage of personality at a cross race.

I raced in the Masters 40+ event and was placed in the back row – the field was 80 and I was the tail gunner.  I must confess to being a bit disappointed as I finished 8^th last weekend and thought that maybe I’d get a descent call-up.  No such luck, I don’t know how they organized the start line, perhaps it was just a blind drawing.  Anyway it be what it be and I leaned over to the guy next to me and said “well my expectations have just been lowered.”

The Starcrossed course had plenty of passing opportunities, but there just isn’t any substitute for a good starting position.  If you are able to pass 80 riders in a cross race you’d better be considering an upgrade, lest ye be called a sandbagger.

Teammates in the beer garden

The course was fast and flat, it was really fun and instead of fading I seemed to get stronger as the race went on.  I got on the wheel of my teammate Dan L and refused to let go.  Dan is a lot faster on the road than I am, so I was happy to be glued to his wheel.  I’m starting to feel a lot better about cross and am a little disappointed to be missing the first race in the SCX series this weekend, but I’ll be doing other fun things (more on that later).

Watching the pros was a real kick, Jeremy Powers and Ryan Trebon were insanely fast.  I simply can’t believe the speed at which those guys get around that course.  One thing I noticed was that they push much bigger gears than I’m able to turn; especially in the corners where I typically gear way down.  By holding onto that bigger gear they’re able to rocket out of the turns whereas I slowly ease back up to speed.  That is a leg strength, which is something that I can work on.

Ryan Trebon's Cannondale - he's 6'6"