Cross Practice

pict. by Bonebell

Practice with us Wednesday nights 5:30 until dark! Location is south of McCormick Place north of 31st beach on west side of LFP!!!

UCI Elite Race

photo:Mike Hemme

The Elite UCI race is a humbling experience. The frenetic pace of the starts and trying to find a way through people that kind of felt impossible but I think it's something that I need to experience. I took 39th both days. When driving cars on race tracks, the key to getting faster is being consistent with time then inching the envelope of confidence and focusing on 2 sections where you can mentally focus on gaining more speed. So, I guess I am consistent but I need more experience with these starts.

Last year, I came here and took 1st in 35+ with 1 minute gap and 2nd on Sunday with a dropped chain. I decided I would move from outside my comfort zone. The higher level of competition, the faster you get. Most of my cross races I have done were either Masters for Regional races or 1/2 races locally and I did pretty well with them. Besides Nationals, my cross race experience is 30 deep and I am probably racing against 5 to 6 people. An Elite UCI race, there are 60 people and everyone is super fast. In a mountain bike race, I have 2 hours to pick up the time in mass starts and they tend to be less violent.

There's 3 levels racing a UCI Men's Elite Race:

Worldcup/US Nationals level fast like Trebon, Page, Powers

Next group fastest with the Lalonde, Matter, etc

Everyone Else...

When I say everyone else, everyone is fucking fast and they've traveled from outside the area to do this race.

So, the amount of variance in speed in one race is significant versus any race. The first day, Trebon and Paged lapped through me and I kept look for the chase group. There was no chase group right behind then Kabush and Powers come through, what felt like atleast 30-maybe 60 seconds. I keep looking again to make sure I am not in anyone elses way...no one. The guys contesting these races are so far ahead of the next group who are comparatively ahead of me. Who is ahead? 2 guys that have worn US stars and stripes, 2 time world champion, and a guy that WINS UCI World Cup Mountain Bike races.

The first day, my rear brake kept binding. After seeking help from Kale @ Pegasus, Julie Popper and Sram mechanics, the brake still sticks. I decied last minute to pit the Courage, switch wheels onto the Eriksen. Thanks to Tim and Julie for helping me in the pit, I was freaking out about it. I like the new bike better and did't want to ride the Eriksen. I felt pretty good on day one and was holding my position, and there was a crash on the lead lap and I went down with a few riders. I caught maybe 6 riders and finished strong.

Day 2. Started to rain 15 minutes before staging. I liked the course much better besides the offcamber corner down fill before the rideable climb. Luck lily, I switched tires to the Fangos since the Grifo tires felt like ice skates. I am second to the last row back. I felt like I started better than the day before but my body did not want to respond. I felt very slow and sluggish and could not get my heart rate above 165. Day 2 was really easy to pull off but I decided to grind it out. Every open section was out of saddle effort to get more speed, power and I cold not redline at all. Thanks to Kale for letting me borrow brakes for my pit bike, with rain I may have needed it.

Not sure about the UCI Elite races and have to admit it kind of was a set back confidence wise for me but I am hoping the experience will be helpful down the road.Looking at the Masters, it was plenty fast race and I am pretty sure I would have had my hands full this time around.

I thought Holly raced really well given the talent and Mike really showed up, 6th Saturday and a impressive 2nd in the 2/3s. I am hoping I can put together similar performances over the next few weeks.

Planet Bike USGP
Sat. Day 1. I got 19th
Sun. Day 2. I got 17th
Both days I didn't get lapped! Whoo hoo!
There were so many friends cheering for me it was truly amazing. I'm hanging in WI for a few days so that means no computer. I will post a full race report when I get home and promise pictures! -holly

No Throwing Up & Not 1st

No excuses from me. I was out raced the last 3 minutes at Jackson Park to come in 2nd. Jess made a great move and it stuck. Can't say I'm not disappointed but that's racing.

Instead of a play by play of the race, I am going to give the positives and the negatives as this is the start of a long season and there will be plenty of race reports ahead.

POSITIVES

• I had a great start and got the "hole shot"
  

photos by Gavin

• Not puking, but coming pretty close at the end of the race
  
  
  
• The sand. I love sand! (yeah, not really sand, it was baseball diamond dirt)
  
• Twisty technical course
  
• The rush of Enervitine Cheer packs
  
• Everyone cheering their heads off


• Seeing friends, ringing bells, and screaming my head off
  
• Getting the first race done and realizing that I am in pretty strong form


• Lapping riders and not getting caught by the 3s that started 2 waves ahead
  
• GIRLING THE CAT 3 MEN!

NEGATIVES

• Pre race nerves made for too many bathroom and porta potty trips


• Race shorts feel too tight


• Way too paranoid to wear my skinsuit for fear of looking like a stuffed sausage
  


• These stupid little log things that just made me cringe as my rims would hit them


• Starting behind the 50+ men. Seriously annoying and beyond frustrating!
• Tape that was the same level as my handlebars
• Leading the race for 42 minutes and coming in 2nd
• Not getting our race results (still no results posted)

• STARTING BEHIND THE 50+ MEN!
  

Jackson Park

I overgeared the start and came out of the gate real slow and then got stuck behind alot of riders through the sand. I was able to make up alot of ground after a couple of laps and catch the chase group. The course was more cornering skill than power so it was hard to make up time. You had to push hard out of corners and by the time speed was up, there was another corner. Not only that, there was alot of "roadie" cornering on the course and I had a hard time getting passed people. Scott McLaughlin and Ben Popper had a good gap and great starts that kept them there most of the day.

By the third lap, my chain starts coming off around my crank arm and is all tangled. I pit for the other bike. I get on the other bike and the rear pressure is too low. A tip: check your pressure on spare bike an hour before the race not the night before. The next lap, rear tire is sliding everywhere. Luckily Mike from Kenda helps Holly fix my A bike and I transition on the next lap. I might have caught maybe 5 riders but it was too hard to catch the chase group again.

On the plus side, my fitness feels really good and especially liked how much easier barriers feel this year. Besides the mechanical, the new bike is killer. Puts down power really well and is stiff for steel. When I pre rode the bike, I thought I had too much pressure in the tires. Corners on rails where I almost felt like on a 29er. When I rode the Eriksen, I could not wait to get off it. With the new bike, the geometry is really dialed in for me so it should be fun this year. The Edge fork is stiff and holds a line really well in corners with no brake chatter.

The race result sucked and not every day is a great day. Time to work out the bugs for next week.

New Rig

Finally have the bike built. I have to thank Alex at RVB. It was coming down to crunch time and he set aside a laundry list of work to finish of my bike and the Mike's. By Thursday, he did not even have his own cross bike built.

Still waiting on the Edge wheels and will probably throw on some egg beater 4 ti pedals. The Time's are best for mountain bike but you don't smash too many rocks in cross. I went with the old school Flite saddle but may throw on an SLR for weight reduction. I am paranoid about broken seat rails/shells so thought this with a Thomson seatpost would be solid. I would like to get the bike down to just under 17lbs, which is really light for a 170lb hammer head on steel. I decided to stay with the Campy stuff instead of Sram given the ease of wheel changeability across 5 road and cross bikes. They copied the Sram ergos which were my favorite part of the group.

Initial impression is front end feels very stiff with the Edge fork, like the Alpha Q and does not have the brake chatter of the Easton I have on the Eriksen. I think this geometry is dialed in for me much better, more aggressive for quicker handling.

Love single chain ring set up...quiet,clean and no chain slap or drop. I'll run a 44X12/26 set up. Next year, I am definitely going to run a 1x10 on the mountain bike using the new Sram XX.

Meat and potatoes cross set up starting with a custom built steel frame...

We'll see how well the new rig does tomorrow.

My Meltdown

Because something is amiss with the killjoy site I am going to be doing my race report here. It will be short and sweet since it has been almost a week since the race.

I lined up in the midst of all the boys not afraid of getting a little jostled. This worked well for me last year and I knew I'd be able to hold my own at the start. I also figured it would be good to take a few elbows in preparation for cross season.

First lap I settled in behind Gage in the singletrack. There was a nice train of us and everyone was doing a great job on keeping it steady and smooth. This was also my fastest lap out of the 3. Here you can see me behind Gage going into one of the ravines.

The second lap was going really well until I felt my legs getting that crampy feeling coming on. I made sure to drink and was able to spin the feeling away. Jeremy was awesome with handups as they were really needed going into the third lap. Speaking of handups, whatever Jeremy gave to Gage, all of a sudden he comes flying by like he just started the race. It was crazy fast and he was out of my sight in an instant.

That last lap was 2 minutes slower than my first two. It was more because I was told I had about 10 minutes until the next lady and really had nothing pushing me to really go. I was able to pass a few more fellas, which is always fun, and grab a HA beer as I was making my way to the finish line. It was really cool to know that Kevin won the men's race, as last year we both came in 2nd. Two big trophies, gossiping with great friends, fun fast singletrack and a race less than 30 miles from our house is priceless. Thanks CAMBR for a great race yet again!