ZM Turkey Cross

Tuesday, October, 13 2009

My first cyclocross weekend

Wow.  What a humbling experience.  First off, thanks to Gord for loaning me his kickass Kona Major Jake, complete with wireless powertap to use during my inaugural weekend.  Since a) I've never ridden a cross bike before, and b) I've only test ridden a SRAM road group once, I decided to take her out for a 2hr romp on Saturday.  Took the grass trails through Sunnybrook to the lower Don trails, over to Pottery road, and along the rail trail to the Brickyard.  Lower Don wasn't the greatest idea, especially the wet clay trails leading to Pottery which were especially sketchy.  Had to watch my speed to make sure I didn't endo.  I then looped back over to Leslie and back into Sunnybrook for more grass work.  Major Jake told me she needed some shifting adjustments which I made last night.
 
Thanks to Andrew for loaning me some tools before today's race to finish the fine tuning and to both he Chris who gave me some tips on how to ride the course (the results don't show it, but I actually DID use them).  Today's ZM Turkey cross was a relatively dry, fast course and it was a perfect crisp, cool day for a race.  The smoke plume hadn't quite dissipated from the starting gun and I was already dropped by the main field.  Man those boys get on the horse fast.  I tried to bridge back up, but neither my fitness nor cross handling skills were up to task.  I decided to "go my own pace" and make sure I didn't high/low side or endo in the process.  Dismounting, crossing barriers, and remounting skills improved by the end of the race, but it took me a while to get the hang of it.  By the time I had built up enough nerve to not brake on the off camber twisty sections, my legs had nothing left in them.  I was lapped by everyone and their mother.  I can safely say that I had fun and like cyclocross, but I don't know if I'll ever be any good at it.  Only time will tell.  I'm considering an aero helmet and rear disk wheel for the next one to try and shave off some lap time ;)
 
Andrew and I were the only jit-bags at the race today with Powertaps.  Unfortunately, Andrew sliced a tire on lap 2 as he was poised for an attack. 
 
My left hamstring and right quad are feeling a bit torn.  Hope I didn't do any significant damage.
 
Happy Thanksgiving. 
 
-Mark