So, after getting my racing bug back at the dirt derby last week, i did indeed make it out to Pflugerville Saturday to race the singlespeed category in the afternoon. I had planned on doing the Category 3/4 race in the morning, but got stuck at Frankenbike trying to sell parts. I’m glad it worked out this way because the race course absolutely sucked and I was blown from just doing the singlespeed race.
It was a relatively flat course through black dirt prairie, except the dead clumps of grass and cracked dirt from a long drought made it deceivingly bumpy. There was one long run up a levee, and as soon as you got to the top, you were greeted with 30mph crosswinds for a few hundred yards before dropping back down just to ascend a really bumpy climb that dropped you into a long sand pit. The pit was mostly rideable, but only having one gear forced me to dismount every lap anyways. After exiting the sand
pit, you had a nice long stretch of gravel pathway with a healthy dose of strong headwinds. You eventually made a u-turn and started heading back to the start finish on a long stretch of rough grass. The only thing nice about this section was the tailwind, and maybe the fact that you were heading back towards some resemblance of
encouragement as all the spectators were hanging out near the start finish area.
Once the master of the singlespeed cyclocross bike in Texas, I am no more. Some new faces have appeared in the singlespeed category this year and they have blown me out of the water. I finished the race a very distant 2nd place and had given all I had to give, to no avail. The hard effort left me with
a side stitch and a sore throat. I was in such
dissarray that I had to forego the Sunday races completely and get some work done around the house. I was really looking forward to the Sunday race because I’ve raced the course before and knew it would be a fun one. Oh well, you can’t win them all, sometimes you can’t even race them all.
Following the weekend my sore throat turned into a pretty nasty little cold. I wasn’t going to race the derby Tuesday night to try and rest up, but it was the last Dirt Derby for another 9 months so I decided to push my immune system to the breaking point. I took the cross bike and Big Tex, the only working mountain bike I have at the moment. The B cross race went pretty smooth. I sat in for a while but got tired of running into other riders through the technical turns and run up, so I finally squeaked on by to cruise in for an easy victory. Next would the A mountain short track race. I hopped off the cross bike and onto the 10 lb heavier full suspension 100mm travel Big Tex for some fat tire action. The bike was noticeably more sluggish. Not only that, but the competition was much stiffer. We get going and by the end of lap 1 I am struggling to stay in 4th place. I eventually get a little wind back and initiate an attack to move up to third, but 4th sticks with me for a few laps until I drill the technical turn section only to look back and notice 4th is nowhere to be found. 1st and 2nd were long gone so I settled for third.
So, all in all, not a horrible way to end the race year. That’s it for 2010. I might start training again in January in preparation for the Dirty Dozen, if I decide to give it a go a third time. Right now I am sick (most likely because of that Saturday race) and just need to focus on getting well. Thanks for reading. Have a safe and enjoyable Holiday Season.
Caveman