Wisconsin State Championships CX

 Double Feature(s)

With the CCC season over too early one must sometimes cross rival's borders in search of that racing fix.

Saturday brought us to Waterloo, Wisconsin, home of Trek bicycle company and this year's state cyclocross championships.

The literal backyard of Trek is a permanent cyclocross course.  In October it hosted the 1st World Cup of the season with all but a few of the European and American pros.  

With a little less palmares than the pros and more prep needed for Nationals in Wheaton in a couple weeks Fran, George, and myself made the trek (see what I did there?) up north for Saturday's racing.  

As mentioned in my Kringle Kross entry the WICX series does things a little different than the CCC.  That includes separating the old farts by category and also running some of the races shorter.  Our race is normally 40 minutes which really is enough for one day when done all at once.  But, at only 30 minutes and a much longer drive, to make it worth it we decided to double up.  

The first of the double feature was the 50+ cat 4/5 race at 9am.  Then, after an hour of rest we got some more popcorn for the elite 4/5 race at 10:30. (Actually, instead of popcorn I used the advice of Peter on nutrition.  One caffeine gel immediately after the first race and a regular gel 15 minute before the second).

BikeReg has a cool feature where it "predicts" the results based purely on accrued points.  The first race had me at 9th which means a second row start and a good shot to stay out of the chaos behind.  The second race had me at 33rd out of 70 something (This race included all the young guns).

Perhaps the coolest part of the day was that I was lining up for the first time with Fran and George.  Our categories don't usually line up and I roll off the start line an hour after them.  So, directly on my right was Fran with George close by.  Fist bumps were passed around acknowledging the moment.

It was cold out (37ish) but it was dry which is waaay more important.  In fact the course was bone dry.  Had it been wet this course would have been much slower and 10x harder.  The course is built on a hill and there are plenty of elevation changes.  Off camber wet turns are what destroy derailleur hangers as well as hopes and dreams.

Being dry this was a good course for me.  Lots of pedaling sections and turns that you could take with some speed without fear (my mortal enemy on the cross course).  

I had a good/not great start and gained a couple spots quickly.  This course started with a long parking lot section before hitting the grass which also went straight for a bit.  I made sure my starting gear was 1-2 gears harder than if we had started on grass because I knew we'd have more speed and while it took me 2 tries to clip in I was right there.

A couple races ago I switched to my mud tires because I was sliding around way too much.  I switched back due to the dryness but also because there is a rock step on this course.  My intermediate tires also have Cush Core (foam insert) inside for added protection and thinking of trying to ride that wall like the pros I was more comfortable with the switch.

Above is the feature I mentioned.  To give it some reference I left in the friendly spectator.  It is probably 1.5-2 feet tall.  This course has a ton of cool features that make it both fun and challenging.  My hope was to ride up the right side using a slight crack between rocks to roll up like the pros.  But the line we had leading up to it was different and made you go straight to it and not on an angle like I expected.

Even with my Cush Core I didn't have the confidence (see above mention of fear) to try it.  People did ride it.  In fact, George rode it every time.  I was able to run if fairly quickly but because you are still going up when you remount all momentum is lost and if you are riding you can pass people.

Right before the rock wall there were a couple logs on a slight uphill.  There was a ridable line on the left.  During pre-ride I was there with Fran doing it over and over to make sure we could do it in the race. (If you can't do it 10 times out of 10 in pre-ride don't try it in the race).

I'm happy to report that of my 8 trips ups these logs (4 each race) I either rode it clean or just put one foot down every time except the first lap of the second race where the guy before me got stuck.  Then I got stuck behind him and 3-4 people passed me by running it.  UGH!  Evidently his fancy skinsuit doesn't help with his skills.

>> Funny aside, a fan was fixing that stake on the left that someone had knocked down but was standing in my line while doing it.  I had to yell at him while pedaling (and out of breath) to MOVE! <<

If I continue to go backwards on the course there was a flyover.  The later races (higher categories) actually got to go over 2 flyovers and sometimes the World Cup has 3.  

The flyover itself wasn't particularly challenging but it is important to be in a low enough gear to power up it and then get back into a big enough gear for the speed you'll carry on the way down.  Really it is just fun.

Rearward with the time machine there is a hump right before the flyover.  On my pre-ride I carried some good speed towards the hump and almost did an endo.  The backside is almost straight down and if you have too much speed and don't get your butt hanging off the back of your saddle mountain bike style then you are in serious trouble.

On the first lap of the second race (with all the young yahoos) George went over the hump 3 abreast.  Bumping elbows - scary shit.

It is difficult to describe what an off camber is like.  This picture below has the camera vertical.  As you can see the grass I'm on is slanted left and the guy on the other side of the turn is at about 45 degrees going up.

This part was fun also but if it had been wet would have been treacherous.

>> Gratuitous cyclocross fun picture.  Where else do you see a ramp with a huge cheeseburger to jump over?  You'll see another picture of that cheeseburger below unfortunately.  <<

On the backside of the course you slalom through some woods and encounter a small rock wall.  In this case we were going down so it was just a matter of pulling up the front wheel and letting the back wheel roll over it.

The rocks were up to a foot high but if you have any experience at Palos they are fine.

The one incident I did have was on the last lap of the second race.  With no space on the left because if the cheeseburger jump some yahoo decided to pass on the right when there just wasn't enough space.  

The eagle eyed among you might notice the irony that he has the exact same bike as me.

I hit the ground and other than a cut on my right leg all appears to be ok.  And have no fear, thanks to the GoPro and some internet sleuthing I tracked his a$$ down and expressed my displeasure politely (After all, it is cyclocross and rubbing is racing).

Closing in on the finish line I had two different race experiences.  

The first race had the 50+ Cat 1/2/3's about 30 seconds in front of us so throughout the race we were catching the back half of that race.  As I finished the S curves and hit the final straight my weak cornering abilities didn't allow me to catch one of the 1/2/3's in the sprint but was able to throw my bike past a lapped rider at the line.  

The second race had me coming into the S curves leading a group of 4-5.  Nothing is more motivating than heavy breathing cat 4/5's in lycra on your tail.  This time I was able to carve the corners enough to hit the straight with enough of a gap that I didn't need to sprint - just keep pressure on the pedals.

Because cyclocross races are all over the course due to the differing abilities and sometimes multiple fields on course at the same time it is hard to know exactly where you finished (especially for a mid-packer like me).  Since I was "predicted" 9th I was really hoping to at worst keep that placement or at best move up 1 or 2.  Almost every race this year I've outdone my prediction.  Honestly, I felt like 7th or 8th was where I ended up.

The one great thing about the CCC is that we use One2Go timing and results are almost instant (plus lap times).  But in Wisc things are manual and much slower.  It was worth the wait in the first race as I pulled off a 6th place (out of 38).  Super exciting for me!  My highest placement ever.  I'm starting to like the 4/5's being scored separately LOL.  In the second race I was 37th out of 77 - not too bad for the second race of the day and losing 4 places due to the crash.  (We waited an hour for the results and they didn't appear so we took off).

Fran and George have their own stories to tell with 60+ podiums.  Those guys are studs.

Perhaps showing our age we didn't get any pictures of us as a group.  Maybe next week at Region Riot.

If you've gotten this far in the post I thank you for letting me ramble.  It was a fun day and very rewarding.