Spa CX and kids race RR
Having a blast racing cross. This was week 2. A few ST friends and I have been talking smack about this race for a few weeks. That fact that none of us knows what we are doing did not stop that. Former ENer Murphy'sLaw even drove up with a 15 year old MTN bike with cross tires to beat us. Turns out a MTN bike racing back ground and 4.5 w/kg is helpful for racing cross, who knew?
This weeks race was at the Saratoga Race Course which happens to be the oldest horse racing track in the country. The cross race was no where near the actual track using one of the back stable areas, where the illegal alien stable hands hang out rather than the rich and famous. Lots of dirt, hills and grass. Got there a little after 8 with my buddy Keith.. 40 degrees and drizzling. I guess it is the second year for this race. Really the second year of the race series I think. NYCROSS.COM. Super mellow vibe. The delayed the opening of registration 15 minutes as it was determined “we need another 15 to let the coffee kick in”.
ML was there when we arrived. We had signed up for both the 30 minute Cat 4/Citizens race at 9:15 and the 45 minute Cat 3/4 race at 11:00. Yoda slept in and showed up for the second race. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Did a couple practice laps. Super different than last week. Short laps but with lots of tight turns, a good size sand run up, a couple pretty long dirt/sand/mud sections [which tasted great, more on that later].
Big field this week. 50 plus in the 4/citizen as it was combined with the women and kids. Pretty sure the bigger crowd is cause the race has a funny blog [spacx.blogspot.com]. Luckily this week I beat all the old ladies and little kids. Guess I am improving :-) Tried to stay near the front of the pack at the start. Did not do a very good job of it. Murpy’sLaw got out in front of me and stayed there. The first race ended up being 4 laps. I ran the sand pit after the run up all 4 times. Some were riding it but it seemed like a bad call. Saw an excellent crash pileup at the double log bunny hop coming into a 180 turn part. Pretty uneventful really. About the 3rd lap when my lungs and legs were burning I started thinking that the two races in a morning plan sucked. It was really hard to make up ground on the leaders. They are just plain better at taking the turns and jumping back on. Oh well. Ended up 15th. Managed to beat my friend Keith and a couple local stud tri doodes who I never get to beat so that was nice. Murphy’sLaw was 5th or 6th, he is really annoying.
Next up was the 3/4 race. The kids were super excited to race at noon. They were excited in general as they got to ride their bikes all over the place on dirt/mud/grass etc not to mention crawl around and play in it. If that was not enough there was a good size bouncy bounce which is always a crowd pleaser. In the middle we watched the masters race and saw that the long dirt/sand pit after the run up was rideable if you stayed to one edge as long as possible and then just gutted out the last 20 feet or so. It seems like that ruts and things can be a good thing on a cross course as the day goes on.
Ready to race: 
3/4 Field: 
My friend Matt who is a pretty sick biker showed up and had a single speed. For reference his PR on whiteface is sub 50 minutes. Plan was to weasel my way up in front of them at the start and try to get out ahead. It is working well until both he and ML get a call up during staging, WTF is with that? Oh well. ML goes out like a shot and is gone from sight after the first lap. Matt was about 100 yards up the first few laps and I was not really gaining or losing on him. Passed a Cat 3 roadie dude who used to work for me who is MR Cross. Found out later that he dropped out after I passed him. Weak. Would almost feel bad for him if he did not give me crap last week cause I did not know how to pin on the number right. How you like them apples son? Managed to run by Matt on the 6th lap run up. Luckily he did not see me or hear me call him a bitch cause he never caught up. He later lost his chain and ran it in. Was going faster than the first race and rode the long sand pit. Was starting to feel good about it until the second to last time through when the guy in front hit the post holding the tape and went down in front of me. I had to go out into the middle of the pit and ended up on my face almost instantly. Got a mouthful which was not all that nice. Did I mention that it had started raining pretty hard? The hecklers had a blast with that. The hecklers with megaphones seem to be an important part of cross racing. I bet there is a good pic me on my face in the pit, hope someone sends it to me.
Through the barriers, technique needs work: 
The run up: 
Anyhow got up and got going well and pretty much held my spot until I got lapped by the leader. Was kinda bummed about it at the time. Think I could have held him off if I did not face plant in the mud. Maybe not. Was not all that bummed to not to have to go around again. Ended up finishing about a third of the way down in the field. Amazing how much dirt I had in my helmet, my left ear was pretty much full of dirt as well which was nice. Had a recoverwrong or two with the boys. 
Got in on the heckling fun for the one lap “run what you brung race”. There were some cool set ups, wish I had pics. Lots of costumes. Best was the Busch beer mtn bike complete with front disc and beer holder hat which you can see in the background of one of the kids race pics. Kids race was awesome. My son won the 5 and under and daughter was 3rd in 10 and under narrowly getting beat by a couple of older boys. 
Whole vibe at the cross races is super mellow and cool. Hard not to have fun. Also, I think that Saratoga might be the only town in the world where the cops ride Serotta Mtn bikes. Also nice that they could care less that people are hanging out drinking beer at 10 O clock on Sunday morning as well.
Fun day for all!
Comments
Awesome how the little Gleason's dominated the kid's race! When's the next race?
Great stuff Chris....I see you guys figured out the CX recovery plan. That is the best part of the day. I'm Cating up next week so I can hit the the recovery sooner in the afternoon