Can't win the race on the ground.

Bring on the cowbells- Derby City Cup Louisville, KY


Out of all the Cyclocross courses I have ever ridden on, this has got to be the best. Louisville has a park used almost specifically for cyclocross. There are man made hills, sandpits, burms, and bumps just to make things interesting. On top of all the things that are permanent to the area, barriers and the aptly named Green Monster (flyover with really tall stairs, steep decent, and is painted green) were also added for the enjoyment of the crowd and the pain of the racers.


The races on day one started out on a flat stretch of road about 100-200 yards long which transitioned into a pretty wide hole shot grassy downhill. The downhill turned into a flat with a sweeping turn into a 2-3 foot tall hump, another sweeping left turn into another hump with barriers immediately afterwards. This section was very fast and really crowed because of the little time we had to spread out. After the barriers was the Green Monster and some flat grass sections (power to the roadies....) that were really bumpy with a head wind. Pretty much the whole course was against me except for the back section where steep climbs and burms were a mountain biker's heaven (on a cross bike).  I saw no places where you could really crash unless you rode the sand stupidly with too much pressure on your front wheel. That didn't stop me though.


The only thing I dislike about USGPs are the starts. They make you sit there for 2 minutes, count down to 30 seconds, then anytime within those last 30 seconds they can blow their whistle. The single speed men started around 20 seconds before us even though it was supposed to be thirty. The official blew his whistle and we half sprinted to the hole shot. I missed my pedal and ended up getting boxed in so I took it as a chance to start my coaches Garmin (I left mine at the hotel...). I went to the inside of one of my competitors when we got to the whole shot and passed around 3 girls on the first down hill and flat. The bumps where easy to get over and everyone held there line on and immediately after. My barrier skills on the first lap where kind of crappy and my remount lost me a spot. The section between the barriers and the Green Monster was a flat power section where almost every lap someone got a round me.  The Green Monster was a mess, some of the women where practially walking up it so even though I had not tried to run up the stairs on any of my pre-rides I ran up them thinking the whole time, "You guys are just going to let me around?" My remount at the top wasn't as good as I would have liked but I took it and passed 2 more women before we got to the sand. 


I screwed up pretty bad in the sand and ran into a couple of girls who were running it while I was riding. I got off my bike but by that point I had already been passed back up by the 2 women I had passed earlier after the fly over. Now we were into the first of two mountain bike like sections that were fast but had some sharp turns. The burned in line isn't always the fastest one and I showed some of the women exactly that. On my pre-ride I rode part of one lap with one of the guys that had carpooled with us. He showed me that there was a line through some leaves that was a lot faster and you could cut off someone (or a couple of people) because It was a straight shot and you didn't have to use your brakes to stay on a set line. I took this and pulled those ladies back where they belonged- behind me.


Everything was going smooth after that. I continued to try and pull the front in and pass single speed men. My crusade was short lived when on a flat section before the second sand pit I wasn't as strong a lady went around my right side then proceeded to stick her back wheel into my front wheel. I lost control of my bike and went right through the tape. I was really pissed about the crash so I tore the tape off my bike and got back on the course. I wasn't really paying attention and 2 ladies came around me the first one on the left and the second one on the right. This made me even more mad and kind of freaked me out. I took off after them. The three of us got to the sand pit about the same time and I tried to go in between them. Mistake number 1- Riding too close to other people. Mistake number 2- Trying to ride in between them. Both of the women couldn't ride the sand and ended up falling to their insides. I ended up with both of their bikes on top of me, more time in between the leader and me, and my bike was tangled up with one of their bikes. I ran out of the sand and had a perfect remount. With all the adrenaline I had from those crashes I was flying. 


I took the rest of the lap clean and ran up the last steep hill before the road section right on another one of the women's heels. On my last lap I ended up in forth behind one of Maian's racers. We were head on head until the barriers where I proceeded to smash my front wheel into the barriers and have a horrible remount. She started to pull away and I was thinking," Hell no. You are not getting away from me!" I put in an effort and right before the fly over she crashed. I used this to my advantage and ran as fast as I could up the stairs, jumped onto my bike, and took off, never looking back. I ended up dropping her then pulling in second place who I dropped in the last section where my mountain biking skills came in handy. I rode all the steep climbs perfectly. On the last run up I was yelling at my self to go and not to look back. I knew she had to be close because my dad was yelling at me to go hard and not to stop pushing. I put my bike in it's biggest gear and sprinted to the finish fearing the worst because my skinny self cannot sprint if my life depended on it. 


As my coach told me a little while back when I got crashed at New Belgium Cup in Colorado, you can't win the race on the ground. Throughout the whole race I pushed as hard as I could but after those crashes I couldn't pull back in first. My lap times show that I was pulling her in but when you add up all those seconds that the crashes cost my you see around 30 seconds to 1 minute lost. I lost the race to first by 29 seconds. Although this was one of my best races I am stilled pissed about my results.


Results for day 1


Day 2 was when I was supposed to redeem my self. I wanted the first really bad and I was ready to jump on the girl who won on day one's wheel and stay there then try to out sprint her if it came to that. Yet again crashing took me out. 


At the start of the race they told us that they had made a change to the course but they didn't say where. All of us where confused and upset that they hadn't made the change earlier so that we would be able to pre-ride it. It ended up being on the back part of the course and not too hard that any one couldn't make the new turn, it was just kinda irritating that they had done that. 


My first lap was really clean up until the first sand pit where I must have put to much pressure on my front wheel and ended up taking a slap to the face with sand. I was sitting second when I screwed up and the sand. I didn't lose any spots but 3rd and 4th caught up and first pulled farther away. 


I wasn't having a good race at all today. I continually crashed or made stupid mistakes. It only took two laps for the lady who got first on the first day to go around me and to end up with 4th place and a cat 4 who had worked her way all the way up to the top ranks of cat 2/3 women to end up on my tail. 


I was so red lined that I ended up pulling my foot out of my pedal multiple times throughout the race costing me multiple seconds. The last time I did that it was in the second sand pit and I lost all of my power right before going into it. I got stopped dead half way through the sand and 4th place plus the cat 4 lady went right around me because they both were able to ride it. They took off and started to pull away while I was left in their dust to try and power through the wind.


In the last section of the course I tried to use my mountain bike skills to my advantage and pull them back in. I could see that I was starting to gain on them but not enough. It was going to take a crash for me to catch them again. Although the crash happened it happened to the wrong lady. The cat 4 women couldn't quite make it up the hill and I got around her still trying to catch third place. 


I ended up finishing out the race in 4th because of how many times I had crashed. I think that because  I was going so hard when I was already tired from the previous day  I couldn't control my bike very well and every time I crashed I was freaking out more and more. 


Results from day 2

We found out that I am still slower than the girls who I am going to be competing against at nationals (both CX national champs) by around 20 seconds per 10 minute lap. The good thing is that my development curve should be a lot better than theirs considering I have not been racing near as long as they have so that ~1min gap in a 30 minute race will only get smaller.  I also know how much harder I can bury myself for 30 minutes at nationals compared to how hard I pushed myself at Louisville considering we went 40+ minutes both days. 


Next race up- Ruts 'n Guts