Cross is Coming... Lionheart CX Race Report

It's the night before the first Cross race in the OVCX championship and I know I've not prepared the way I had planned.  A sinus infection, antibiotics and a hectic work & social schedule combined to limit the time I have spent on the bike ahead of the first race.

However, not deterred by this and in a vain attempt to over compensate, I had a two race Sunday last weekend.  In the morning, I joined Quaff ON! team mates Jane Moisica and Danny Fisher at Tri32 Indy, an Olympic distance triathlon, where we had been challenged by two teams representing Tatum's Bags of Fun.  In the afternoon I took part in Lionheart CX, a non-OVCX cross race organized as a fundraiser for the Lionheart youth development program in Cincinnati.

Lionheart CX - Men's cat 1/2/3 Race - p20 overall; p9 35+ masters - Strava Data (partial)

This was a pre-season Cyclocross race and a great chance to refresh in my mind everything about racing and to check out my new Trek Boone cross bike in a real race ahead of the OVCX championship.

We drove to Cincinnati as a family and I was dropped off at the race venue, Kings CX, with my two bikes and race kit whilst they all went to Ikea - on the drive over, I realized I hadn't picked up my helmet so the first job after registration was to find someone that could lend me one for my race... not an auspicious start.  Fortunately, the friendly faces of Ty and Lilly Peck were there and Lilly loaned me her helmet so I was good to race!

Last season a consistent weakness was my starts and I'd been practicing them at home - I checked out the start and found a similar stretch of grass and made a couple of practice runs, after the Time Trial in the morning, my legs definitely felt heavy but I was pleased that I still felt pretty strong.

I was staged 7th on the front row of 9 racers with a total field of about 40, at the whistle I buried it with my head down and was surprised to see only one person ahead of me, Spencer Petrov who is really in a class of his own.  This was shortly followed by arriving at the first corner a lot faster than any of my practice laps, my bike handling skills got an abrupt wake up as Spencer proceeded to ride away from the rest of us.

Over the first lap, 2 or 3 people came past me including John Gatch who had only just finished racing the Masters race - this was a bit of a relief as I could follow some lines from more experienced racers.  I settled into about 5th place feeling pretty comfortable with the effort to hold this position, but as we entered a right hand bend on the 3rd lap I found myself suddenly on the floor rolling with my bike bouncing beside me, I had no idea what had happened.  When I got back to my feet, the wheels on my bike wouldn't rotate and I realized that both front and rear tires had rolled off the rim, since it wouldn't roll I had to shoulder it for the long run to the pits for my spare bike.  We hadn't long passed the pits so I had just about a half a lap, 0.7 miles, to run with my bike, people continually passing me - most offered some encouragement for my predicament.  When I reached the pit, Ty Peck already had my spare bike (Trek Crocket)  ready for a fast hand over and I was able to quickly jump on and start chasing back into the race.  There was no way I was going to make it to the front again, so this was now a hard training effort - I rode the sand pit every lap although it was faster to run it.  As a new rider became visible ahead of me, I focused on chasing them down & passing as quickly as I could.

In the end I finished 20th overall and 9th in the 40+ Masters category which was still satisfying since I'd been almost dead last after the tires came off.

After the race I was grateful for the advice of John Gatch, long time cyclocrosser who recommends re-gluing tires each season - the tires that failed were glued last year and when I looked at the rims it was clear that a season of cross with repeated cleaning & cold weather had made the glue brittle where it failed.

It was good to have tested everything about racing cross before the championship races started I'd learned the following:

• Remember your helmet!
• Check out the first corners at full-on race speed
• Re-glue tires before the season starts

Here's my race diary notes from the event:

Lionheart CX - Sun 07-Sept-2014 - dry hard pack, dusty, some wind

A bike - Boone
Tufo Flexus Primus 25psi F&R - glued Sept 2013
Last years wheels
PDM-540 pedals worked well
Really powerful brakes
Di2 worked well

B bike - Crockett
Tufo dry plus 30psi F&R - glued 06-Sept-2014
New China wheels
Left pedal hard to enter
Brakes not great

Race - Call up #7 - front row (grid x 9)

Forgot helmet, Lilly loaned me gets. Ty Peck, Lilly and her mum helped me out with somewhere to hang out whilst Clare went to Ikea.
Great start 2nd behind Spencer Petrov
Dropped to 5th by time I wrecked - Petrov - ?? - Freddie Rose - John Gatch
Wind picked up from the camels towards the club house
Wrecked 2.5 laps
Rode 4 laps on B bike
Garmin didn't work all the time
LH pedal on B bike needs to be loser