2007 Nov 4 Pilarcitos CX #3, McClaren Park 35+ B

CTL: 110
TSB: 15
Teammates: Mikey S

Got lucky and found a parking spot about fifty yards from the start line/reg tent, with the drawback that ten yards of that was vertical up a staircase. One could see the twenty foot runup from the start, but then Juan said it went up from there! When we did our warmup lap was able to see this first hand, and ride everything except the barriers. Part of it was it's not so technical if you go slow and I had 34/28 gearing and the lower profile Michelin Mud 2's. Put the pressure at 40 PSI and felt about right. Maybe should have used the mountain bike or a smaller small ring, the course was like a minature mountain bike course, considering the amount of elevation change and singletrack per lap. The only flat sections were the pavement/sidewalk used for the 300 meters or so of the finish.

Happily at the start, they made the 45's who started behind us get behind us! On the first lap, it was pretty congested so when I biffed the first little descent and my front wheel washed out it gave me and the guys behind me had a good laugh so I know we weren't trying that hard if we could do that. The first three laps I felt pretty good on the short, sharp climbs, the longest was only about thirty seconds, but they came one after another after another. At the end of this was a long descent, where for some reason I was faster than a lot of bigger people, but they killed me on the technical spots. Managed to catch and pass Juan at some point. Still had a few problems unclipping from the right shoe when pulling up hard so I guess there is probably a worn out part in my four year old Eggbeaters, will have to bite the bullet and get a new pair.

In the middle of the fourth lap I was not feeling that great at all, and I biffed the same little descent again, a combination of not clipping in and too much speed, but this time I fell and lost five spots. This caused my computer to lose the connection to the wiring harness so no data for the last three laps. The little hills that did not seem so bad early in the race, those were feeling like mountains now. Curt was there supporting his son and yelling for me and Juan so I got a sort of time check on Juan gaining on me every lap. Curt and Jonathon and Matt kept yelling for me so I had to at least put in a good effort for them. One of the last times up that hill there was a saddle from some poor fellow (turned out to be Joe Fabris who passed me easily on a slippery corner earlier in the race) in the middle of the track so I leaned over and threw it to a spectator.


When we go the two laps to go card we shortly afterwards heard the bell so Juan and I were going to get lapped. We got caught at the top of the big descent. I was able to shadow Juan to the pavement and started my last effort from the beginning of the pavement and managed to catch a rider in our group and almost unlapped myself from the second place rider, but since I wasn't sure if he was in first place at this point, did not pass him because I don't think I could have done another lap.

Found a former coworker who owned a beautiful house above the park, they said they would let me park there next time!

Time: 28:44
Pnormalized: 194
Paverage: 142
Heartrate: 179
Cadence: 79
Speed: 15.8 kph

42nd/field 55