29 October 2006

Surf City Cyclocross #2 Watsonville, 35+B

Teammates: Mike S, JD in the C's

CTL is settling in at about 115 and FTP is going down from road season highs.

The venue was double booked so there were some last minute course updates, I really liked the course (as much as one can like suffering...), as it was a change from prior years with a little bit of everything, lots of pedaling opportunities and only one set of barriers, the course providing several natural dismount opportunities, and avoided the stables. Went with the bike with 42mm tires as I have been too lazy to put racing tires on the bike with thin tires.

Weather was cool and slightly overcast, with ground still dry. If it had rained, our laps would have been twenty five to fifty percent longer with all the off road hardpack trails.

At the start I lined up behind Morgan and at the whistle he came to a complete stop after only about fifteen yards. This puzzled me, I saw him afterwards and he showed me that his fork steerer had sheared off right at the stem. Good thing we were going slow. Anyways, found myself even closer to the back and saw lots of folks way ahead of me that I should be near at the end based on this years races so had my work cut out.

After one lap my time was about 9:00 flat and Casey and Tom had set out the lap cards saying two to go already! Think I set my sights too low as I get behind people and get comfortable there instead of trying to pass them to get to the people in front of them, I was with one group of folks and we almost caught the next group. I decided to not pull again at one point because I thought we were going to catch but that was a mistake as they pulled away for good at a technical section and I had to brake hard for the folks in front of me. That's what I get for being too lazy. On the last lap I could see the mountain bike guy who was going back and forth with me for the last three races but could not pull him back, also the C leaders caught me in the last kilometer so I had to try to not interfere with their race as well.

Finished two minutes plus back of the winner which I guess is not so bad but only beat ten people. One more race before I have to go out of town for a mid season break so maybe I will try a different strategy at McLaren Park.

21st/32

T: 27:02
S: 22.3
C: 79
PAvg: 186
PNorm: 214

Surf City Cyclocross #2 Watsonville 35+ B

2 comments:

X Bunny said...

i can look at your graph and totally see where you are on the course at that moment

i guess i went around it too many times

Steven Woo said...

Find myself replaying events in my head, too, thinking I could have done this or that better. Next time...