Race Report. Kind of

On Saturday I lined up for my first Cross race. My Fondriest is technically a cross bike even though it's never been ridden by me for that purpose. So, to try and remedy this problem on Friday I picked up a set of insanely cheap cross tires and decided we'd give this cross thing a shot.

It should be noted that I switched this bike down to a single chain ring in the front a long time ago for commuting purposes. This is generally a great set up for Cross racing as a lot of people ride a single ring in the front. However, most of them have bashgaurds (replaces the big ring and keeps the chain from jumping off in that direction) and chain keepers (basically keeps the chain from bouncing off to the inside). I of course had neither and would soon become the point of much comedy, frustration and a general lack of having no idea how I'd actually do in one of these races.

After couple of laps for warming up and dropping the chain about 3 times it was time to line up for the start. Because I was running the flat bars that I have on it for commuting I started closer to the back. I figured my base fitness could help me work my way up through the field and I'd stay out of the way of people who actually knew what they were doing.

The race started really slow and as we went over the first set of rough terrain my chain dropped. I jumped off, at least 15 guys rode past me as I was putting it back on, I "gracefully" got back on and chased to get back in that group. As soon as I made contact my chain dropped again. This time, since the guys didn't have to pass me they were already in front they just rode away. Chasing till I had them about two hairpin turns away and the chain dropped. Now they were basically out of touch when I got the chain back on.

I'll save you the details of every chain drop but it dropped 5 times on the first lap and 17 times total for the race. All was not lost though as I did manage to pull in two fat guys and pass them. Follow this link to the results page, look at the bottom of the Cat C Men and notice my insanely butchered name. I actually won't blame that on the race people, I do write like I'm 5. The name directly below me, Dan White, is my buddy that I convinced to do the race. He finished way ahead of me and actually didn't get lapped by the leaders so they screwed his results up. He was not one of the fat guys that I eventually caught and passed.

http://www.pilarcitos.com/results/CrossResults/2008/SierraPoint.html#Cat%20C%20men

I have a picture that my friend Jill took but I was too lazy to put it onto my computer. Maybe later.

Now I basically have to know how I'd do if I wasn't spending the entire race putting a chain back on. I have ordered all of the stuff necessary to put the bike in an actual cross set up. Let's hope I don't suck under real conditions.