Tachinno CX Race Report

Yesterday I won a cyclocross (CX) race. I’ve never written a race report from a race I’ve won because, well, I’ve never won a bike race before, of any kind. It’s sort of hard thinking back on the day to write about any details that would make it interesting to read about in this format but since I have friends and family who don’t get to come to races I’ll do my best to recap how it went.

In CX the start is sometimes the most important part of the race. If you’re unfamiliar they stage us all in rows of 8. Every region seems to have a different method of handling staging, but here, they do it by order of registration. I was number 36, which meant I was the 36th guy to register and found myself on the 5th or 6th row. The field was probably over 100 deep so if you’re on the 10th+ row your race, if you’re trying to place, can be over literally at the first corner when 100+ guys are trying to squeeze through, and the further back you are, the more likely you come to a complete stop. Obviously this is bad when the guys on the front are riding as hard as they can while you’re standing still.

With the importance of the start in mind I lined up on the far left of my row. There was about a bike width of room between the edge of the road and the course tape and so my plan was to shoot up that side through the grass as long as it was open and available. Luckily, the guys lined up in front of me were content with staying on the pavement and I was in the 3rd row before some guys were even clipped in. When that lane of grass ran out an opening to my right presented itself and I shot into that gap continuing to move up as far as I could before the choke point. At this race the choke point happened to be a right hand corner at the stop of an uphill drag. I went into that corner in around 10th position. Out of that corner was a slight downhill that went into an off camber left hand u-turn. I was surprised at how many of the guys in front of me were coasting this downhill so as I continued to pedal I was able to move up maybe 2 or 3 more spots. What goes down must come up and so the next section was another uphill drag in which I was able to continue to move up a few more spots until I found myself sitting 3rd wheel. At this point, I was pretty content to sit there and try and feel out those guys to see who was strong and who just sits at their computer to register the second registration opens so they can start on the front. We went through a few more off camber sections and I noticed that there was a small gap, maybe just a second or two forming behind me.

This brought us into the run up where the first guy shouldered his bike while #2 and I pushed ours. The ground wasn’t muddy so you weren’t at a disadvantage just pushing it. Number 1 tried to make himself wide which isn’t a terrible strategy but he wasn’t running fast enough I went to his right to pass him. He sort of blocked me with his front wheel (maybe not intentionally) so I just assertively made some room for myself and ran by. #2 got the top of the run up at the same time I did so I decided it’d probably be better to get at least a little bit of draft so I let him get on first and followed him for the remainder of the lap.

The run up definitely stretched our gap out but only by a few seconds. There were still plenty of guys within striking distance. It was still early in the race so I didn’t want to attack this guy only to have him sit on my wheel and then smoke me at the finish. And, to be honest, it didn’t seem like he was working that hard. About half way through the second lap I looked back and realized we had a gap of probably 10 or so seconds to the chasing group so I figured at this point it was well worth the effort to work with him to increase that gap and then deal with any winning tactics on a later lap. I pulled around him on the straight away beside the pit and said, “We got a gap, let’s go,” and he responded, “Good job.” I was completely puzzled by the response but decided to just keep the pace high and I could ask for clarification later. After this straight there was a sweeping left that led into a flat right handed u-turn. When I got through the u-turn I looked and saw that he wasn’t into the turn yet. I didn’t feel like I’d accelerated but I read that as a sign that he was gassed so I decided to roll the dice and I hit it hard to try and make that gap expand.

Describing 90% of the rest of the race wouldn’t be very interesting. It was a lot of me riding as hard as I could, alone off the front. I was definitely nervous that I went too early as I was in completely unchartered territory, but, I like racing my bike, not riding in packs, so I figured even if this was a fly and die move, at least I’d tried.

Apparently my gap continued to increase over the next four laps, which was good considering that I crashed on an off camber corner on the last lap. Luckily my friend and teammate Thom, who wasn’t racing, was standing right where I crashed. He immediately started with the reassurances of “It’s ok, stay calm, you’ve got a gap.” Then, when I got up and realized my chain was off, again, “Just put the chain on. You’ve got time.” That made a huge difference. I don’t know how long I was on the ground or how long it took me to get going again but it felt like an hour. I’m sure without his reassurance I’d have panicked and taken at least twice as long. Luckily, the gap I’d built it up was more than enough to recover from that crash.

I rode the rest of that lap pretty cautiously, which ironically meant I actually took a lot of the corners much smoother and faster than before. I guess that’s a lesson for another day. About half way through I realized I’d won as long as I kept it upright and so I started to think about the finish line celebration. I’m sure I’m not the only bike racer who has stood in front of a mirror and thrown my arms up in the air until I got one that I thought looked cool. All of that practice was for absolutely nothing because when I did cross the finish line I had no idea what to do. I did post up but it was more of absolute shock that I’d held everyone off and somehow managed to win a bike race. I rode slowly for a bit and then went back to find Jill because if anything, she’s the one who helped me win that race. I spend a lot of time on my bike and she’s always been nothing but supportive, encouraging and motivating.

With the baby due in a week but could decide to show up anytime I haven’t registered for any more races. This means that I’ll be playing them all by ear and registering at the race if the baby is still holding out for a higher signing bonus and incentive package. With registering at the race I’ll likely be starting dead last in the field. That means I’ll probably get stopped behind the choke point and have to chase and fight my way through traffic instead of leading it and picking my own lines through the corners. But, that’s ok, because bike racing is still fun, no matter what, and just because I got 1 result doesn’t deviate from my goals for the season. I can still ride my bike hard regardless of where I start and regardless of where I finish. But finishing first sure is nice!

And a link to some photos my friend Thom took.

Candy Pedal Question

Hey Fellow CX folks, I have a question for you. I switched pedals this year to egg beaters but wasn't having the easiest time getting back into them. I won a set of candy 1s so I switched over to see if they were any better. I like the extra platform they provide and they're easier to find when oxygen is no longer at a maximum level in my brain, but I do have an issue.

Eggbeater:


Candy:



The big plus of eggbeaters or candy pedals are the 4 points of entry. But, I find that's only sometimes the case with my candy pedals. The engagement piece (we'll just call it the eggbeater for ease of visual aid and referencing) spins freely from the platform which in theory should still allow for the 4 points of engagement. However, I find that it doesn't spin free enough not to also spin the platform and what this means is that occasionally I end up with the eggbeater orientated perpendicular to the platform with only 1 piece sticking up through the platform instead of 2, which is what you need to "properly" clip in.

I say properly because you can still get clipped in this way but the amount of float is almost zero and the amount of twist required to disengage is also a lot greater. They still "work" when this happens but it's not ideal.

Visuals of what I'm attempting to describe above.

Good:


Not Good:


So I basically have 2 questions:

1) Is there a fix for this? I've applied lube to the connecting pieces and spun the two pieces independently trying to get them to loosen up more but it doesn't seem to do much good unless I'm physically holding the platform and spinning the eggbeater with my other hand. If I just push the eggbeater portion the platform spins as well.

2) If there's not a fix, does it make sense to somehow (maybe super glue) fix the eggbeater into place so that there are only 2 points of engagement, but they would be perfect points of engagement and provide reliable, consistent performance. While this option would eliminate the benefit of the 4 points of engagement of the crankbrother's systems it wouldn't be any worse than most companies standard 2 point systems.

I'd appreciate any input that anybody has. Thanks!

CX Season Goals

I'm a big believer in the value of goals. I like to have things to strive for and most importantly, remember what I'm working for when the going gets tough. Sometimes, just like the tag line on this blog says, we set completely unrealistic goals and then get frustrated when we fall short.

Three years ago I raced my first cross race. It was ugly. I'll spare you most of the details but I dropped my chain 17 times (yep, I counted) and was lapped twice. It was probably the most fun I'd had on a bike in a long, long time. After that race I immediately made some changes to the bike, not least of course, to prevent the chain from falling off, and raced again the next weekend, and the next weekend, and so on and so forth.

Since that initial year though I've done a terrible job of managing my motivation and fitness through late summer. I always found myself burned out and needing a rest from the road and then all of sudden it was late September and I hadn't done anything to get prepared for CX season. This left me feeling flat and exhausted and not willing to spend my hard earned dollars on entry fees when I could take a beating for free if I really wanted to.

This season I somehow managed to remember that CX season was on the horizon. I was approved the purchase of an aluminum CX bike with working shifters which, in theory, should make a huge difference in my racing. I find myself coming into this season mentally and physically prepared, at least as much as I can be. I'm ready to race and I'm excited to get in as many races as I can given life's commitments (there is a baby set to be born any day now).

So with all of that in mind I decided to write out some goals for CX season. Realistic goals that I think I can stick to but most importantly use to define success. Winning bike races is hard. If 100+ guys show up to an event only 1 guy wins. It doesn't happen very often for a variety of reasons and because of that I'm going to no longer use "win" as a goal. If all goes well, hopefully I can find myself in that hunt and make that happen. You can't control what other people do in a race, but you can keep control of what you do and so my goals are written from that perspective.

Goals:

1) Ride as hard as I can for the entire race.
2) Improve technically.
3) Have fun.
4) Race.

If at the end of every race I can look back and say I did those 4 things, maybe I'll get lucky enough to snag a result or two.

tumblr.

The management team here at TeamLandall has decided that we needed to venture out and utilize another social media tool. Sometimes the writers on staff here have something to write or post but it doesn't quite justify an entire blog entry but it's a bit more than 140 characters. In those instances we've decided to post thinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs to tumblr.

We can be found at teamlandall.tumblr.com.

Right now there isn't a lot posted. In fact there isn't much at all. But there is a video of me going through the barriers at cx practice last night. I've been working pretty hard on this (the barriers, not the posting to social media) so I'm pretty stoked for the upcoming season.

See you out there.

The Community Fund

Yesterday I read this. Which, I suggest you stop reading my post and read that first. But, if you're not going to, because for whatever reason you can't get enough of my grammatical mistakes, I'll give you the reader's digest version.

Guy hangs out in drum shop and starts to notice a trend in the customers. There are guys who only want really specific vintage drums. There are guys who can't play a lick but have a ton of money so they buy expensive drums anyway. Then there's a kid who doesn't look the part but when he plays it's amazing and they ask him what kind of kit he has and he says he picked it up from the ChuckECheese when it was about to close down. It's the kit that the fake animatronic mouse played on. He then points out that now as he likes to hang out in bike shops, he notices the same trends in bike consumers. Then he wraps it up a with a question of how many kids with tons of talent have shown up at a local group ride not looking the part, being ignored, and talent gone to waste?

I guess that's a valid point, except every time I've been on a group ride with a super talented guy, it generally doesn't matter what he's riding. He kicks everybody's teeth in pretty quickly and we stop making fun of his socks.

When I was in high school my baseball coach used to always say, "Son, if you're not a ball player, at least you can look like one." That was his way of correcting all of the sideways hats and un-tucked jerseys. I remember pretty vividly one game when the other team's short stop had on bumble bee stripped socks with his pants rolled up high to his knees. We all made fun of him. Then he went 3-4 with like 4 RBIs and made a couple great defensive plays that left us all in agreement that he could play in a tutu if he wanted.

It's the same in cycling. We all dress the part, mimic the pros, follow the rules and quietly poke fun of the new guy with hairy legs and a pie plate. Well, until he drops your ass on the climb and then you go find out his name as you're still gasping for air.

But just as the author notices a trend in rich guys buying drum kits way more expensive than they need, there are no shortage of rich, fat guys rolling around on $10gs worth of carbon fiber and it's always drove me absolutely insane. I know it shouldn't bother me. In fact, it should make me smile every time I drop one of those guys on their sub 14lb bike on my 19ish lb aluminum CX bike. But, jealousy takes over and one always wants what one doesn't have.

A long time ago I came up with this Title IX-esk system that I thought all bike shops should employee. Every time some slow, rich dude comes in and buys a PRO level bike there should be a sliding scale that actually increases the mark up of that bike based on his ability to actually ride it fast. That extra mark up would then go into a community fund that would help those uber talented poor kids get on bikes that are actually worth riding. When I first proposed this concept to anyone who was unlucky enough to be in ear shot the extra pot of money was to benefit me. But as I've gotten older, wiser and much more philanthropic, I realized I don't need fancy stuff to continue to ride my bikes medium fast. Instead, the talented kids who can't even afford the level of stuff I have should get it so they can go from riding plastic Sora junk to at least Rival or 105.

Obviously this is never going to happen but I think about it every single time I see a rich dude on a [fill in the blank] bike with [highest level component line] rolling on [$3k+ wheels]. But, a boy can dream can't he?

(In the drum scenario there are those guys who want vintage kits and there are those guys in the bike world as well. They ride custom bikes hand made by some buy in a garage or a boutique artists space. While those bikes are often just as expensive as the primary offender I'm speaking of, they are excluded from this discussion as they are riding art slowly, not bikes meant to win the cycling's biggest races.)

Day12 | Stationary Helmets

#30daysofbiking | Day8 | it keeps raining.

#30daysofbiking | Day7 | Fondriest.

#30daysofbiking | Day6 | 2x20s.

#30daysofbiking | Day5 | Indoor Wheelies

#30daysofbiking | Day4 | CX Clinic

#30daysofbiking | Day2 | Rule #80.

#30daysofbiking | Day1

One of the bike people I follow on twitter (@cycloboredom) had a series of posts he titled #30daysofbiking. Then, I found this, http://30daysofbiking.com/ and for some reason that spurred me to take on the challenge as well. I obviously already ride my bike a lot but not necessarily every single day. I suspect this will on occasion pose a challenge or two but we'll see what happens. We all know I don't like to lose, not that this is really something that can be won, but you know what I mean. The rule seems to be pretty lax. All you have to do is ride. Doesn't have to be long or to get somewhere. Their site says it can just be around the block. There may be days where I ride up the alley and back because that's all that fits in. There will be other days where I ride 60+ miles (it is cx season after all) and there will be days when I race. Either way, I'm going to ride my bike everyday for 30 days. It's pretty convenient that I'm starting on 9/1 since there are 30 days in the month of September. I'll try and post a photo everyday. If I weren't so attached to TeamLandall I'd start a flickr feed for this, but I like this site, so we'll use it.

Here's day 1.