Cyclocross - Santa Rosa Monkey Cross #1 report

[gnat23]

Monkey Cross #1 - Doyle Park

Chance of rain: 70%. Chance of cyclocross race: 100%!

I like the races put on by Bike Monkey. They're friendly, well organized, fun, and a little less aggro than my normal series. The timing lets me sleep in a little later. Also, they have a bona fide women's singlespeed category, so I gotta represent.

In that category, there were four of us; two on mountain bikes, two on crossbikes. It's an "open" category, so it's hard to know whether your competitors typically race As or if this is their first race ever. Not until the whistle blows do you get to size things up appropriately. Even then, we were alongside the women's Cs, so occasionally it was worth checking a girl's back wheel to see if you had to panic or not.

The course was mostly flat, which was well enough! Lots of wide 180s, S-bends, a few asphalt straights aways (*vroom*), a curb to hop, and four barriers unevenly spaced in a turn which made timing a little funky and fun. Added to this were two whoop-de-doos down towards the river and back up: one easier but sandy, the other loose with bark and mud and rather disastrously steep. Discovering that I couldn't ride the second one seemed bad at first, but trying advice from Coach Lorri last year proved that I was much faster at running this entire thing, including the sandy bits. The only drawback was that by lap 5 I was having issues clipping back into my SPDs; another sales pitch for Egg Beater pedals echoed in my head. The rain started to drip down about halfway through my race, turning grass into grooved mud, making things slick, and splattering my new fishnet legwarmers. My bike handled well enough, tho I admittedly missed my tubulars and nice brakes!

The real kicker, tho, was how often I passed people. I took out two of the singlespeed girls pretty early, and I was under the delusion that I was in the lead -- right up until that fourth woman I lost track of screamed up behind me near the end and zipped around me. Oops, lapped! That's ok, I was a VERY solid 2nd, but still kept the gas on for the joy of wiggling around the geared bikes. It wasn't until I saw the results that showed that I had myself lapped the other two single speed racers plus maybe half the regular C field. Woah!

And I got me a medal and then a beer. Yay!





More pics here, including when it got really REALLY muddy later on that day!



-- gnat!

[jdubble]

awesome! someday i'll write a report of one of my races. but i can never remember enough details afterwards due to oxygen deprivation we had crazy crazy rain and wind and mud today in portland though. much laundry to be done tonight!

[gnat23]

Most of the course details I try to get during the warmup laps.

During the race, I can't even remember where neutral support is, so...

-- gnat!

[redrhodie]

Podium! Great job! I will continue my 'cross career vicariously through your reports. You make it sound so fun, but I'm too chicken.

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, 2nd place rocks! Congrats! Love your outfit, too!

[jdubble]

Most of the course details I try to get during the warmup laps.

During the race, I can't even remember where neutral support is, so...

-- gnat!

warmup laps. i think i've done one of those, once. i usually have the small monkeys with me, so i'm lucky if i get to warm up by doing a few loops around the parking lot or 15 minutes on the trainer. Sometimes it's just nervouse pacing from the tent to the portapotty!

but i once again successfully placed right smack dab in the middle of the muddy pack yesterday - 40 out of 80 beginner women at Cross Crusade #4 finishing is winning for me this year!

i'm gonna pay more attention next time though, and try to write up a report afterwards. you've inspired me!



(i'm 2nd from the right)

[maillotpois]

Great report - well done!

[gnat23]

AWESOME pic, jdubble! I've heard those Cross Crusade races are absolutely *legendary*, I'd really like to take a field trip up sometime and try one!

Might head up for Cross Nationals just to check THAT out, at least! Will ring cowbell very vigorously.

-- gnat!

[SheFly]

Yay, Gnat! What were you riding for a SS? I have a Kona SS cross bike that I love, and I raced it twice last season. Didn't hurt much against the geared girls, except in the final sprint .

We have a hard enough time convincing promoters here to have a spearate women's masters field, never mind a SS category!

Nice job.

SheFly

[OakLeaf]

Woot woot! Way to go gnat and jdub! You both rock.

[jdubble]

AWESOME pic, jdubble! I've heard those Cross Crusade races are absolutely *legendary*, I'd really like to take a field trip up sometime and try one!

Might head up for Cross Nationals just to check THAT out, at least! Will ring cowbell very vigorously.

-- gnat!

The Crusade races are amazingly fun and HUGE. Mac rode Master C 35+ and there were like 215 people in his field this weekend. You should definitely field trip up here. I'd like to field trip down your way for the race in GGP next month! I wish I'd known about that when I lived 2 blocks away from GGP 5 years ago. Of course that was well before CX was even on my radar.

I think we're planning on heading to Bend for Nationals too - let me know if you do come up and we can ring cowbells and eat frites together

[gnat23]

Yay, Gnat! What were you riding for a SS? I have a Kona SS cross bike that I love, and I raced it twice last season. Didn't hurt much against the geared girls, except in the final sprint .

We have a hard enough time convincing promoters here to have a spearate women's masters field, never mind a SS category!

I rock a Specialized Tricross (singlecross) with a pink BMX chain and a sticker that says "If you ride a single speed and nobody sees you, is it still cool?"

My first series of races I took it too were pretty hilly and didn't have a women's singlespeed category, so I started with the geared girls and finished DFL a bunch of times. The other option was to race with the Men's SS B's, but, you know, that also hurts the self-esteem. Now I have another crossbike (with gears!) so I can kick booties on even turf.

Every time a race *does* have a women's SS category, I gotta represent to encourage it to keep going. I wish I could do both geared and SS races, but typically they're at the same time as the other women's races.

We had a nice long conversation, the other SS women and me, about whether to gear for the climbs and spin out on the flats, or to gear for the flats and run the climbs.

-- gnat!