USGP - Planet Bike Cup

Madison, WI

4 races and a revelation
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Been looking forward to this weekend for several months. Doubly so since I found out that my favorite CX racer ever, Erwin Vervecken, was coming along to race.

Drove up to Madison on Friday, booked into the super 8 with every other cheapass CX racer, went to collect my numbers and check out the presentation, then hit up State St in search of pizza. Paisan’s did the trick, so good that we ordered a second one.

Dawn Saturday and woke up feeling pretty off. Forced some breakfast into me that wasn’t really worth it – got my stuff together with very little enthusiasm and headed for the course. There had been some significant rain the previous afternoon, but the course was fairly well drained – only a very moderate amount of mud.

Nice open start to a gradual right hander to a right hairpin and a gradual bend leading to the double barriers – no real bottleneck for the first km or so; that’s fairly typical for races with large numbers. Then a few muddy off camber turns, couple of bits of twisty stuff through the trees, a few heavy straight stretches with plenty of passing opportunities, couple of pavement hairpins into an extended wood section with tricky, tight off camber corners, up a hill into a right hand turn and a sharp left to the hillside strangler, steep hill with a set of four railroad ties, tricky variable radius off camber curves to the start/finish straight.

There were 4 swooping off-camber sections that were problematic in the mud, stay high and risk sliding off, go low and you might get stuck in a rut or not have the traction to get back up.

First practice lap with about 35 psi in the tires I was bouncing around way too much, 2nd lap I bled down to something below 30 psi and it was night and day. Hooking up well and smooth as buttah on the straights. Almost riding on the rims, but with only one pavement section that wasn’t a problem. Recently converting to tubeless was definitely a help – anyone who ran tubulars certainly had an advantage.

So, it was an open course, not very technical, fast but heavy going in parts. Keeping it upright would be important.

Can’t fault the organization anywhere. Call ups by order of registration, announcers keeping it exciting, even for the 4s race, starting grid, plentiful bike washes (very much appreciated), pits, more officials than you could shake a disgruntled bike racer fist at; it was all very pro.

I line up in the third row with no idea how I was going to do. We receive our instructions – no kicking, gouging within eyeshot of small children etc. - and we’re off! I don’t feel like I’m going fast but a gap opens up in front and I shoot through, then another one, shoot through that as well, round the corner, losing and gaining places then the whole field brakes for the hairpin and we simultaneously fishtail skid 30 metres – everyone keep it upright and we get round that ok, then the next turn and the slight uphill to the barriers.

By the first turn I was hit with that curious taste of mercury, blood and ashes in the mouth that one usually gets midway through the last lap of the hardest race of the year. By the second turn I had a rasping dry throat, by the third I was overheated, by the fourth nearly shivering. Something was not right. Nothing to do but maintain my position as best I could and hope that my body would recover. It never did, I gradually felt worse but somehow my legs kept turning. I lost a few places here and there, guys would bury themselves to pass me, then blow up and I’d pass them at my cruising speed. Can’t recall catching many people but the attrition rate was pretty high and crashes lost folks lots of time. I only made one serious mistake, trying to ride the double off camber on the high side and sliding out, losing five positions that took me a lap to get back. I also messed up the entrance to the hillside strangler on each of the first four laps, either botching my dismount or losing my footing on the ultra-slippy steps and sending the bike under the fencing, but didn’t lose any placings. Otherwise, I took the corners pretty conservatively, using the outrigger to rail some of the fast corners and negotiating my way through the off cambers and ruts without doing anything stupid. One of my favorite things about cross is the way lines can change each lap and you have to keep your wits about you to keep aware of this. With the course rapidly drying, many corners became deeply rutted and sketchy, while previously unnegotiable parts became suddenly rideable. The tracks in the straightaways also became quite loamy and one was faster to just ride in the grass to the side. Paying attention to this helped me quite a lot.

There was a group of 6 or 7 a few turns ahead of me that I came close to catching on the last lap, but never quite made it. The last time up the hill I was flawless, but a guy who I had caught and presumed to be a lapped rider produced an astonishing running burst to pass and gap me with enough space to make it over the finish before I could catch him again. Lesson learned; presume nothing.

That was it. I came home pretty dissatisfied and with a serious side stitch. Astonishingly, I was placed comfortably in the top 20 of 90 starters. I didn’t deserve it.

With an hour to kill, I chugged down a liter of powerade in one go, chilled for a bit, trying to take it all in, grabbed the singlespeed and headed for the line for more of the same. No tubeless on this setup, but I still reduced pressure to close to riding on the rims and hoped that the rapidly drying course would compensate for the lack of grip on my worn rear tire. SS is a lot of fun and features riders of cat 1-5 abilities. We lined up behind the 2/3 field and witnessed the most spectacular starting crash I’ve ever seen. Bodies flying everywhere, must have been about thirty bikes piled up. A couple of bike fatalities but no serious personal injuries.

I did what I could. Didn’t slack, kept it upright the whole race with no notable mistakes, enjoyed the plentiful rear wheel slides that made cornering that much quicker, and didn’t come last. A couple of people got away from me that wouldn’t have if I were fresh, 42*18 gear worked great, 42*17 would have been perfect with fresh legs. It was a lot of fun catching about two dozen of the 90 or so Cat 2/3 racers and just practicing my cornering and dialing in the course. Amazing what grades you can get up when you have no choice.

With two laps to go I felt a strange pain in my lower quads, one I normally don’t get. I looked down and, sure enough, my saddle had started slipping. I spent most of the rest of the race just hammering out of the saddle and had a revelation – I was going faster. Hurt like hell, but I was getting up to speed way quicker out of every corner and actually catching people much sooner than I expected. And managing to recover in the coasting sections as well. I had forgotten the intensity of cross and had been ignoring my rules: If you're in your happy place, downshift and go harder. There's plenty of time for recovery later.

Despite feeling well out of sorts, I simply hadn't been going hard enough. My lollygagging had thrown away a top 10 on a course that really suited me.

I'll keep Sunday brief. Mrs F's birthday. Same swanky restaurant as Erwin and the UCI bigwigs (thanks Chris from Team Magnus). I had the wild boar, Erwin had the lamb chops. Too much rich food. Managed to digest it but not breakfast the next morning. I was still wiping the barf off my bars when the whistle went.

Second row start this time. Lungs actually felt great,, I was ready to apply my newly refound Go Harder philosophy, but the legs had nothing; empty. Went backwards from the start, the Pegasus guy who took the holeshot went down on the first hairpin and the field compressed. Found a nice inside line but the fool behind me decided to muscle in to the minuscule inside space as well and took both of us out. My own fault for even leaving a chink of light there and not protecting it better. Lost 10 places there, a few more on the next corner and a few more coming to the barriers. Simply couldn't respond, cruising speed was fine, I could even up the pace a bit here and there but that top end was AWOL. Saturday's exertions sure sapped the legs.

The course was only a little changed from the previous day, a bit faster, only slightly muddy from the dew but drying up fast, a few more twisty bits with a couple of the off-cambers made easier. Instead of the railroad ties, we now rode up stranglers hill, descended into a steep hairpin and rode up again. Without practise, I wasn't even going to attempt it so I dismounted at the top, ran down, made the tight turn and ran up again. I passed two people on the first lap by doing this and lost no places or time on any lap. Amazingly, most people rode the whole thing but I didn't trust my legs or the slippery turn at the bottom. I also avoided that extra effort and feel that I was able to catch a good few later who fatigued from riding this section.

The first two laps consisted of me going backwards, lap 3 I stabilized my position, laps 4 and 5 I pulled a couple of baller moves on tired groups of riders and caught large numbers. Crossed the finish line 15 places lower than Saturday - could and should have been a lot worse.

The singlespeed race was fun. I was gapped and in last place by the first bend, nothing in the legs whatsoever and really had to dig deep not to DFL. We caught the tail of the 2/3 race stalled on the first off-camber section and I was looking forward to catching loads more 2/3s like Saturday, but it never happened. They just rode away from me. My only goal now was not to get lapped. Coming to the bell lap I thought I had plenty of time between me and the 2/3 leader but I wasted too much time goofing off on the hill with the Pegasus riders and then bobbled badly on the last rutted off-camber. The leader caught me coming into the finishing straight and I was pulled. Bit of a bummer but that's how it goes.

Anyway, an enjoyable weekend. I learned a lot and remembered a lot. Funny how the lungs let you down one day and the legs the next. I'm due a breakthrough result sometime this season. My results in the cat 4 were better than I deserved, considering how I raced so badly, so I must be doing something right. I need to keep training and ensure that I come to the races well-prepared in mind and body. Someday it'll happen - hopefully, I didn't throw away this year's chance already.