Seattle CX #3 - Silver Lake

For the second time this season, we made the trip to Silver Lake in Everett, this time for the 3rd round of the Seattle Cyclocross series. Despite some crazy weather on Saturday, Sunday was relatively mild with only a little chill to alter the otherwise sunny Autumn day.
Since we had already raced at Silver Lake this year in the MFG cyclocross series, the Seattle CX team really upped the ante and modified the course to feature some additional single-track sections to pair with the sand and hills. The initial runs through the course showed that it would definitely be a lot of climbing, but I did feel like things were running well.

 As we lined up, I was surprised to actually be part of the call-up (even if it was at the end). Just goes to show that my continued efforts are paying off. I had a decent start and managed to stay with the lead group until we hit the first hill, when the leaders split the group and turned up the gas. From then on, it was about metering out the gas and moving forward as possible through the field.
At the top of the first climb, we turned around the small concrete building at the top of the park before shooting into some single-track corners and a small uphill before cutting to a set of barriers. After the barrier it was full gas before flying down a hill and into a tight corner before the first blast across the sand. Climbing up through the hill on the other side of the course, we then hit another section of single-track before hitting the sand for the second, longer stretch. At the end of the sand straight, there was a choppy sand corner before another section of hills and some challenging off-camber descending before flying to the start-finish again.
After just the first lap, the challenging course began taking casualties in the form of mechanical troubles. Although, unlike the first time through (when Silver Lake took 11 riders out of the race), many racers were able to get going again and only 2 were DNF'd from the course. I continued my run of clean races, and made my way past racers who suffered from the course.

At the end of the race, I managed to finish a very nice 17th of the 25 starters. I did unfortunately get passed by the 4 leaders of the race, so I finished a lap down, however I did manage to finish well and even passed a rider on the last lap.
Seattle Cyclocross will resume at Sprinkler Park in two weeks, but this coming weekend will be the big series-finale of the MFG series at my local Woodland Park course. It should be a great race, so it is time to really gear up and finish that series with a big result.
See you out there!

MFG 2013 #5 - SCCA/Starbucks GP at Marymoor Velodrome

Boom, and I am back! After my recent re-fit, I am definitely putting down the power and showing the form I have been missing this season.
SCCA/Starbucks GP is typically toward the tail of the MFG series, and was the 5th race this year. Unlike when we race Marymoor for Starcrossed (which is generally warm and dusty), the GP is generally a more Cross-like affair with mud and cold. This year did not disappoint, with the day starting in rain. By the afternoon it had stopped raining and the afternoon races were held across a tacky mud track, with only a few sections containing the slicker mud from the morning. It was a cool fall day, but as the sun came out, it was definitely a nice day for Cross. A few pre-race laps showed that everything was running well, and I was ready to hit the course at full-speed.

 The Elite field lined up for our race a bit delayed. This was due to course modifications made before the Elite women (they modified a smaller chicane into a much more abrupt chicane for increased challenge). On the gun, we shot down the front straight and along the paved trail before a turn onto gravel and then into the first pass of the pits across the bumpy grass. We then rolled around the front and then up a short hill with barriers before a off-camber downhill (I am sure this was rougher in the morning while it was more slick). It was then a short blast into the infield and along another stretch of bumpy grass.

While we continued to navigate the infield, I continued to move forward through the competitors. We then shot out to the back half of the course and into a short hill and decent before hitting the harder chicane. After the chicane it was straight into a long off-camber as we rode along the side of the hill and into the the second pass of the pits. Along the back road, it was high-speed and full-gas before a few short hill corners and then into the front again.

 I was quite happy with how the course was riding and how I racing as well. The newly revised fitment on the bike was definitely working, as I was able to efficiently power along and keep the bike tracking where I needed it. As I mentioned above, the course had dried out and provided excellent hook-up for the tires. This resulted in high speeds and made for exciting racing as we were constantly battling each other for placing.
As the race wore on, the course began to take its toll on the racers. A younger racer suffered a loose crank bolt and soon I saw him abandon as he only had one crank arm. Other riders ran out of gas or had wipe-outs in the corners. On the last lap a rider from Rock Lobster managed to blow his chain and had to run in the rest of the lap to finish the race.

As I shot into the finish, I raced in with a Masters racer and ended up 21st of 41 starters of the Elite race. Definitely a pick up from the last few races, and a good sign of the progress I have been working on. Now it is time to carry this momentum for the rest of the season and hit up Silver Lake this weekend for Seattle CX #3. See you out there, and keep on racing!

Thanks again Woodinville Bicycle for the great photos.

MFG 2013 #4 at Magnuson Park

  Last weekend was round 4 of the 2013 MFG Cyclocross series. Weather has been a bit light the past few days, so it going to be a pretty dry course, and Magnuson park tends to be a fast course with long straights separating the locations of the park. After great warm-up work this week, I was feeling good (and winning here last year as a Cat 3 didn't hurt either) and excited for the race. A short lap of the course showed that it was definitely running fast, with the majority of the track being dirt.

 When they called us up, the field was definitely large - 44 racers starting in the 1-2 field. Since I still have not had a good finish this year, I ended up in the 3rd/4th row. On the whistle we hit the gas and flew up toward the start/finish and onto the first lap. Hitting the first corner, I squeezed past a few racers, making up ground as possible. We kept up the pace through the entirety of the front section of grass corners and through the barriers. At this point we were back onto pavement and heading out to the tennis courts at full speed. A few quick corners later and we were navigating a series of short hill corners and then jumped onto the gravel. After a short stretch on the gravel, the road pitched upward for the tough hill section of the course. At this point, the leaders had raced off ahead and I was battling with the back of the field, making up places where I could. At the top of the hill, you then plunged back down the other side and into a 180-degree corner before shooting back to the finish-line.

  After a few laps, I was effectively fighting with the few others hanging on at the back of the field. Despite the good lead-in to the event, I just felt out of gas after the first lap. I continued putting down the power as I could, and eventually fell into a good rhythm on the course. As I started the final lap, I was still ahead of the leaders, so I finally finished a race in the same lap this year. Not the result I was hoping for, but still a sign of progress. I ended up finishing in 34th of the 44 starters. Again, not great (no call-up yet...), but a decent finish.

  Since the race, I have had my bike re-fit and definitely feel like I am able to put down the power without feeling out of juice. Now it is time to get settled in and ready for the next MFG race at Marymoor park. Lets see how things go; it sure would be fun to finally get some good races done this season.

Seattle Cyclocross #2 - Tall Chief Golf Course

This past weekend was the second event of the Seattle Cyclocross series for 2013, hosted at a new venue in Carnation - the Tall Chief Golf Course. This golf course has been closed down for over a year, but somehow the SCX crew managed to get it opened up as a cross venue. They spent a good amount of time cutting out a course, and it definitely worked out! The course was very large and covered some climbing, off-camber mud sections, steep hills up and down, a lot of slow mud and deep mud too. Bikes were coming in with large chunks of mud and grass, and many racers were going to be making trips to the LBS this week to fix broken parts as a result.

 Our race started about 30 minutes late, to give you an idea at how the racers were trickling in. As with every race so far this year, I was starting in the third row, so it definitely is important to move up quickly! When the bell rang, we hit the gas. Despite having only a moderate jump off the line, I was able to pick a very clear line into the first corner and moved up into the tail of the lead group. As we made the second corner and into the off-camber straight section, I continued to hold my spot. We hit the big downhill and everyone braced to make the corner at the bottom. I cut through the mud and started gassing it up the short gravel climb to continue holding with the leaders.
At this point we flew into the front stretch of the course - a series of straightaways and looping corners in a variety of bumpy grass and slow-n-tacky mud. This was the section of the course that really killed your legs, as it was very difficult to keep up momentum in this mud. This is where the elastic finally snapped and we who were holding onto the leaders' tails were ejected. I continued to push along, trying to catch back on, but realizing I would be spending the rest of the racing doing so.

 Hitting the mud in front of the pit, I jumped aside and started running while I watched others struggle through the deep mud. Once you reached the other side, it was back on the bike and full-power to get up a short muddy hill before looping back for a second shorter hill and then shooting out onto a nice hard path for a minute. The final part of the course was a loop through the grass and then into another mud field. This field was far more rideable, but I still felt I was faster dismounting and running the last half, gaining ground on some of the riders who persisted in riding the entire thing. Once you were through the mud, a short trip over the barriers and then you were right back to the starting stretch and hitting the gas again.

In the end, I had a decent race, ending up 17th of 25 starters. Definitely showing some form improvement again, so I am looking forward to another week of build-up before MFG's Magnusson Park race next weekend - an event I have always done well at and won as a Cat 3 last year. As for the new course? Well, it is definitely a challenging set-up, but I think that it was a well designed course. If we race here again next year, I think they will have things changed a little, but overall it was a great challenge to the riders and a good way to spend the day at the races.

Double Trouble - Cascade CX at Bellingham BMX & MFG #3 at Silver Lake

Whew - busy weekend with the travel up to Bellingham for Cacade Cyclocross at the Bellingham BMX park for Saturday and then back down to Everett for the MFG race at Silver Lake. Coming off my rest week, I wasn't sure how things would go, but getting experience of the 1/2 races is always helpful. I also figured that seeing a whole new course would be a fun little experience.

We drove up to Bellingham on Friday to make sure that I was well-rested and ready for the race on Saturday. The Bellingham BMX park is part of a larger chunk of land, so the owners have decided to build a permanent Cyclocross course on the premises; a very cool idea, even if it is a bit of a journey to get up there. The layout was pretty interesting with a mix of tight and cambered corners, a few sections through the woods, and some deeper sections for mud. Mud would be the key word though, since they had just built the course a few weeks ago, just in time for the big rains we have been having. Even though the run-in to the race had been dry, the course still featured ankle-deep mud pits with ranges from thinner soup to sticky peanut-butter, just to keep things grueling.

We lined up in front of the Masters and the Singlespeed fields, under an unseasonably warm 70 degree day. When the bell rang, I managed a good start and was in the front group as some of the field was caught in the first corners and the first sections of mud. I was running full-gas for the first lap, but slowly lost contact with the leaders as we hit the longer mud sections and the run-up into the woods. I did my best to navigate the next few laps and hold position as best as possible. A few times I ended up getting stuck coming into tricky sections behind the slower single-speed riders, losing time before finally getting a passing line.

With a few laps to go, the leaders had caught me. I jumped onto their wheels and was able to chase their lines for awhile, learning some of the faster lines they had chosen. At this point, it was just about surviving for the next few laps, as other riders were running out of steam or succumbing to mechanical issues. As I approached the final line, I hit the gas and was very happy to be finished. Final position was 12th of the 21 starters, so not too bad, however with only 15 of us finishing the entire race, I was definitely toward the back.

After the race was an important clean-up procedure; washing off pounds of mud from the bike and myself (luckily the boat-shop right next to our parking spot had a hose they let me use; it definitely saved a lot of time compared to our small hand-pump sprayer!). I needed to make sure everything was going to be ready for the race on Sunday since I wouldn't be home beforehand. With all that work finished, it was time for a welcome rest for the night!

The morning dawned with another sunny day, although luckily a little cooler. After getting all the gear packed up, we were on the road back down to Everett and out to Silver Lake for the 3rd MFG race of 2013. Silver Lake has never been a course that I have had good results at, but it is always an interesting event. The long stretches of sand are difficult, and are separated with steep climbs and descents out of a mountain bike race.

As will every MFG race this season, I ended up with a 3rd row starting position, but I tried to position myself behind some of the faster guys to get a good starting shot. When the bell rang, we shot up the paved section and flew into the first corners before a steep hill and flying into some off-camber descending. At this point I was fighting for mid-pack position and then we started some switchback climbing up to the top of the park. A short section of pavement lead into a very fast and steep descent that curved around a bunch of trees to shoot us into the shorter sand section. This was then followed with a long paved climb to the other half of the course and into some winding paths through the trees. Next was some short climbs and drops before being flung back to the beach and along the very long beach section before starting the madness once again.

At the end of the first lap, I was back to about where I started in the line-up. This course is a bit of a widow-maker though, and I started climbing positions as racers DNF'd or crashed spectacularly in the sand (I had a few good ones myself). I continued to push myself despite feeling pretty worn-out after the first few laps, and continued to run a steady path through the course. This paid off as the last few laps saw me pass a few more riders before a final sprint to the finish to stay in front of another rider who was trying to pass me.

My final position was 22nd of the 24 finishers, so definitely not the greatest finish, but there were an impressive 11 additional riders who DNF'd, so in those regards, 22nd of 35 looks a lot better!


At the end of this busy weekend, it was definitely time to get working again and see what I can manage to pull together for the rest of the season. These races were definitely eye-opening as I was surprised at how fast I was running out of gas and comparing my speed to the leaders. I feel like the season so far has been a good way to see how the 1/2 field compares to the 3s, and while it is much harder, I plan to adjust my training to make sure I am doing better for the rest of the season.

See you next weekend for Seattle Cyclocross #2 in Carnation.

MFG Cyclocross 2013 #2 - Lake Sammamish

This past weekend was not only super rainy, but it was also the weekend of MFG Cyclocross #2 at Lake Sammamish park in Issaquah. After feeling great last weekend at SCX #1, I was excited to hit the course and go for a great finish. I had a solid week of riding, so I felt like the fitness was there and ready. The rain made for treacherous muddy conditions, especially as the morning racers had nicely churned everything up into a soggy, slippery mess.
I warmed up happily utilizing my tent as the rain continued to fall. Everything was feeling great as we lined up. I again was lined up 3rd row as I haven't placed well in the series yet this year. I made sure to start near the side so that as we got going I could shoot up the outside. At the whistle, as I expected the group pulled toward the middle of the road. I moved up along the right shoulder and as we hit the first corner I was happily in the top half of the group. We cycled through the first few winding and bumpy corners before hitting the very slick rear section of off-camber corners. We hit the beach and I was still in a good spot and managed to squeeze up a little more as we ran through the sand. Quickly getting back on the bike, I cut through the trees and we shot back into the front of the course.
The first corners of the front section were deep, thick mud. I rode through the deep corners and hit the barriers still on the tail of the leaders. So far so good!

We got going again through the faster sections and into some really slick mud corners. I was hustling to stay on the wheels until disaster! A rider managed to plow right into my front wheel sending me into the tape and while I managed to stay upright, the hit was enough to pop the wheel out of the dropouts, meaning there was no immediate running. I managed to pop the brake and reset the wheel, but I definitely lost some good ground here.
I got rushing off again ASAP and it felt good to start passing other riders from my field right away. I started getting into a groove and slowly making up places for the next few laps, enjoying my lack of mechanicals even though I did manage to slide around a bit (too much air pressure!)
As race leader Steve Fisher flew past me, I jumped on his wheel and managed to get a great view on a very fast line through the first few corners of the course until he managed to pull away. As I hit the sand for the last lap I was passed by the only other rider to lap me, Russell Stevenson. I was on his tail for the next few corners, again getting a good view of a faster line.
We hit another tricky section and little bobble due to carelessness caused me some trouble as two riders who had been hanging on my wheel managed to squeeze past. I tried to chase them back down, but fatigue was definitely beginning to show. I got onto their wheels at the barriers only to loose them again. I caught them again in a few corners, and as we hit the pavement I jumped on the gas trying to get back in front, however I just missed them at the line, finishing 1 second back.
I ended up finishing a solid 25th out of the starting field of 36. A solid result, although again I feel like I could have been better if I had avoided some little blunders.
Next weekend is the double-header out in Bellingham, so I am ready to bring the speed and go for some solid results. Check back soon to see how things go.
Keep on riding friends.

Seattle CX 2013 #1 - McCollum Park

This past Sunday was the first race of the Seattle CX series for the year, and to make things interesting they used a brand new course. The weather was cloudy but dry for most of the day but the rain rolled in around noon, just as I was getting to the venue. The course was a mix of fast grass sections with some tricky off-camber sections and tied together with a run through the BMX park and on the opposite side of the course was a brief trip through the woods. A very large course, but with lots of fun little sections that kept you going full-steam and paying full attention to the course. The rain added an additional element by turning much of the course into deeper mud or slick grass.
While warming up and riding around the course in the rain, the layout was definitely going to keep your focus and use your handling skills. Shortly before the start of the Elite race though, the rain stopped and the ground started drying a little. This made for tacky, thick mud and would cause some trouble.

 During the call-ups I ended up in the 3rd row of the 29 starters, so not that great, but I did set myself up behind Zack McDonald who is consistently fast. My plan paid off and I had a great start, hitting the first corner roughly around 10th. I was able to grab the wheels in front of me and hang with the lead group through the next few corners and into the BMX park. We then flew into the twisting off-camber back section and then dropped onto the asphalt and headed back toward the front of the course. I remained in great position as we entered the single-track forest and back onto the grass fields.

At this point I knew I was in great position and continued to work to stick onto the wheel in front of me, holding to a top spot. We hit the barriers and then swung back onto the front stretch to start the second lap. I managed to move up as a rider started to fade, however some other riders were still neck-to-neck with me, so there was no letting up.

We powered through the course again without incident, however just before the final corners, disaster struck. The thick mud had started coating my chain and it was enough to pop the chain of the chainring when I shifted down into the low gears to handle the tight corners. I jumped off to get the chain reset, but quickly lost 5-6 spots to the riders who were on my tail. I finally got going and started racing away, actually making up one of the spots again during the early section of the lap. I continued through the course and then coming into the same corner I dropped the chain again! Again riders went past and now I was getting quite frustrated, however I now figured out that the drop was only happening when I was in the lowest 2 gears. I continued racing along and trying to claw back my lost spots.

Through the next 4 laps, I only dropped the chain one more time as I accidently shifted into the low gear, but got back going much quicker now that I knew what was going on. During my final drop I ended up behind Zack who had now lapped me. I got a nice few corners on his wheel to see his lines before being back in my race to make up positions.

 As I rolled across the finish line, I still felt great, ready for more laps. I ended up 25th, so far back, but not last. I was 9 minutes behind Zack, but was only lapped by the two leaders who are both Pros, so not terrible. I only wish I was able to use up some of the energy in holding onto a great spot further up the field, but at least I know that the mechanical was caused simply by the lack of a chain catcher on my bike. A cheap and easy fix, and then it will be back to me to make the race work. Time to get ready for Lake Sammamish next weekend, since I know I can do well there.