Monday, October 6, 2008

Draper CX Race

Friday night I rode the cross bike over to Tanner Park just to try things out to see how my shoulder might hold up. The results weren't good. I couldn't stand and pedal and steering in the rough stuff was pretty sloppy due to lingering weakness in my shoulder. I bagged the race but after much internal debate Rhonda decided to do it. We woke up in the morning to a cold downpour. Yup cross season is here. Loaded everything up and got to the Equestrian Center early enough to get a spot under the eaves of the concession stand to set up the trainer. Rhonda had a good warm up and lined up at the start with a huge field of 45 men's C racers, 16 women's B's and 4 masters men. I heard there were almost 300 racers total. I guess Utah Cross has arrived. Rhonda rode well, stayed upright the entire time, wore through half her brake pads in the wonderfully sloppy conditions and finished 10th. She was hoping for better but it was a tough field including expert MTB'ers and really fast roadies. It was only her 2nd cx race and her first in sloppy conditions so there is plenty of room for improvement. The course was sweet with a lot of flowy singletrack, a slick downhill off camber muddy section, a short pavement hillclimb and a sloppy run-up right in front of the crowd. Rhonda had a blast and is now hooked on cross. It's funny how it took a cold, wet, muddy day to get her excited about the sport.

After the rain quit Sunday afternoon I hit Big Mountain on the road bike. My shoulder was feeling much better and I would say it's about 80% healthy. I don't think I'll be 100% by next Saturday but I'm sure I'll be strong enough to race. The long term forecast is calling for a chance of rain so maybe we'll have another classic race.

4 comments:

JZ said...

"short pavement hillclimb"? You obviously didn't have the pleasure of racing up that stupid hill each lap. The worst was once it flattened out you were hit by the head wind. Of course, my view may be tainted by my lack of gears. But I have to agree it was a great course.

StupidBike said...

1/3rd of a mile, 120 feet and as Joel says, the headwind section was brutal. Not to mention the close to 13% grades in part of the climb. Brutal.

Shoulder injury, schmoulder injury.

Andy H. said...

Man, two of the strongest climbers I know bitching about a little 120 vert feet pavement climb. What's this world coming to?

JZ said...

That is the problem with knowing the facts. 120 vertical feet doesn't sound to intimidating, but man it did hurt (in a good sort of suffering bike racing way, which we all secretly love or we wouldn't pay to do these stupid races, but we complain about anyway).