GearFest and John Bryan

Three races in two days...

Boy is that rough.

I drove up to Columbus with Mike Friday evening to his sister's place so we can cut down on our morning drive. I was racing Single Speed both days so my race is pretty early at 10:15a. Man getting up early sucks. I am used to getting up late and racing at 2pm or so. Mike's race is two races later so having him tag along gave him time to warm up and ride the course.

Saturday was a new venue at the GearFest outdoor festival. 40's and drizzling did not make for a warm morning but it is cyclocross and you just have to deal with it. The course was fairly flat with lots of twisty stuff. The slick mud made cornering difficult so I popped on the Rhinos and most of my traction concerns disappeared.

I got the holeshot and motored on. I led the first lap and by the second lap, I got caught by the Trek Store Cinci guy. I let him pull me around the flat sections until he took a turn rather wide and I cut in and did a perfect block pass. I let the rest of the lap until he passed me later on and I decided to take it easy and sit on. During this time, I realized how poor a bike handler he was and I was much better in the slick turns. I knew if I led in the technical sections I can easily make it to the finish and win.

So last lap, I made sure I was in front on the last half of the lap. About 1/3 of a lap to go, there is a bunnyhopable log, though neither of us bunnyhopped it. I went over it clean and shortly after, He passed me. Big mental mistake. From there it was game over because he was riding pretty dirty and purposely blocking. Nearing the end, there was one spot where I could ride dirty and take a turn wide and take him out, but I played clean and thus could not pass and was first loser.

Back to Columbus for the night until we got up the next day for John Bryan.

John Bryan is one of my favorite courses. It is deceivingly hard, getting progressively harder each lap. This year's course layout eliminated the road start, had lots of up and down. I especially liked in the second half of the course, you shoot down the entire park, hitting a bit of single track as well.

The single speed race had some new faces and my new nemesis was not present. Again I got the hole shot and led the first lap. Rudy Sroka caught up to me and put some time on me on the up and down off camber section right after the finish line. I knew he had an advantage there because of his fatter 29'er tires. I was able to catch back up and rode with him to the bottom of the course. Rudy was able to bunny hop the log barriers and again put time on me. I was able to catch back up and passed him on the uphill drag. Back to the up/down section he put time on me and from there I had to chase hard but eventually gave up since I had second in the bag and I was racing the Elite race later on.

Not a whole lot to say about the Elite race. I started in the back and had to make up a lot of ground. I certainly felt the efforts of Saturday and the SS race earlier in the day. By the second lap, I started to feel good and started to pass people. Then I ran out of gas and started going backwards. I also noticed I was not shifting my bike as often as I should. Since I have been predominately riding and racing single speed, I was pushing large gears over stuff I should have shifted.

Mike did well this weekend too. A second on Saturday and third on Sunday. Both days were marred by dropping his chain which we hope we can remedy with a chainguard. Well that is if he decides to race again. Mike said on Sunday that several people came up to him and called him a sandbagger and disrespected him in his face. I'm all for having light heckling, calling out sandbaggers, but only while they are racing. I don't see what there is to gain from pulling people aside and disrespecting them in their face. People say they like cross because it is more chill and less Roadie Rage, but it seems like the sandbagger ridicule is starting to get out of hand.

Next week is Gun Club and I haven't decided if I am racing yet. I probably should since my racing days are slightly limited due to other weekend commitments.