'Cross Road Trip part 2: Charm City Cross

So the official result from Nittany Lion was 27th of 47 finishers. Not as good as I'd initially thought, 10 more guys in the field would have put me in the top half. All in all not bad though. My legs weren't all there, and the strain injury I'd incurred to my left quad a week earlier was bothering my pretty bad at the barriers.

So it was on to Baltimore. We arrived at the park with plenty of time to eat the breakfast we'd picked up along the way. No bagel sandwiches at the 7-Eleven, so I settled for a croissant. That and a giant twisted glazed doughnut. Much to Taylor's disbelief I did eat it before the race. Not pre-race food in his mind I guess.

We signed in, got ready and as soon as the 9am race finished we took our chance to preview the course prior to the next race. After more warming up it was off to the start area for the 11am B race.

Cyclocross used to be split up as A, B, and C fields. The categories were re-designated to Cat 1, Cat 2, Cat 3, and Cat 4. A and 1 being the fastest. With the new categories most events split the fields into races for Cat 1, Cat 2/3 and Cat 4. Sometimes they have the Cat 4 race but also allow Cat 4's into the Cat 2/3. This was the case at Charm City Cross. Thus I convinced Taylor to race the Cat 2/3/4 race some time ago just to get an idea of how racing with the "B's" would be.

So we lined up, about half way back in the field according to our registration date. The start was average for me, not fantastic but not bad. Then we hit the first tight corner that was causing some serious traffic back-ups. I dove in hard, brushing one guys handlebar and forcing another further outside on the off camber corner. I had to take a few steps straddling my top tube as we turned up the bank but was quickly pedaling again. A little later we hit some more tight 180° type turns. Other guys eased off and started coasting into the corners, I simply dove in really hard, forcing them off their line. I made up a number of spots in these corners. Finally after a lap and a half things settled in. Positions traded a little here and there, but I finally found myself with 3 other guys. We rode a lap together, then two of us began to pull away. My legs were feeling better today and the strain injury was not bothering me. I thought we might just pull off this attack. Then my partner slid out in a corner and I braked hard to avoid running him over. I asked if he was okay as I got going and cheered to him get up quickly and catch back on to me.

We'd had 2 or 3 other guys chasing our former group of 4 down, and we both expressed interest in working together to not get caught. His crash threw a snarl in the plan. I was now off the front of about 6 guys chasing hard, chasing me. I'd initially eased up just slightly hoping my partner would catch back onto me before the ensuing group got him, but now I was having trouble holding them off. Mentally I sort of resigned myself to the fact that I would get caught, which truly was the deciding factor. The mental game is a huge part of it all. I figured if I reserved enough until they caught me I could make a move on them and pull away one last time. But in my reservations I got sloppy in the corners, the places I'd been faster than most.

They caught me, and I really didn't have anything to attack and pull away. Instead, one by one the slipped by. I held onto the back of them but I couldn't pull back through the group. So in the last lap I lost 5 places.

Despite the dreadful finish within the small group I still managed another 27th place, out of 81 finishers shown in the results. This, I'm very happy with. Especially since I was racing against Cat 2's as well as my class of Cat 3's. Now if I'd only dug deep and found the strength to hold off my pursuers, I might have had 22nd!

My sister was cool enough to come experience the nonsense of 'cross racing, since her residence near D.C. is only an hour away. She got some photos which are posted here. I will have some from Nittany Lion Cross soon. Within a week I may have some video as well.