Cyclocross Continues... in the Dark.

The time change has wreaked some havoc on my training. Riding in the dark, in the cold, alone, is generally less than fun. Somehow I continue to drag myself out there, a few nights a week. The thought of taking a really long lunch during work and getting out while there is daylight has crossed my mind a few times. After two weekends without racing I was relatively psyched for the West Hill Shop race in Putney, VT. It's a course that suits me well, a fair amount of turning technique required in the first half of the lap followed by some drawn out sections requiring some 'dig in' power.

Last year's race went something like this: I started great, I was hanging with the top 4 or 5 guys for the first 2 or 3 laps, then I popped at the top of the run up. I drifted back a little until Jake caught me, passed me and dropped me. Then I caught up and dropped him with a half lap to go.

This year's race played out similarly. I wasn't quite with the top guys, but I was ahead of Jake. Then Jake caught up. Jake and I rode together for a few laps. On one lap he knocked his seat slightly crooked, but he took care of it quickly. The very next lap, in the very same place, my seat got knocked completely out of whack. The nose was pointed sky-ward. I managed to knock it down fairly far, but it was still rather uncomfortable. Jake opened a gap here, enough that I wasn't able to catch back up with my seat in such an awkward position. He took further advantage and attacked where I couldn't really tell what the gap between us was.

So Jake, I'm not going to blame my seat situation on me losing to you, because you might have beat me this time. However, I am going to blame it for not providing the opportunity for us to have a more exciting finish.

Check out the playlist of videos covering all seven laps.

Gran Prix of Gloucester 2010

This post will simply contain video footage, except for this link to photos.
And the statement, "Wow I need to get some training in!"

On with the featured videos!!

Day 1 - The start of the race. Totally sketchy, downhill into a turn very quickly in the lap. This guy goes down, hard, in front of me. It seemed he was getting up pretty quick though as I went by.

Gloucester Day 1 Start - Cat 3 Men from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Day 2 - Lap 1


Day 2 - Lap 2


Day 2 - Lap 3


Day 2 - Lap 4


Day 2 - Lap 5


Day 2 - Lap 6


Yeah, so I guess I tend to tilt my head to the left. Thanks to helmet cam, it looks like I view the world at an off kilter angle while riding a bike. Maybe it's right, though I suspect it has more to do with oxygen levels than head angles.

Season finale

I hung up the bike after the last race and called it quits for the season. I was certainly ready to be done with riding for a little while. I was mentally in need of a break and physically I could feel my legs yearning for some quality rest. I was so ready to be finished, that I didn't even get to writing anything about it until now.

We attended both days of the NBX Gran Prix in Warwick, Rhode Island. Day 1 included temperatures in the low to mid 40s along with rain. It made for less than pleasant racing. Only a short way into the race Jake and I were riding together, and then I got a large piece of dirt in my eye. At this point I could barely see out of my right eye and had some difficulty going into the turns. After a slow lap of suffereing with the severe pain in my eye, the dirt seemed to flush out. My pace picked up again, and I was able to hold a steady gap behind Jake but never made it back up to him. If I hadn't had that issue, I probably would have been in the top 30 with Jake. I still finished a none too shabby 35th on the day. Immediately upon finishing, the chill of the temperatures and being soaked to the bone set in. We rushed back to the hotel to get hot showers. I was almost shaking uncontrollably.

On the second day of the race, we awoke to a layer of snow and ice on the ground at the hotel. However, only 10 minutes away at the race venue there was hardly a trace of snow on the ground. There were some changes to the course, and most of it was pretty dry. A pleasant change from the day before. I spent a large portion of the race riding very close to several other guys. It made for a very good race between all of us. I thought I was riding better, but I managed to pull off 35th again.

It was a good finish to the season. Respectable finishes with some good hard riding. Since then the bike(s) haven't been touched and it's been great.

There are some pictures available from Day 1 and from Day 2 for you viewing pleasure

Weather channel

So I was looking at the weather forecast on weather.com for the coming weekend. I wanted to see what things were looking like for the race in Warwick, RI. It seems the weather channel is catering to cross races now. Notice the forecast highlight for Saturday, "course conditions." Cyclocross course conditions? And Sunday, "stay warm on the links." Is that chain links?

Wrap it up and eat some pie

Here we are, exiting the eleventh month of the year and nearly at the finish of the racing season, at least for me. This is a good thing, though. As fun as the riding and racing of this year has been, it's time to take a break from riding to train and riding in general. I've reached the point where riding very much at all is making me slower, or so it would seem and feel. The dreaded precipice of over training. The difficult thing about over training in these late months is that it becomes very, very easy to do. When we change the clocks I think the body naturally wants to rest more. Instead, I've been forcing my body to ride with headlamps burning.

Cheshire Cross went well. I'm happy with my result though not fully satisfied. I'm very happy that I finished relatively well in front of the friends that came to cheer us on. A top 50% finish is never horrible. I could have finished better though, but I faded as the race wore on. I was running top ten for a while, but just couldn't hold my pace anymore. The legs just felt more and more tired with each lap. This does, of course, happen every race, though in a different way than when the legs just turn to bricks.

I figured all would be well the next day at Durham though, since I always tend to do better on day 2 of doubleheader race weekends. According to the online preregistration page there were only 5 of us signed up; 3 of which were from our regular group of riding partners. Lee, Taylor and I all figured we could take it easy for a few laps before really racing each other. Things changed as several guys registered the day of the event. The field size was close to fifteen guys. This being the case, the race started as usual; fast and aggressive. I got into a lead group of 5 and was pretty excited. I figured I might have a chance at a win. The pace was high, and the legs hurt; in fact they were feeling that sluggish, made of bricks hurt instead of the "bring it on show me what real pain is, I want more" kind of hurt. I was definitely faster than the others in some places, mostly the turns, and even took the lead at points; but after two and a half laps the legs just couldn't turn an effective gear anymore. I rolled across the finish in 6th. Despite a good finish, the placing was a bit disappointing. I knew if the legs had felt good, or at least some level better, then I could have easily finished in the top 3 or won.

I took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to deal with the over training situation. I didn't ride a whole lot the entire week, but I did eat a fair amount of stuffing and pie. I hope the rest allows some snap to return to my legs this coming weekend as I hit up two days of racing at the NBX Gran Prix.

Apples, Cheesesteak, and a Break.

The week after Hartford Cross came the West Hill Shop race in Putney, Vt. I had a great start to the race and was hanging with a group of guys that fluctuated between 3 to 4 of us for a few laps. I'm guess we, as a group, were holding somewhere in the range of 4-8 positions at any given point. I was feeling good with the group, but the other guys were rather strong. There were places on course where I was faster, and there were places they were faster. Strangely enough, I tended to be faster in power areas, and most of them in the slick corner sections. I finally cracked at the top of the run up one lap though. When I jumped on the bike, the legs just couldn't turn the gear over that I needed to turn over. I faded back for two laps, at which point Jake bridged the gap I'd had over him. He brought one other guy with. I figured Jake was riding much stronger than I at this point, so I decided to get between him and the other racer and block for Jake. With one lap to go Jake was pulling away, but then with a half lap remaining I managed to close the gap on him, then power away through the soft feeling corn field. I placed 8th, Jake 9th. Our prizes, sacks of apples.

I eventually made apple pie with them.

The following weekend was a planned trip to Philadelphia, a city which I'd never visited. Since my friend Sarah and her boyfriend, Matt, live there it was a great opportunity to visit them and see the city. Before I headed for Philly, I needed to make a trip to my home town to pay my final respects to my Grandmother. She and my Grandfather are together forever now.

I made it into Philly Friday night, and after some brief hellos we ventured to a local pub to catch up over some beverages. Saturday morning we headed into the city. We started with a great breakfast at a small restaurant/cafe which gave very large portions of very good food. It was obvious the food would be good from the line outside the cafe. We then ventured to some historical sites including Independence Hall and Elfreth's Ally. We rounded the night out by living the scene from Rocky and running up the steps of the Art Museum.

That brings me into this weekend, in which there were no trips, and no races. That's not to say there wasn't any riding. Sunday was a beautiful day for a bike ride after a very rainy Saturday.

Where's my helmet?

Full on into 'cross season and I've only managed to do one race since Gloucester. I'd have done two, but I managed to forget my bag with shoes, helmet, jersey, et cetera right by the door. Since that was the case, I worked as chauffeur for Lee and Taylor to the Mansfield Hollow race. It was a rather picturesque Autumn day, but I have no pictures. I left my camera at home figuring that with Jake, Lee, Taylor and myself riding the same race we would be able to get any pictures. My bike did get used though! Jake's shifter stopped working midway through the race and he was stuck spinning in his easiest gear. He shouted at me and replied back double checking his style of pedals, which were compatible with mine. I sprinted back to the car, got my bike together, and got to the pits to make a bike swap with him. It was a little funny watching him on a bike that was too small, but he managed to gain some positions back after the swap.

Then came Hartford Cross. Woohoo, I remembered everything this time. And I took a camera just in case. Hartford didn't have much in the way of technical features and was a bit of a power course. Had it been dry, the place would have been super fast. Heavy rains the day before left some soft ground and mud holes in places. My legs weren't feeling very chipper, and the conditions weren't making things any easier. The one awesome feature about the course, was that we went straight up a rather steep 40 foot levee. During warm up I managed to ride up it, maybe the only person to do so all day. During the race though, I was too gassed to get the whole way up. I'd managed to get about halfway then I'd have to run the rest. The best part was that I was much faster up it than anyone else I was around. Between the up and the off camber, muddy, rut filled down hill that followed I was making time there.

I was battling with a few guys, and they would pull away for the half lap leading up to the levee. At that point I would catch back up, stick with them for a little while the slowly get dropped. I thought I'd had it at one point when they'd built a lead at least 100 yards on me. But I managed to surge through the levee and the following section in the woods to catch back on. With one lap to go I was determined to minimize the lead they were pulling, which I managed to do. They didn't get far ahead and I put everything I had into attacking at the levee. I passed them and pulled away. I kept driving for the remainder of the lap and held off the one guy that was slowly surging back up to me. All in all, not a bad race considering I never felt particularly good the whole time. 13th of 30 guys with 2 nonfinishers.

Cheshire Cross is coming in about a month. We're trying to get some of out friends to come out and have a tailgate party yet again and cheer us on since it's sort of like our home field race. I put a video together to go along with the invitation I sent out to hopefully garner more interest.
Check it out.

Cyclocross - be there from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Diving into Cyclocross Season

So here's the recap since vacation since I've failed to stay up to date with it all.

I returned from vacation and on September 19 headed for Rocky Hill, CT for a race. Actually two races. I competed in the Cat 3/4 race then rode in the 1/2/3 race for training. I was doing well enough in the 3/4 race but just didn't have enough gas to ride they way I did for the first 20 minutes of the race. I faded pretty hard after that point, but still managed to finish well. During the 1/2/3 I was just trying to survive the entire hour of the race.

I was scheduled for another race the following weekend but I needed to pay my final respects to a truly great man. My grandfather was quite the role model. I hope he's putting in a good word for me in heaven.

Then this past weekend was the Gran Prix of Gloucester. The third year that I've attended New England Nationals, as it has so been dubbed. Competition is fierce and many. Saturday was a complete mudfest. It rained all day. Jake and Taylor suffered through cold temperatures and rain during their race at 8 am. By the time I raced the rain was intermittent, but the course was a complete mudbog. I didn't have the most particularly awesome race, I was still feeling a bit worn down from the events of the past week and a half.

Day 2 began far nicer. Jake, Taylor, and Lee raced at 8am on a changed up, cleaner course under a dense fog. Jake even pulled of the victory in a solo break away. By 1pm, the sun was out and the course was drying out where it had still been wet. The corners were tacky and everything was fast. I'd rested up well too. Despite starting in the back, and I mean the waaaay back of nearly 100 guys, I managed to fight my way through. Place by place. After some aggressive passes in turns and putting the hammer down I managed to work my way up to 48th.

It was quite a weekend, and now we are full on into 'cross season. More cowbell!

Pictures from Gloucester can be seen here.

Time to ride. A lot. Again.

The properly functioning bike and enthusiasm for the sloppy weather were short lived.

I warmed up on the stationary trainer for a bit at the Palmer cross race, though there was no protection from the steady rain that was falling. I was damp to wet before I went out for a course inspection lap. I'd been hearing people talk about it being a very mountain bikey course, something I was happy to hear. I usually do relatively well on such courses. My pre-race lap confirmed the reports, and also left me soaked and muddy before the race had even started.

I felt good from the warm up lap, I felt good on the bike though all the mud and water. Then I got stuck in the back for the start, not the most favorable place. Well, everything was pretty dicey off the start, and I didn't make up much ground, it was hard to be aggressive in such slick conditions. As things thinned out I started to move up little by little. Then, I crashed on some slick roots. Shwwooop, in a semi-over the handles bars kind of move. My right hand hit the ground hard as I tried to catch myself, three fingers went into a painful, numb kind of state (my pinky is still swollen and sore). My right shifter hit the ground and moved slightly inward too, though not horribly so. My shifting capabilities seemed to disappear though. I had maybe three gears in the back as I started back out, but quickly lost those. I was down to shifting with only the front chainrings.

My brakes faded, a lot, my hand was numb, the bars were wet and muddy, needless to say, I had a hard time controlling the bike from there. I didn't feel like I had much stamina either.

I didn't get last though. I wasn't as close to first as I wanted to be either. Finally got the motivation to not suck and start riding more again.

I found some pictures from the first race of the day. I'm not in any of them, but they paint a pretty good portrait of the race, and cyclocross in general. Check them out here.

Pre-Season continues

Hopefully the pre-season continues without further woes. The bottom bracket I bummed from Jake, didn't have much life left. It was good through the race, but managed to start making some very strange noises midway through the first ride after the race. Noises that I've never heard come from a bottom bracket. I just took it out and there is definitely a bearing or two rattling around freely. Further inspection of the tube from the flat in pre-season race numero uno finds that I had a pretty gnarly pinch flat.

I picked up a brand new bottom bracket from the shop this evening and the bike is back together. Everything seems to be in order with it, which is nice, because pre-season race numero dos is tomorrow. The weather has turned rainy, first time in a while it seems. That stint of hot sunny weather was wonderful, and I kind of like racing cross in it. I'm not complaining about the potentially sloppy conditions for tomorrow though, should make things exciting.

2009 CX Begins

Today was the first cyclocross race of the season. I'm going to call it, PRE-season for me. The plan was for it to be a warm up race, just to get my frame of reference into 'cross.

I just got the bike up and working properly, somewhat late last night. There was a last minute bottom bracket pick up from Jake, for which I am eternally grateful, there were two tubes that went flat on me on the stand, and I'm still not sure if I've got it shifting quite right, but it seemed to be riding well this morning.

Warm up went well, but at the start line I dropped a little tiny bit more air out of my tires, hoping to make some of the bumps just a little smoother. I started fairly well, feeling aggressive, I dove hard into some corners and was trying to get past one particular rider that wasn't taking, what I felt, to be good lines in the corners. I could definitely get through the corners faster, I just couldn't quite get the edge on him going through the first narrow section into the single track. I was annoyed, I should have gotten through those corners much better but he was disturbing my line and speed.

Then, maybe a third of the way into the first lap I flatted. I may have pinch flatted from letting just a little too much out at the start, or maybe I ran over something when I swung into some rough sketchy stuff to get by some guys off the start. I'm not sure yet, but I let the field get by, as it was a single track section and I would just plug everything up. Once everyone passed I rode the course to the pits, picked up a neutral support wheel.

Once I got going again, I spent nearly a full lap pretty alone. Then I started to pick off some riders. Little by little I moved up positions. Of course, I didn't get anywhere near the front, but I was happy to be able to finish, and not be last.

Next race I leave the tire pressure alone.

Random Notes

The last two weeks have been mostly mental rest and recovery. I just took my third ride since the 24 hour race. The first was a pretty easy going ride, the second, was a pretty tough one on the single speed, and tonight and easy going ride on the road bike.

The cyclocross bike calls though! Tomorrow morning I get it working well enough to 'race' on Sunday. I'm just going to the race to get myself in the right frame of mind. It's tough not to get excited about seeing skinny knobby tires under me.

I might also mention that I found a new bagel at the grocery store. Among all those other flavors I'm not interested I found one that I was extremely interested in. French Toast Bagels! They are quiet tasty with a little butter on them.

When does a cult become a legit religion? I'm not sure, but we have converted another rider. Lee just got himself a great looking, used, Van Dessel Gin and Trombones. Not quite the bike that Van Dessel shows on their website but still a very nice bike! I had to keep looking at it during tonight's ride, it got me rather excited for some cyclocross action.

'Tis the Season to Call it a Season

Saturday was the NBX Grand Prix in Warwick Rhode Island and I was beginning to think this might be the last race of the season for me. I've been a bit mentally and physically burned out, well, for far too long, and I kept trying to drag myself just a little bit longer through the season. I hadn't ridden since the day before Thanksgiving, so I was going into this race in no kind of form, since a week and a half without riding will do that to you.

The day started at 4:45am when I rolled out of bed and into some clothes then waited for Jake to arrive. We then picked up Taylor and headed East. I closed my eyes and gave my best effort towards sleep en route, especially since I'd attracted some kind of stomach bug about 36 hours prior.

We arrived in some significant cold. Jake and Taylor readied themselves for the 8:30am Cat 4 race while I readied my cameras. During their race I ran around, using the small camera for video on the Gorillapod (many thanks to my sister, I finally put it to good use Lori), and the recently acquired SLR for still images. It was a lot of fun grabbing all the images, I even caught Taylor crashing, you should watch it (look for it just after 3 minutes in).

After hanging around for a while I raced at 12:30pm. Based on registration, I started way at the back of the field. As soon as we hit the first sandpit and sandy run up I moved up some places. Then I found myself running directly into the back of another guy in a group that had come to a stop on a small up slope. I jumped off and ran, gaining a few more positions. Finally things cleared up and I settled into a pace I could hold. I knew not to make any extra efforts as I certainly wouldn't recover. I passed a few guys and a few passed me but I found myself in a general race with a few other guys.

The only consistent competitor around me was Vinnie from Keltic Construction. At one point his hand slipped picking up his bike over the barriers; the bike hit the barrier and stopped, he did not. And so I thought I dropped him for good while he ran back for his bike. However I found myself with another guy who would pull ahead of me but refused to pull me in his draft on the pavement. He would slow up and move so as to indicate for me to pull through. Good strategy would say to refuse pulling, which I did until he was pretty much just coasting. I realized that I couldn't loligag behing him for long as Vinnie would likely catch back on. This happened 3 times, and much to my dismay, Vinnie caught back on with a lap and a half to go. We had a great battle over that last bit and it made for quite a fun race. Our sprint at the finish made for an exciting way to finish the season even though I couldn't quite come around him at the line to win our little battle.

Taylor and Jake used my cameras while I raced, the photos and video from the day are at the links listed below.

Photos are here (or slideshow). A total of 542 pictures were taken, I've narrowed them down to the good ones.

Videos:
Early in the Cat 4 race
Cat 4 Men in the Barriers
Cat 4 Men running Sand trap #2 (Taylor's spill at 3:12)
Start of my race (Cat 2/3)
Ticking off another lap
The Sprint Finish


I wish I had stayed and raced at day 2 of the event. My friend Adam went solely to take photographs and he said the conditions were awesome. Snow with a little mud, conditions that would have made for a great race. He took a lot of photos, a number of them quite qood, they're worth a look. You can see them here.

Slowing, like molasses

I'm a little slow with a lot of things recently, including posts. There hasn't been much to write about as of late. The last race was Cheshire Cross and I haven't been on the bike since the day before Thanksgiving, though it was a ride that involved snow. I never planned an appropriate break in the season, now my mind and body are just burned out. Thus I'm just getting slow on the bike, I'm slow at building up motivation to ride, heck I'm just slow, like molasses in January. I'm going to go out this weekend though and have some fun drifting around the course at Warwick, Rhode Island. There's nothing quite like riding a fully taped off 'cross course, even if you are slow.

On the up shot, I'm currently sitting in the top 10 of CX Magazine's fantasy cyclocross league. That means my choices of pro riders are riding quite well, even if I am not. Though I'm down 1 spot from last week, I'm still hanging in there and hoping to hold out for a top 10 or better by the end of the international cyclocross season in February.

I also got a hold of some video that my friend Mike took at the Cheshire race. I posted two of them to vimeo, one is embedded below.

The final lap of the race, I thought I finally had the hill, as in, I was going to ride up the whole thing. Alas the second log foiled me. I'd been the only guy trying in my race, or so I was told, but another guy followed me, riding up the hill, that final lap.

THe Hill at Cheshire Cross 08 from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Cheshire Cross Tailgate

Saturday morning was cold. So was the entire day for that matter. I'm not even sure that it ever made it above 30°F. The sun was bright, which added some sense of warmth at times, but the wind was blowing a lot, thus adding quite a chill. This would be the first really cold 'cross race of the season. The cold tends to be extra painful, since by the end races at these temperatures I usually can't feel my toes to well. Thank goodness they're only 45 minutes.

The Cheshire race is considered my 'home' race since it is only a short drive from my residence. Because it is so close and because my race as well as Taylor's and Jake's race were late enough in the day we decided to throw a tailgate party, hoping to snare some of friends into coming and cheering for us. With the added lure of food and booze a few were willing to brave the cold day and cheer. A BIGGEST THANK YOU to each of them!

I arrived at the park to see Matt from the Devil's Gear Bike Shop already there. We set up our little tailgate area and soon I was off taking some photos with my new camera. I got a look at a few sections of the course before heading back to the tent to greet the arriving friends. We ended up with quite a crowd around our tent.

Just before I raced, Taylor and Jake went out on course for their race. I was able to shout and watch them come around while warming up on the trainer. Both had a great race. Then I headed for the start. I was good and warm but I found myself in a second row starting position. The start didn't go too well either, somehow I was near the back of the pack after the first turn. Not only that everyone seemed to be pulling away. I had nothing, the legs couldn't turn the gear I needed to push over. (I had realized the night before why I'd felt so slow lately, I've only been putting a quarter of my regular time on the bike over the last month and a half; at best.)

Needless to say, I had no chance of keeping up. I watched most of the field just pull away from me and there was nothing I could do. At this point I was a bit disappointed in myself, all my friends had braved the cold and I was going to be doing my best not to be DFL, instead of doing my best for a top 5 or better. I figured I might as well try to please the crowd and have some fun. On what is probably the longest run up of the New England circuit, almost everyone was running. The log at the bottom and the log half way up made for a difficult ride. Plus there were numerous roots strewn about the lower half. I saw maybe 3 guys ride the hill earlier in the morning. For the first few laps I got over the first log and about half way to the second log, losing traction in some loose dirt on the right side or getting hung up in the roots on the left. The crowd of people that had gathered there loved my attempts though. They would scream like crazy as I made my attempt to ride up the hill.

Finally on the last two laps I made it to the second log of the hill. On my first attempt over it I just didn't have enough speed to get the whole bike over. On the final lap I managed to get the bike over the log, but didn't have enough momentum to keep the bike moving. The crowd seemed to love it though.

My friends were all over the course. There was hardly a spot where there weren't screaming at me. That alone made this race about the most fun I've ever had with a race. I was way off the back just trying not to be last, but I was having quite a bit of fun with all the screaming and shouting. At one point I rolled towards the edge of the course as Mike was running beside me yelling, I gave him I nice push in the shoulder just to play back a little. At another point, after I'd failed to ride 'the hill,' I pumped my fist in the air while running the rest of the way up through the crowd.

All in all, not a bad day. My results were far less than stellar, but introducing a new group of people to Cyclocross was great. Watch for next year, the tailgate is likely to be back.

Many thanks to Lee who shot some video for me. Some of the videos he got are posted on my Vimeo page. Some of the shots I got with the new camera and some of the shots Kevin took with it while I was racing can be found on my Picasa page.

My friend Adam was there taking photos as well. His shots can be seen at this page.

Cyclocross 101: class 10, review and wrap up

We've come through a lot of information on cyclocross, and there is really a lot more to be had. However, at this time it would likely be best to go out and experience a cyclocross race. The written word can only provide so much about the overall experience that can be had at a race.

The basics have been covered here. The start, the obstacles, the competition, the bell lap. Essentially the race is about going as fast as you can, while pacing yourself just enough to last the set time period without imploding. A little knowledge from various cycling disciplines is quite helpful. Bike handling skills from mountain biking and power and strategy from road cycling, cyclocross encompasses it all.

Before we completely wrap up this course there is one brief topic left. That is being a fan at a race. There are a couple of items essential to being a really good 'cross fan. First, a good beer and some frites with mayo (fries to Americans) will keep your belly happy and your soul warm. Second, warm up your voice and scream at your favorite racer each time they come around the course. At most races in America there aren't enough fans to fully line all parts of the course, so you can likely even run around a few places and catch the rider a few times per lap to scream at them even more. The final essential element is a cow bell. As the saying goes, more cowbell! An air horn would be a suitable substitute in most cases.

So this concludes Cyclocross 101. If you would like to go back and review each class just follow the links below. It's been fun!

Class 1, The Overview
Class 2, The Competition
Class 3, The Race Format
Class 4, The Barriers
Class 5, More On Barriers
Class 6, An in Depth Look at Barriers
Class 7, An in Depth Look at Run Ups
Class 8, An in Depth Look at Sand Pits
Class 9, The Start
Class 10, Review and Wrap Up

How Disappointing...

Well, it's official, I checked crossresults.com and my finish in Northampton was my worst result in a cyclocross race, ever. That is if you look at the percentage of the field that beat me. 77.5 % Of the field beat me. The closest result to that was the first 'cross race I ever competed in, Gloucester, day 1, 2007, where 72.1% of the field beat me. You can look at my race history and analysis if you like.

On the upside, my halloween costume was great this year. Of course it was at its best because of a group effort. Pacman!!


Pacman and Ghosts from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Double race report

I have to jump back to October 26 and Beer Cross 1 to begin this race report. Jake and I headed for Dayville, CT early in the morning. Jake rode the early Cat 4 race while I jumped around the course taking videos and shouting updates to him. He finished a solid 2nd place with about a 25 second advantage over 3rd. A little later he joined me in the Cat 2/3/4 race. This race started well with all the prospects of a return to the form I enjoyed in Baltimore. I took the whole shot on the start and through the tight, technical course I actually built a small lead. With ¾ mile left in the lap I had a small gap over 2nd and we enjoyed a comfortable, though small gap over the rest of the field. Soon enough I was in 2nd place and 1 lap further I was fading hard, too hard for that early in the race. Slowly I drifted back in the ranks and then Jake caught me, and briefly dropped me. I managed to catch back when his legs started to cramp on him. I then found myself in a battle with another guy with one lap to go. I made a move with a half lap remaining and opened a gap, then dropped my chain. Despite a quick recovery by shifting it back into place my rival caught back up as we headed down the stretch for the run up. He tried to pass, but knowing that I could pull away coming down the single-track hill after run up I gave everything I had to be in front at the run up. Sure enough I opened a gap on him down the hill and easily rode in to hold 10th place of 20.

Then came Halloween weekend, November, and the Cycle-Smart International in Northampton, Mass. Two nights of less than adequate sleep, on top of waning fitness bit me good. Taylor and I left the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot at 6:12 am to catch his 8:30 am race. I ran around the course and shouted at him cheering him on to a strong ride.

Starting at nearly the back of the field I had my work cut out. The Cat 2/3 field is so aggressive, picking my way through the field would be tough, but I figured technical course full of turns would play to my advantage. Following Taylor’s advice I shot up the right side on the start, as everyone drifted left to make the hard right turn a hole opened up for me and I shot a few spots before grabbing the brakes hard for the turn. Going through the turn my handle bars were pressed hard against another guys, neither of us had any room to give. Coming out and getting up to speed I had to lock up the brakes as two guys in front of me did the same to avoid a crash. I was trying to get spots through the next few turns and coming out of one 180 degree left turn I was very close to the outside tape when I felt a lot of pressure pushing my rear wheel to the left. I fought against the pressure, and after what seemed like a very long time the pressure was gone and I heard someone hit the deck behind me. The guy’s front wheel had been leaning into my rear wheel and he finally lost his balance, going down and taking some others with him I noticed when looking back. The next lap, at one of the railroad track crossing, there were two guys right in front of me, the first tried to jump over the tracks, only to crash on landing. The second guy grabbed his brakes hard and was headed of the handlebars last I noticed, as I grabbed the brakes hard myself. I managed to escape without crashing. The rest of the race went something like this; I battled for positions, but slowly fell back places as my legs just couldn’t turn the gear I wanted them to. At the end I was totally spent and exhausted. I finished a measly 62nd of 81 finishers and 91 starters.

I also managed to forget the memory card for my camera, so the large number of videos I’d planned to capture, well they don’t exist. I did, however, grab a few videos of Jake during Beer Cross. Head over to my Vimeo page to find them.

Cyclocross 101: class 9, the start

We've discussed the start a little before, but this session is dedicated the start. It’s been noted that the start of a ‘cross race may actually account for as much as 20% of the factors leading to finishing position. Yes, the start is rather critical in determining how one will place at the end of the race. Let’s take a close look at why this is so.

The start is a mass start, meaning racers are gathered at the line and as soon as the starting signal is given, the race is on. At smaller races, starting position is first come first serve on the line; at larger races it may be determined by registration order. The larger races may have as many as 100 or more competitors. The starting line-up usually has between 6 and 8 racers per row and as many rows as needed. After all racers are lined up, an official will give various instructions concerning the race. After these instructions are given, the racers will be given a warning about the approximate time until the start, as many as 2 minutes, but rarely much more than that. Countdown updates are given, the last being around 15, 20 or 30 seconds until the start. At some races the start signal is given right on time, at others once the final countdown warning is given the signal to start may be given at any time up until that time runs out, for a little more randomness.

From previous classes we’ve seen how the group can get bunched together, especially in the first hard corners and obstacles. It is rather difficult to pass in this situation since there is little room to move until later when the field spreads out. If there is an accident, there can be major traffic jams, just the way an accident on a busy highway backs up the highway. This may be a bit obvious, but those closer to the back of the field when there is an accident are going to get slowed down quite a bit, while those up front pull away at full speed. Therefore, starting well and getting position near the front drastically reduces the chances of being involved in an accident or being held up by one.

Even if there is no accident, by nature, it is slower going in a large group on a tight course. Those in the very front can break down into a single file line and take the fastest lines through the corners; however those in the middle of the group will be forced to take nonstandard, slower lines.

So a race is stuck in the pack, he’s faster; he’ll catch up once everyone thins out, right? Maybe, this depends on how much faster he is. Depending on how the start went down, a racer may have lost a large amount of time on the leaders right off the start. Now that racer must work much harder to catch up, spending precious energy. Since cyclocross is such an intense effort, pushing one’s self too hard too early may leave one with little energy to maintain speed at the end of the race. Let’s say our race managed to make up the time lost, they’ve spent a lot of energy doing so. The leaders who have managed their effort may now pour on the pressure and increase the effort output, which may leave our racer behind since is too spent to hold the faster pace any longer. Had he been up front with the leaders he may have held the same pace as the leaders, conserving energy, and made an attack near the end of the race to take the win.

So that's it, start wherever for a good race, start up front and take the whole shot for a great race.

Watch below to see the start of the Cat 4 men at the recent Beer Cross race in Dayville, CT.

Beer Cross 1 Cat 4 start from Scott Frison on Vimeo.



Class 1, The Overview
Class 2, The Competition
Class 3, The Race Format
Class 4, The Barriers
Class 5, More On Barriers
Class 6, An in Depth Look at Barriers
Class 7, An in Depth Look at Run Ups
Class 8, An in Depth Look at Sand Pits
Class 9, The Start
Class 10, Review and Wrap Up

Just a little tid bit

I don't know that I ever mentioned how the finish actually went down on day 1 of Gloucester in my original recap. Well, I could feel something going on that was kind of strange coming from my crank in the last lap. With a quarter mile to go I realized the left crank arm was coming loose, meanwhile I had to fend off one guy surging towards while doing my best with a seated sprint. I didn't dare stand for fear that the extra torque would pop the crank off right when I had my weight on it sending me to the tramac in an unforgiving way.

The crank popped off while cooling down in the parking lot.

I have problems with cranks at that race. Last year I realized it was loose just minutes before the start, with just enough time to get it fixed. Later in that race I was battling a guy on the last lap whose left crank arm came off mid lap.

On to another tidbit. One of the heads of state over at crossresults.com slapped a little camera under his seat and took some video of what was going on behind him. He has 4 videos, each of a separate lap, 1 through 4. By the way, this was taken during the same race I competed in though I never see myself in here, probably because he has a far better starting position and rides the whole race faster than me.


Gloucester Cyclocross Seat Cam from colin reuter on Vimeo.

See the other laps.
Lap 2
Lap 3
Lap 4