This was my 1st time back to Southern Cross Race in a about 5-6 years and the first time I’ve been back since I got a little more into bike racing so I was pretty curious to see how I’d fair. This “season” I decided to focus on the King of Pisgah series and have been working on a training plan aimed at PMBAR/111k/55k which all happen in May and my decision to make Southern Cross work kind of came last minute. Looking at my training schedule it was fairly poorly timed as it fell on the 2nd to last day of a heavy 3 week training load, but oh well it worked out fairly well in the general life schedule so you’ve gotta take what you can get I suppose.
I made the decision to ride the geared cross bike (one which I’ll later regret) because I’ve been riding it a bunch lately anyway with the weather conditions the way they’ve been and having fun with it. Once I made the call to race I decided maybe I should wash the bike and give it a look over mechanically…Shit, maybe I should do this more often, chain/cassette worn out, probably ought to put a new shift cable and housing on, and the rear tire was bald as bald can be. Fortunately Sycamore had all the parts I needed and I had a few minutes to get it taken care of. Once I got the new drivetrain all together it was still shifting a bit turdlike, Derailleur hanger alignment gauge to the rescue, how this thing shifted at all before that I’m not sure but all was good now.
Race day, the weather was perfect, a little cool, dry bright sunshine. I got lined up near the front as I was hoping to stay attached to the lead group as long as possible through the “nuetral” start. The start got a little hairy at times and I could already feel the legs were a little lethargic but I figured they’d warm up. We had been warned about some large gravel right at the beginning of the gravel and that seemed to pose a problem for a number of folks which allowed the front group to get away and left a few stragglers. Me being one of them. I was still with Art for a while.
Just before the start of the first big climb up Winding Stair Gap I was able to catch a glimpse of Katie and Ridge which is always an awesome sight when you’re racing. However there was work to be done. Starting up Winding Stair I couldn’t really get things rolling the way I wanted to and had some issues staying with Art. Somewhere around halfway up I was able to get moving and get away a little bit, I got over the first “top” and started into what felt like an ok pace. Then things started to catch up to me and I didn’t seem to have a good response.
Down the 1st descent and the group of riders that I was with opened up a little gap then Art dropped them and crushed the descent. We started up the 2nd more gradual climb and I tried to keep pace but it just wasn’t there. Riders started catching me and there wasn’t much I could do other than smile and enjoy the gorgeous scenery which I was happy to do, it is a gorgeous climb.
Make it to the aid station and switch bottles and keep on my way, I was finally able to largely stop the bleeding and get back a rider or two but the damage had already been done.
Time to descend Cooper Gap, this descent on a cross bike is always interesting and about 1/4 of the way down Scott Smith from TVB came around me, this was what I needed, I was able to get on his wheel and rip the rest of the way down without losing any distance. However I couldn’t keep him in check and he managed to steal the last podium spot in the 30-39 age group.
It was kind of a humbling day and in a few instances I wish I had my single speed, racing it is a little simpler, you go hard when you can and rest when you can’t, then see where you end up, I honestly think I may have been a little faster with that bike even with the really pedally parts. However I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone a little bit and learn how to “race” bikes, which is interesting.
