Cross Crusade #1 - Alpenrose

Well, another week and another race report. There were 1078 racers at Alpenrose, and I think each one has a blog and is writing the report right now, if they didn't already do it last night.

I decided to be a bit more assertive and start more towards the front. This didn't go as planned. I was not aggressive enough about it. After they sent the C's off, there was a massive reshuffling of the group, which pushed me in the back 1/3. Then we started. As luck would have it, the mass I was in included someone who had significant problems clipping in and brought everything to a halt. This put me solidly in the back 1/4 before the first turn. This may not sound like a real big deal, but remember, there were 131 people in this race. By the way there were another 124 in the C's, so there were >250 people on the course at once. I can't believe the officials are able to keep all of it straight. I am truly impressed.

Anyway, was making some progress and after a couple of laps I put my head down and started passing some people. This went really well and had finally gotten through a group of about 10 riders that were all riding together. I poorly dismounted for the run up and at the top realize that my chain has come off. I stop to put it back on. Combine my poor run up with my poor chain re-installation and I lost all those places again.

I get back in it and start to work through them again. On the out and back, I see my teammate Strader again and notice that I am making ground on him. I make it my goal to catch him - it is always good to have a carrot. I wanted to encourage him while pushing myself. He was having a rough day, but was able to start closer to the front.

I finally catch him and ride with him encouraging him. He picks up his pace and we enter the velodrome. On the track I tell him to catch my wheel, but he missed it, so I 'powered' on. All was going well and I was getting a bit more aggressive about passing people. Then I come into the staircase. I am really tired as Mac's Six Pack just killed me every lap. I am going too fast for my tired legs to sustain if I dismount, so I bobble the whole thing and go down. There 10 people go past me, including Strader. I pick it up and try to work back through on what ended up being the last lap.

In the end, I finished up on the lead lap in 74th. When I was on the bike, I was pretty strong and was able to pass quite a few people, although I need to be much more aggressive about passing. I was spending too much time just following instead of forcing my way through. I also need to start further forward. I have the bike fitness to hand with the upper half, so I need to start there.

However, the big hole in my game continues to be mounting, dismounting and running. Every time I got off the bike, my heart rate when through the roof. Fortunately this course had much less running involved, but I still paid the price for my ineptitude when not pedaling.

The Fat Runner did well at 30th. I think he may have found his calling, the bastard! He is really gaining confidence and is moving past participating and into competing. It is good to see and it is great having someone to obsess about this stuff with.