NVV Cyclocross reports

Race Reports: Surf City CX Series 1998
Feb 2000
Navigate: Fun in the sun - Romp in the sand - Watsonville - Dogs have their day - Watsonville Redux - CX mud school

Introduction For two years I have avoided putting personal commentary on this site, on the premise that "everyone has an opinion" (as Clint Eastwood says) and mine are no more interesting than another's. But I always like reading other people's race reports, and a number of people have told me that they enjoy mine. So what the heck, I thought I would put them up here. If you don't have an interest in this--just click outta here. --Dave Carr

Surf City ’98 Race #1
Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose
10/11/98 Fun in the sun
Howdy cross fans,
Here's a great argument for skipping rainy road races in February and instead stretching your season out into the fall. Perfect weather today for the first Surf City CX race in San Jose. On the Santa Clara county fairgorunds, the course featured a lot of pavement, few runups, and even half a lap around the race-car flat track--in other words a great course for us roadies. The only technicalities were a lot of tight corners and a few sections of loose dirt and small runups.
NVV had a pretty good contingent with Aaron Brown (men B), Jen Ryden (women B), Brian Glueck (B's?), Sheila Moon (Wom A) and me (men A's). Big fields too, over 60 in the A's for example.
Results: Aaron ("ouch"--chewed up ankle), Jen ("not last" she said--first ever cross race I think), Sheila 9th (in the points), Brian (?), me 17th.
"A" race: Every year more fast guys take up cyclocross. 'Cross races have the fastest starts of any races I've done. Last year I tried to get the hole shot every race and would just blow up so today I tried to start out mellow and pick my way through since the course was easy to pass on. It worked pretty well as I passed guys pretty steadily and moved up into the top 20 by mid- race. There were a lot of cat 1/2 roadies up there who I recognized. I knew I was doing well when I caught Patrick Heaney (the national road race champ from Lombardi's). This turned out to be a mistake as Patrick glued onto my wheel and wouldn't take a pull for pretty much the entire race.
I started to get tired of this behavior and invited him to lead, but he refused. Eventually we caught a cat. 2 from Alto Velo into a long paved stretch and I attacked, and it worked: Patrick stayed on the AV guy's wheel. So far so good, but the gap stayed close and eventually I started to fade. Patrick finally left the AV guy and bridged up to me. This time he attacked and tried to drop me but I hung on. When he pulled off after 1/3 lap I thought he was ready to share the work so I took over.
Half a lap later he was still sitting there. I sat up and begged him to work, to no avail. Why, I don't know, since by working together we could have both placed higher, with a group of 5 guys about 20 seconds ahead. Oh well. Anyway with our little cat and mouse thing the AV guy caught us on the last lap. Patrick attacked again and I couldn't get his wheel this time.
OK, so here I am duking it out with the national champ, and we finish 15th and 16th. That's how tough the "A" fields are at Surf City. The winners just went sick fast, with 4 guys finishing within 3 seconds of each other, and perennial leaders Justin Robinson and Damon Kluck weren't even in the top 5. I'm pretty psyched, this was a better finish than my best from all last year. Sign me up for another one!!

Surf City ’98 Race #2
Fort Ord, Monterey
11/7/98 A romp in the sand
Howdy 'cross fans,
Well, if the word for Surf City #1 was "bumps", the word for race #2 was "sand." No surprise here as Fort Ord is built on the sand dunes by the shore. What a ghost town it is these days too. This course was a little more hilly than the Fairgrounds, with one hard runup of deep sand and a few rideable ups and downs, and about 60% flat with a lot of wheel sucking sand bogs thrown in. Fortunately the sand wasn't sticky enough to foul up the chain because that would have killed a lot of bikes in a hurry.
NVV again had a solid contingent with me (Men A), Sheila Moon (Wom A), and teammate John Rowen (men B) sporting a freshly minted Jolt skinsuit.
In the A's... I went down there just hoping for another top 20 finish. Last time, 16th was cool but it was a dead-flat roadie course. I wasn't as hopeful for this race with all the sand and some real running for a change. I didn't even decide whether to go until Saturday night. Imagine my surprise at finishing in the top 10--!!!
I started out in the back again (whoops) but fortunately there was plenty of room to move up. I found some good lines in the sand, especially one downhill section that put a lot of people in trouble. I found a good rut, put the weight back and blasted through there. (here's an image) About halfway through someone on the sideline said I was 11th. Cool!
Next, I came up on Todd Hoefer (Blackmarket)--as it turned out he had biffed a couple times and tweaked his handlebars. Right after I caught him he changed the broken bike for his MTB. I led up the runup and we went by Mike Taylor (PA Bike) on the downhill sand but after that I couldn't hang on to Todd as he just floated through the sand on those fat tires. Oh well. His comment: "Hey Dave, I haven't seen you in front of me since Districts!" (1995 CX districts, I was 2nd behind Larry Hibbard, Todd was 3rd.)
So that's how we finished, Todd 8th, me 9th, Mike 10th. I can't freakin' believe it--I got top 10 and now I'm 10th overall in series points. Instead of starting in the last row like past 2 races, I'll be called to the line next time! Holy smokes!
In the front of the A's were the usual suspects, '98 version that is. Most of the top 10 from last race were back for another dukefest but this time there was no tight finishing pack as Bryan Miller finished well in front of '97 series champ Justin Robinson. Will Bachar, last year's B champion, continued his remarkable climb to the top with a 3rd place finish ahead of Brent Prenzlow and Damon Kluck.

Surf City ’98 Race #3
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville
11/8/98 Return to Watsonville
Howdy cross fans,
NVV had a real CX team out there with seven of us scattered among the various categories. John Rowen gave a pretty good description of the course. I think this was a better course than last year's districts in the same location: they took out a couple of too-big barriers and cut down on the gnarly, one-line- only single track sections. Overall the biggest challenge was the soft sticky mud that sapped your energy anytime you tried to build up momentum. This course also continued the unusual pattern in this year's Surf races of having few big runups. Most races last year, at this location in particular, had at least two giant nasty runups, while this year's courses have had only one (or none, as in San Jose).
By virtue of holding 10th in the points standings I got a good starting position, though getting called to the line was a little anticlimactic as the rest of the field nearly swarmed me as I rolled up. Starting at the front was good for getting through the first mud section cleanly, but psychologically it was suboptimal: all the people I would have passed if I had started in back were already behind me, meaning I didn't get the mental boost of picking people off as time went on. I staked out a spot in the top 20 by halfway through and stuck there. Dave Wierzba (Wheelsmith) was in my sights for a long time but he gassed it with 2 to go, ending up in 12th. I held off a late chase from Sig Froelich (True Value) to save 16th. I'm still 11th overall in series points, but not far ahead of the next guys.
Among the series leaders, Dave Wyandt (PA Bike) got a less than typical start and was riding in the pack for a while before zooming away to the win and the series lead. Daryl Price showed up for his first Surf of the year to take second. Justin Robinson, last year's series winner, was suffering from the effects of racing all the way out in the Colorado SuperCup on Saturday (like Wyandt, who was unaffected) and ended up in 11th. Brent Prenzlow (Steelman), who has had the most consistent results this year, finished 3rd at Watsonville and holds 2nd in the series. Former NVV rider Damon Kluck, now of Bontrager, was 4th on the day and 5th in the series.
The season grinds along...I find my fitness fading as the weather and time change reduce my opportunities for hard training. It's the usual story. I don't know how guys like Wyandt do it. See you at the next Surf!

Surf City ’99 Race #4
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville
11/22/98 The dogs have their day
Howdy cross fans,
Fabulous weather smiled on Watsonville for the fourth Surf City race yesterday--almost too nice for 'cross, compared to the nasty weather in Seattle for the SuperCup races that also ran this weekend. Many of the series riders went up north this week, allowing points contenders to have their day at Surf City.
The Santa Cruz county fairgrounds is proving to be a great 'cross venue. Soft earth, hardpack, mud, soup, grass, and pavement are all in good supply, and in four races there this season and last, Jeff Clark has put together a remarkable variety of courses. Last year's heavy rains and big runups made for slog-fest racing. Yesterday, relatively dry and tacky conditions made for a fast course, with three runups (one long, one medium, and one that some could ride), a long out-and-back section of pavement, and a bunch of twisty sections on dirt, grass and pavement. There was significantly more running than in the past few events, but also a lot more pavement, so there were some good battles between the runners and the riders.
In M35 A, Rob Meighan went to Seattle so Anton McGready, Mark Weaver, and Joe Blanco got to duke it out among themselves, and finished in that order. Mark noted that the extra running in this event helped him regain the podium spot that has eluded him at the last couple events. Anton looked great too, leading instead of chasing for a change.
In Sr men A, five of the top guys were in Seattle, but those who were here still put on some fine fast racing. We all lined up at the start only to learn that we were being started in the opposite direction. Chaos ensued as we all had to reorganize ourselves. When we finally got started we headed downhill into the pavement section. It was a lot like a crit start with a string of 90 degree turns, "except for the gravel!" as Patrick Heaney noted right after one guy almost took out the front 10 with a slide on the gravelly pavement. The lead pack of 10 eventually splintered into small groups of 3-4 riders who could work together on the flat stretches. That wasn't in the cards for me as I worked my way up to 8th and spent most of the race alone between groups of riders in front and in back. Up front, Daryl Price took the win over Bryan Miller, taking his third podium finish in four races. I held on to my 8th and now sit 12th on points. As it turns out, consistency has helped me in the standings since there are only four of us in the top 15 who have done all 4 races. My final standing will probably depend on guys like Kevin Merrigan who only come once in a while but get top 5 and lots of points all at once.
Our other Jolt riders had a pretty good day, with Sheila Moon 11th in the women, John Rowen in the middle of the Bs, and Aaron Brown a great 14th out of more than 80 starters.

Surf City ’98 Race #5
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville
12/6/98 Watsonville Redux
>Howdy cross fans,
I don't know if I'm qualified to write a race report on this one because I was suffering too much to see what was going on. I don't know how in the world I managed to end up top 20, except there were fewer guys out there and a lot of them dropped out for one reason or another. A few pro-dogs from the SuperCup race came out and shamed us. I heard Peter Webber rode up one of the nasty runups--how he did it I'll never guess.
This course was deja vu all over again of last year's muddy races at Watsonville. There was pavement, a little grass, soft dirt, sticky mud, glue-ey mud, sloppy mud, and watery mud. There were three good sized runups, all muddy, and the big one was a review of last year's slimy conditions that just sucked the life out of your feet. A sloppy stream crossing was like a round of Russian Roulette each time through as you tried to guess where the big wheel eating hole was. And as if the mud wasn't enough, a bunch of slippery twists and turns bled off speed in a lot of places--though the chicanes around the pigpens weren't there like previously. There was also a stiff wind on the exposed pavement sections. Cleat function was nonexistent. Anyone who had a spare bike (not me) took the bike change, repeatedly.
Now I know why I never enjoy these muddy courses: because I suck at them. I'm a speed and momentum rider and when I'm constantly slogging against the mud trying to regain speed it breaks me. My criticism of last year's District course here I now realize was misplaced. It's a great course in the mud, I'm just not very good at doing it. So sorry Jeff--great course. Jeff actually apologized to me in advance for all the twists and turns. In fact there really weren't that many, though with all the mud some were rather awkward to negotiate. As they say, that's cross. But it's no crit rider's racetrack.
A smaller turnout of Jolts today, just the diehards. Thanks to Sheila and John for cheering. They said I looked good out there so I guess appearances must be deceiving.

Surf City ’97 Race #3
Soquel High School, Soquel
11/97 CX mud school
Howdy cross fans,
On the shelf at home I have a copy of the first edition of the book "Cyclocross" by Simon Burney (the second edition is now published by VeloNews). In the old edition there are lots of inspirational Graham Watson photos of Euro' cross. One is an epic image of two brown slimy figures, waddling through a field of deep brown slimy goo tracked with oozing holes where feet and wheels had passed. You can't see any part of the riders but their eyes. The only things not brown are the bikes--which of course were just picked up from the pit, freshly cleaned. Oh, and the leader is smiling!
I thought I would never see such mud in a 'cross race--until last Sunday. Wow--I've done dirt, I've done peanut butter adobe caked-deep-on-your-chainstays mud, but I have never done cyclocross like last week in Soquel. This was mud "that legends are made of", to borrow from George Mount. This was pouring rain and wet soupy mud several inches deep on every part of the course that wasn't paved. Serious slop. (I have a picture by Mark Dawson of me at that race.)
Guys would be struggling just to stay upright while riding thru it, then would sudenly veer off and fall on their butts in the gloop. Everyone was coated from head to toe. What can I say...SERIOUS fun. I think there's a big part of me that's still the kid who would run outside when it rained and ride his bike through every mud puddle around. There's something primal about repeatedly splattering your body with mud while struggling against severe oxygen debt.
At Soquel, "real" cyclocross bikes had an advantage over MTBs because the thin tires cut thru the mud and didn't get slowed down that much. I'd always heard that advantage claimed for CX bikes--but never experienced it before. It actually was faster to ride through the soup, where the tires had packed down a hard sub-layer, than to ride out on the grass where the dirt was still soft and sticky.
Oh yeah, the race...I started in the back, not knowing what to expect, but soon found me and the good ol' Redline slicing thru the muck. I passed a lot of people in the deepest mud sections, riding while others bogged down or ran. In the end I got lapped on the last lap, but only by the leader, Bart Brentjens. At the finish I sprinted past a guy who seemed to forget that we had dropped a lap when Bart passed. I came in 25th out of about 70 in the A's -- I'm pretty satisfied with that, for such a slow course. I cooled off and watched the big boys bring in the top 10.
Afterwards there was a merciful hose to wash off with (repeatedly), free OJ courtesy of Odwalla, and warm clothes in the car. May all 'cross be so epic.

Go back to the NVV Cyclocross Circuit

Introduction	For two years I have avoided putting personal commentary on this site, on the premise that "everyone has an opinion" (as Clint Eastwood says) and mine are no more interesting than another's. But I always like reading other people's race reports, and a number of people have told me that they enjoy mine. So what the heck, I thought I would put them up here. If you don't have an interest in this--just click outta here. --Dave Carr
Surf City ’98 Race #1 Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, San Jose 10/11/98	Fun in the sun Howdy cross fans, Here's a great argument for skipping rainy road races in February and instead stretching your season out into the fall. Perfect weather today for the first Surf City CX race in San Jose. On the Santa Clara county fairgorunds, the course featured a lot of pavement, few runups, and even half a lap around the race-car flat track--in other words a great course for us roadies. The only technicalities were a lot of tight corners and a few sections of loose dirt and small runups. NVV had a pretty good contingent with Aaron Brown (men B), Jen Ryden (women B), Brian Glueck (B's?), Sheila Moon (Wom A) and me (men A's). Big fields too, over 60 in the A's for example. Results: Aaron ("ouch"--chewed up ankle), Jen ("not last" she said--first ever cross race I think), Sheila 9th (in the points), Brian (?), me 17th. "A" race: Every year more fast guys take up cyclocross. 'Cross races have the fastest starts of any races I've done. Last year I tried to get the hole shot every race and would just blow up so today I tried to start out mellow and pick my way through since the course was easy to pass on. It worked pretty well as I passed guys pretty steadily and moved up into the top 20 by mid- race. There were a lot of cat 1/2 roadies up there who I recognized. I knew I was doing well when I caught Patrick Heaney (the national road race champ from Lombardi's). This turned out to be a mistake as Patrick glued onto my wheel and wouldn't take a pull for pretty much the entire race. I started to get tired of this behavior and invited him to lead, but he refused. Eventually we caught a cat. 2 from Alto Velo into a long paved stretch and I attacked, and it worked: Patrick stayed on the AV guy's wheel. So far so good, but the gap stayed close and eventually I started to fade. Patrick finally left the AV guy and bridged up to me. This time he attacked and tried to drop me but I hung on. When he pulled off after 1/3 lap I thought he was ready to share the work so I took over. Half a lap later he was still sitting there. I sat up and begged him to work, to no avail. Why, I don't know, since by working together we could have both placed higher, with a group of 5 guys about 20 seconds ahead. Oh well. Anyway with our little cat and mouse thing the AV guy caught us on the last lap. Patrick attacked again and I couldn't get his wheel this time. OK, so here I am duking it out with the national champ, and we finish 15th and 16th. That's how tough the "A" fields are at Surf City. The winners just went sick fast, with 4 guys finishing within 3 seconds of each other, and perennial leaders Justin Robinson and Damon Kluck weren't even in the top 5. I'm pretty psyched, this was a better finish than my best from all last year. Sign me up for another one!!
Surf City ’98 Race #2 Fort Ord, Monterey 11/7/98	A romp in the sand Howdy 'cross fans, Well, if the word for Surf City #1 was "bumps", the word for race #2 was "sand." No surprise here as Fort Ord is built on the sand dunes by the shore. What a ghost town it is these days too. This course was a little more hilly than the Fairgrounds, with one hard runup of deep sand and a few rideable ups and downs, and about 60% flat with a lot of wheel sucking sand bogs thrown in. Fortunately the sand wasn't sticky enough to foul up the chain because that would have killed a lot of bikes in a hurry. NVV again had a solid contingent with me (Men A), Sheila Moon (Wom A), and teammate John Rowen (men B) sporting a freshly minted Jolt skinsuit. In the A's... I went down there just hoping for another top 20 finish. Last time, 16th was cool but it was a dead-flat roadie course. I wasn't as hopeful for this race with all the sand and some real running for a change. I didn't even decide whether to go until Saturday night. Imagine my surprise at finishing in the top 10--!!! I started out in the back again (whoops) but fortunately there was plenty of room to move up. I found some good lines in the sand, especially one downhill section that put a lot of people in trouble. I found a good rut, put the weight back and blasted through there. (here's an image) About halfway through someone on the sideline said I was 11th. Cool! Next, I came up on Todd Hoefer (Blackmarket)--as it turned out he had biffed a couple times and tweaked his handlebars. Right after I caught him he changed the broken bike for his MTB. I led up the runup and we went by Mike Taylor (PA Bike) on the downhill sand but after that I couldn't hang on to Todd as he just floated through the sand on those fat tires. Oh well. His comment: "Hey Dave, I haven't seen you in front of me since Districts!" (1995 CX districts, I was 2nd behind Larry Hibbard, Todd was 3rd.) So that's how we finished, Todd 8th, me 9th, Mike 10th. I can't freakin' believe it--I got top 10 and now I'm 10th overall in series points. Instead of starting in the last row like past 2 races, I'll be called to the line next time! Holy smokes! In the front of the A's were the usual suspects, '98 version that is. Most of the top 10 from last race were back for another dukefest but this time there was no tight finishing pack as Bryan Miller finished well in front of '97 series champ Justin Robinson. Will Bachar, last year's B champion, continued his remarkable climb to the top with a 3rd place finish ahead of Brent Prenzlow and Damon Kluck.
Surf City ’98 Race #3 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville 11/8/98	Return to Watsonville Howdy cross fans, NVV had a real CX team out there with seven of us scattered among the various categories. John Rowen gave a pretty good description of the course. I think this was a better course than last year's districts in the same location: they took out a couple of too-big barriers and cut down on the gnarly, one-line- only single track sections. Overall the biggest challenge was the soft sticky mud that sapped your energy anytime you tried to build up momentum. This course also continued the unusual pattern in this year's Surf races of having few big runups. Most races last year, at this location in particular, had at least two giant nasty runups, while this year's courses have had only one (or none, as in San Jose). By virtue of holding 10th in the points standings I got a good starting position, though getting called to the line was a little anticlimactic as the rest of the field nearly swarmed me as I rolled up. Starting at the front was good for getting through the first mud section cleanly, but psychologically it was suboptimal: all the people I would have passed if I had started in back were already behind me, meaning I didn't get the mental boost of picking people off as time went on. I staked out a spot in the top 20 by halfway through and stuck there. Dave Wierzba (Wheelsmith) was in my sights for a long time but he gassed it with 2 to go, ending up in 12th. I held off a late chase from Sig Froelich (True Value) to save 16th. I'm still 11th overall in series points, but not far ahead of the next guys. Among the series leaders, Dave Wyandt (PA Bike) got a less than typical start and was riding in the pack for a while before zooming away to the win and the series lead. Daryl Price showed up for his first Surf of the year to take second. Justin Robinson, last year's series winner, was suffering from the effects of racing all the way out in the Colorado SuperCup on Saturday (like Wyandt, who was unaffected) and ended up in 11th. Brent Prenzlow (Steelman), who has had the most consistent results this year, finished 3rd at Watsonville and holds 2nd in the series. Former NVV rider Damon Kluck, now of Bontrager, was 4th on the day and 5th in the series. The season grinds along...I find my fitness fading as the weather and time change reduce my opportunities for hard training. It's the usual story. I don't know how guys like Wyandt do it. See you at the next Surf!
Surf City ’99 Race #4 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville 11/22/98	The dogs have their day Howdy cross fans, Fabulous weather smiled on Watsonville for the fourth Surf City race yesterday--almost too nice for 'cross, compared to the nasty weather in Seattle for the SuperCup races that also ran this weekend. Many of the series riders went up north this week, allowing points contenders to have their day at Surf City. The Santa Cruz county fairgrounds is proving to be a great 'cross venue. Soft earth, hardpack, mud, soup, grass, and pavement are all in good supply, and in four races there this season and last, Jeff Clark has put together a remarkable variety of courses. Last year's heavy rains and big runups made for slog-fest racing. Yesterday, relatively dry and tacky conditions made for a fast course, with three runups (one long, one medium, and one that some could ride), a long out-and-back section of pavement, and a bunch of twisty sections on dirt, grass and pavement. There was significantly more running than in the past few events, but also a lot more pavement, so there were some good battles between the runners and the riders. In M35 A, Rob Meighan went to Seattle so Anton McGready, Mark Weaver, and Joe Blanco got to duke it out among themselves, and finished in that order. Mark noted that the extra running in this event helped him regain the podium spot that has eluded him at the last couple events. Anton looked great too, leading instead of chasing for a change. In Sr men A, five of the top guys were in Seattle, but those who were here still put on some fine fast racing. We all lined up at the start only to learn that we were being started in the opposite direction. Chaos ensued as we all had to reorganize ourselves. When we finally got started we headed downhill into the pavement section. It was a lot like a crit start with a string of 90 degree turns, "except for the gravel!" as Patrick Heaney noted right after one guy almost took out the front 10 with a slide on the gravelly pavement. The lead pack of 10 eventually splintered into small groups of 3-4 riders who could work together on the flat stretches. That wasn't in the cards for me as I worked my way up to 8th and spent most of the race alone between groups of riders in front and in back. Up front, Daryl Price took the win over Bryan Miller, taking his third podium finish in four races. I held on to my 8th and now sit 12th on points. As it turns out, consistency has helped me in the standings since there are only four of us in the top 15 who have done all 4 races. My final standing will probably depend on guys like Kevin Merrigan who only come once in a while but get top 5 and lots of points all at once. Our other Jolt riders had a pretty good day, with Sheila Moon 11th in the women, John Rowen in the middle of the Bs, and Aaron Brown a great 14th out of more than 80 starters.
Surf City ’98 Race #5 Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville 12/6/98	Watsonville Redux >Howdy cross fans, I don't know if I'm qualified to write a race report on this one because I was suffering too much to see what was going on. I don't know how in the world I managed to end up top 20, except there were fewer guys out there and a lot of them dropped out for one reason or another. A few pro-dogs from the SuperCup race came out and shamed us. I heard Peter Webber rode up one of the nasty runups--how he did it I'll never guess. This course was deja vu all over again of last year's muddy races at Watsonville. There was pavement, a little grass, soft dirt, sticky mud, glue-ey mud, sloppy mud, and watery mud. There were three good sized runups, all muddy, and the big one was a review of last year's slimy conditions that just sucked the life out of your feet. A sloppy stream crossing was like a round of Russian Roulette each time through as you tried to guess where the big wheel eating hole was. And as if the mud wasn't enough, a bunch of slippery twists and turns bled off speed in a lot of places--though the chicanes around the pigpens weren't there like previously. There was also a stiff wind on the exposed pavement sections. Cleat function was nonexistent. Anyone who had a spare bike (not me) took the bike change, repeatedly. Now I know why I never enjoy these muddy courses: because I suck at them. I'm a speed and momentum rider and when I'm constantly slogging against the mud trying to regain speed it breaks me. My criticism of last year's District course here I now realize was misplaced. It's a great course in the mud, I'm just not very good at doing it. So sorry Jeff--great course. Jeff actually apologized to me in advance for all the twists and turns. In fact there really weren't that many, though with all the mud some were rather awkward to negotiate. As they say, that's cross. But it's no crit rider's racetrack. A smaller turnout of Jolts today, just the diehards. Thanks to Sheila and John for cheering. They said I looked good out there so I guess appearances must be deceiving.
Surf City ’97 Race #3 Soquel High School, Soquel 11/97	CX mud school Howdy cross fans, On the shelf at home I have a copy of the first edition of the book "Cyclocross" by Simon Burney (the second edition is now published by VeloNews). In the old edition there are lots of inspirational Graham Watson photos of Euro' cross. One is an epic image of two brown slimy figures, waddling through a field of deep brown slimy goo tracked with oozing holes where feet and wheels had passed. You can't see any part of the riders but their eyes. The only things not brown are the bikes--which of course were just picked up from the pit, freshly cleaned. Oh, and the leader is smiling! I thought I would never see such mud in a 'cross race--until last Sunday. Wow--I've done dirt, I've done peanut butter adobe caked-deep-on-your-chainstays mud, but I have never done cyclocross like last week in Soquel. This was mud "that legends are made of", to borrow from George Mount. This was pouring rain and wet soupy mud several inches deep on every part of the course that wasn't paved. Serious slop. (I have a picture by Mark Dawson of me at that race.) Guys would be struggling just to stay upright while riding thru it, then would sudenly veer off and fall on their butts in the gloop. Everyone was coated from head to toe. What can I say...SERIOUS fun. I think there's a big part of me that's still the kid who would run outside when it rained and ride his bike through every mud puddle around. There's something primal about repeatedly splattering your body with mud while struggling against severe oxygen debt. At Soquel, "real" cyclocross bikes had an advantage over MTBs because the thin tires cut thru the mud and didn't get slowed down that much. I'd always heard that advantage claimed for CX bikes--but never experienced it before. It actually was faster to ride through the soup, where the tires had packed down a hard sub-layer, than to ride out on the grass where the dirt was still soft and sticky. Oh yeah, the race...I started in the back, not knowing what to expect, but soon found me and the good ol' Redline slicing thru the muck. I passed a lot of people in the deepest mud sections, riding while others bogged down or ran. In the end I got lapped on the last lap, but only by the leader, Bart Brentjens. At the finish I sprinted past a guy who seemed to forget that we had dropped a lap when Bart passed. I came in 25th out of about 70 in the A's -- I'm pretty satisfied with that, for such a slow course. I cooled off and watched the big boys bring in the top 10. Afterwards there was a merciful hose to wash off with (repeatedly), free OJ courtesy of Odwalla, and warm clothes in the car. May all 'cross be so epic.