Surf City ’99 Race #1
Fort Ord, Monterey
10/24/99 |
Return to Fort Ord Howdy cross fans,
Another CX season is officially underway, following the first Surf City event of the year. Yesterday's sunny race at Fort Ord repeated what was (to me) the coolest course of the '98 season: sandy, tricky, fun, and pretty well balanced. The course was almost identical to last year's, beginning with a long runup in soft sand, followed by a number of chicanes on pavement and shallow sand, some short steep up-and down riding, and more soft sand with a particularly tricky fast downhill plunge through an endo-happy sand pit. The second half of the course was all flat, with alternating pavement and deep soft sand. Promoter Jeff Clark wisely placed only a few forced dismounts, leaving it up to each rider to choose whether to ride or run the sand.
For some reason, the sand seemed softer and less rideable than the same course last year (We had about an inch of rain prior to the first race last year. -jeff). Maybe for that reason, a lot of guys opted to start out on their fat tire MTBs in order to float over the sand. The key to the race was maintaining speed through the sand -- if you bogged down there was no way you were going to pedal your way out of it.
NVV/Jolt had three riders out there: myself (Sr A); John Rowen, returning from injury, in Sr B; and Lucas Euser, making his Surf City debut, in Junior A. John started in a truly huge field of 90 B's and rode smoothly ("I saved my injured knee") to finish in the middle of the pack, riding well enough to avoid getting lapped.
Lucas had a rough start when he thought there would be a minute's wait between the start of the master men and the Junior race, and was standing unclipped when the whistle blew after only ten seconds. He recovered quickly and rode smoothly away from the small Junior A field for a convincing win. He spent most of the race duking it out with pro MTB'er Rachel Lloyd, who was also on the course for the concurrent Women's A race.
The Sr A race was pretty uneventful from my point of view. I lined up at the base of the hill with bike on shoulder (it was a running start for the A's), got a good start, quickly established myself in the top 15 and stayed there the rest of the race. Early on, I spent some time chasing Mike Taylor (who rides for Lombardi's in the road season, and Palo Alto bike for 'cross -- sporting cool retro wool uniform). Last year, I beat Mike pretty regularly, though not by much. This year, his cross skills have clearly caught up to his fitness, and I only briefly rode with him before he left me for good. The rest of the race I focused on form, successfully holding off three guys who were nipping at my heels. Meanwhile, veteran strongman Kevin Merrigan bounced back from a disappointing '98 to capture a popular win--his comment was "I had fire in my veins" or something like that. Good job Kevin.
It's cool to be 'crossing again--racing, enjoying fall weather, and getting reacquainted with friends from last year. See you next Saturday at the Vineyard CX in Napa!
Cheers, Dave Carr
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Surf City ’99 Race #2
Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Watsonville
11/7/99 |
FOCUS Howdy cross fans,
There's an image for every race, and my image for this one is Jack Nicholson as Joker in the Batman movie: "Focus! FO-O-OCUS!!" You needed it to do well today, and I didn't have it, well at least not enough.
Today's race proved again that Watsonville is one of NorCal's best and most versatile 'cross venues. This time, Jeff Clark and crew put together a super fast crit race of a cross course. We blasted off into a smooth, hard dirt access road and into a sketchy hard right that led to a big pileup in the A's, with several guys down and another out in the weeds. Then down another sketchy chicane and out along the fire road to the day's only runup: short, steep and soft. Then onto the pavement, over some barriers and bumpy earth to the backside which was ups and downs and just one hard turn after another, and finally a blinding fast sprint finish on pavement. I think Jeff's been watching videos of Euro-cross, where the courses tend to have few barriers and many, many corners. I counted 16 fast turns today, and just four dismounts. Everyone I talked to agreed that this was one hard, fast, fun course. I can only imagine the nightmare this course would have been if it were muddy. Actually, I can: every race here last year!
With many of the usual wrecking crew in Boulder for the Super Cup, this race should have been easier--but it wasn't. Their absence just showed the depth of the A field this year. Ben Jacques-Maynes (Spokesmen) is riding great and he pretty much walked away with the race, reportedly taking both of the $20 primes on the first two laps--"He made it look easy," said Kevin Merrigan. As for me the roadie, I figured I would have it good today. Cross bikes and cornering skill were essential--payback for all those mountain bikers who ruled the sand last time at Fort Ord. After the first lap shakeout I hooked up with Cameron Falconer (Hunter) and we started trading pulls, picking off guys left and right. Things were looking good. But remember what I said about focus?
On all of this smooth fast course it was just one little stretch of bumpy dirt, leading up to a fourteen inch log dismount, that led to my undoing. I lost ground to everyone there, and like an idiot I let everyone lead me into it. So on lap four or so I was following Cameron and decided I needed to be in front, especially because he was bunny-hopping the log (on cross bike!) every lap. So I went to pass on the left---but I failed to notice I was on his right. Doh!! I crossed wheels and went down. (FO-O-CUS!!) I sprang up unhurt, but rattled. Cam left me, then everyone we had passed came by, and I was alone. I'm not complaining. But Cam came in top 10 and I blew a nice opportunity. As they say in Georgia, that's 'cross, y'all.
Race Notes: -- Four NVV/Jolt guys today: me, Ben Penning (Jr B's, rose long before dawn to drive down with his dad), John Rowen (Sr B's), and Lucas Euser (Jr. A's.) Each finished in the middle of the pack. John seemed the most pleased with his race: his first good hard ride since coming back from injury.
-- The end of today's race heralded the end of our Indian summer: almost on cue a huge downpour rolled in from the coast. Next time here, mud for sure. Bring your Time pedals.
Cheers, Dave Carr, Napa Valley Velo
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Surf City ’99 Race #3
San Lorenzo Valley High School, Felton
11/21/99 |
San Lorenzo Slop Howdy cross fans,
After weeks of dry weather, it has finally started raining and we had a nice muddy race at Surf City last Sunday. Yet somehow, despite the rain, the sun still came out for a beautiful day of cross. The course at San Lorenzo High School had a little of everything. Start out with a lap of the running track, then some alternating pavement, grass, and short runups, then a big mud bog followed by a steep climb on grass, followed by a tough runup in sticky mud (as if you had anything left by then). Then more mud, some tricky fun singletrack through redwood forests, a fast gradual descent on pavement (big gears required), bunnyhop a curb, around and back on grass and sand in the baseball diamonds, and finish. Oh, and do it six more times.
I think for this race, you either had it or you didn't. "Did" was Justin Robinson, fresh off his podium finish the day before at the Seattle Supercup, and flying at Surf City. "Didn't" was me. "Didn't" was also Kevin Merrigan, SCCX #1 winner, who uncharacteristically was riding back in the pack with me. I asked him, what the heck are you doing here? "I had a physical," he said -- you know, the biological equivalent of a mechanical.
As for me, this race was a little like an out of body experience. For example, I was more aware of the people watching the race then I was of my own riding. There was this little traveling circus of spectators that worked its way around the course. One lap it would be on the grinding uphill, then the next lap on the runup that followed the hill, then at the bottom of the chute after the runup, then in the woods, etc. Adding to my confusion was that the course wrapped around on itself four times, and there was someone in the middle who called my name every time I went by, as if they had madly run back and forth when actually they just stayed in the same place. Plus with the course so wrapped up, you could hear the announcer on the PA from anywhere on the circuit, like a voice inside my head. Of course I could hear the announcer when Justin finished the race, while I was just entering the mud bog less than half way around my last lap. Ugh.
Race notes:
- One of the more tricky features was a short hill in the first half, preceded by a curb at the bottom. If you rode carefully over the curb the hill was a grind. The only way to ride it fast was to approach fast and launch over the curb--but if you blew it, you hit your wheel with a sickening crunch. Mark Weaver blew out a wheel here last year, and I crunched a training rim this year--and Jeff Caton cracked open a Spinergy on it. Ouch. In the race I ended up running this piece--of course everyone around me rode it. Figures.
- Last time I mentioned how Surf City courses are becoming more Euro. Now the latest thing is bunny hop barriers. I don't mean little dinky ones like last year's San Jose SuperCup -- these are full size, but they're being placed singly, or in pairs something like twenty feet apart per the new UCI rules. The best guys can hop 'em all, as Justin reportedly did here. Bunnyhops aren't a new thing -- Euro-pro Danny de Bie hopped his way to a world's win ten years ago -- but in general there has been an unspoken agreement that we'd all get off for everything and the competition would be about who had the best transition skill. Now with young guns like Sven Nijs and Jonny Sundt gaining rock-star cult status for bunnyhopping, everyone's doing it. Except me.
- NVV had our usual good turnout with me (Sr A), Lucas Euser (Jr A), John Rowen (Sr B) and Tim Brennan (Sr B). Luke had the best race, taking second to keep second overall in the points heading to the last round. Tim got the lanterne rouge award...ah, but at least it was a beautiful fall day for 'cross.
Cheers, Dave Carr, Napa Valley Velo/Jolt
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