ABD Sunrise Park CX - CCC# 3

 Kryptonite - "often used to describe something likened to kryptonite in causing someone's weakness, failure, etc."

There are plenty of things in cyclocross I'm just not that good at or can't do at all (Jumping tall barriers) but the hill at Sunrise Park is absolutely my kryptonite.  It isn't a big hill like Saturday's in Grafton and getting to the top isn't a big deal, but at the top there is a U turn that goes steep downhill/off camber.  Every year I fall and every year I lose time there.  This year I crashed embarrassingly in warmup twice.  It is a combination of a mental block and a non-clinical panic attack. I just can't let go of my brain and point my front wheel down and to the left.  Bryan Connolly has tried to help me multiple times (He has mad skills) to no avail.

So here we are again.  We have the hill I can't ride down right after a day where I had no power (See the Grafton recap).  

Tower had another great turnout.  In the 45+ Bryan and Tony F. were with me along with Joe Doyle (Not everyone wears a Tower kit but we adopt them nonetheless).  In the 55+ it was George, Fran, Bob, Brad and Mark M.  Even Mitch plunked down his retirement money and was out there.  Later in the Day Bob's son John raced the Cat 4's.  And the new entry to the CX game on the women's side was Fran's daughter Margaret, who, after a pre ride lap with her father, went on to tear it up for a top ten finish > someone get her a Tower jersey for next week's podium! [Oh, yeah.  She hadn't ridden a bike in over a year!!!]

It was a beautiful weekend in the 70's which meant for me at race time (8:55 am) it was a balmy 60 degrees.  That is both good and bad.  It is never fun freezing your fingers off but at the same time overheating when you are going 100% for 40 minutes is a real thing.  The humidity was also low which meant my mouth was dry from the first lap on.  That slowed me down.  Lesson learned is to carry a water bottle when it is warm.

Above GIF shows the first lap of the 55+ race.

In the 45+ race the burning question is how many times did I fall and again I will disappoint and say I didn't fall at all.  The best way for Superman to win is to put that kryptonite in a box.  So I did just that and instead of bothering to try and ride the hill I just ran it each time.  In fact, on the first lap I passed 3 people while running it.  This year they put barriers just before the hill so I was off my bike anyway (I watched too many people crash on the barriers in warm up to try it).  The downside of running is that you run the barriers, run up the hill, run down the hill and then remount.  I was pooped.  It would take me a couple more corners to try and catch my breath.

Right after the start two people bumped and came to a stop right in front of me.  I probably lost up to 10 places because if it.  That's hard for me because I make up spots in the first lap and slowly give them back as the race goes on.  
There was another section where they had 2 telephone poles on the course and you could make up time if you could bunny hop them (one at a time) instead of dismounting them.  I wasn't graceful but I did the bunny hop thing and passed people/gained space.  When you can do that it perks you up a bit.

Courtesy Brad Green Photography

Evidently, a neighbor complained about us tearing up the park on the far side of the course so there was another off camber spot removed which was a bummer (Not for me but in general).  To make up for it (I think) they added loose dirt to a wooded section to make it more slippery.  

Overall, my power was better than Saturday and I just kept it steady.  Halfway through the last lap I noticed 4 racers behind my.  Now my goal was to keep them there and place as best as I could.  The back half of the course has the woods where you can't really pass anyone and coming out there are a number of turns.  So, I made it to the woods first and kept them all in check.  The guy right behind me was a bigger guy so I started to think about the sprint.  The finish is uphill so it isn't easy.  I was in the drops before the last corner and gave it the gas.  

At this point I made 2 mistakes.  The first one is forgivable as I was blinded by fatigue.  I didn't look under my arms as I was sprinting to check where he was.  The second was just plain dumb.  The thing where you just roll your eyes at the tv screen during the Tour etc.  Right as I was about to hit the line I let up.  Literally one pedal stroke away.  Then all of a sudden I see a blur to my left.  I still thought I had won at the time but when the results came out and then were confirmed by the photo finish camera (How cool is it that the CCC has a photo finish camera) I was devastated (mostly by embarrassment).  He beat me by the 40mm depth of my front rim.  Stupid!

I finished 27th out of 67.  Still a good result for me.  Being in the top half of the results is new for me still and a good accomplishment.  I was the 4th placed Cat 4 in the group.  I'll take what I can get.

Thanks for reading!