Badger Cross

First off, I have to say thanks to Renee and her Capitol Velo Club crew for putting on such a great race Sunday! They did an awesome job of making the race a fun place to be. Fun course, free food and beer, great raffle prizes, music, an announcer, real bathrooms, cowbells, a small expo area.... Great event, Renee!

When I got back from Colorado last Wednesday night, it was after midnight and I was tired. All I could think of was how nice it would be to have a weekend at home where I didn't have to pack for anything or drive anywhere. Once I started catching up on blog reading, I found out that there was a mtn bike race that I hadn't known about, and that Renee's Badger Cross race was on Sunday. Funny how my resolve to stay home and take it easy immediately dissolved. Never underestimate the power of suggestion (power of obsession??) to a bike racer.

At first I thought that they were both on Sunday. On Friday I realized that one race was Saturday and one was Sunday. (Actually there were two races on Saturday!) Although I would have liked to go to both races, I decided that Sunday's Badger Cross was the one for me. Renee had left me a comment and we exchanged emails, and I have to say her race looked really fun. Chris said it was a fun course, as well. It seemed like it would be a great event even if I didn't race and just decided to spectate.

Friday night I got an email from Gabi asking if I wanted to go to the Beechwood race with her. I would have gone, but it was too late for me to switch gears and go to both. Too bad, it probably would have been fun, even just spectating.

Soooo, I ended up going to Badger Cross. To race or not? I packed everything up like I was going to race. I decided to take my old mt bike that I used for cross the last couple of years instead of my lovely cross bike since I had heard the course is bumpy and I would need some back-saving suspension. Having the mtn bike also meant I could do dismounts the way that's comfortable for me, not the traditional way. Can't do that on my new cross bike, I have found. The fact that there was a prize for the top mtn bike finisher helped, too.

I only got about 5.5 hours of sleep. I got to the race an hour before my race, which should have given me plenty of time to get ready. I have no idea where the time went - next thing I knew I had run out of time to warm up. Maybe the rain slowed me down. I didn't get to warm up at all, nothing more than riding to the bathroom and the start line. No pre-riding, didn't even really see the course. I'm used to not pre-riding courses, though, that didn't bother me that much. But not warming up affected my race.

About 11 women. It felt like a big field to me, though it was smaller than the 16 or so we had at Jackson Park in September. Maybe because I didn't know most of them. When I saw Amelia B. on the list at registration, I knew that my hopes of being the first mt bike finisher had been dashed. So much for that idea. There were several other women on mt bikes that I didn't know. Some of us were lined up in front, the rest of us behind the juniors. They asked the rest of us to move up, but we could only squeeze in on one side, as the juniors stayed where they were. That put me almost at the very back of our group. It made for a terrible start for everyone off to the side next to the juniors and not in the front row. The start, a nice long straightway, would have been good for me had I been warmed up and had I been a few rows up. I had some trouble clipping in right away, too. As it was, the front group got away right off the bat.

We turned off the wet pavement onto the grass, where we immediately encountered MUD! I was way too cautious at this point, slowing down too much for a bumpy downhill turn. I lost a lot of ground here. We crossed the road again, then had to be super cautious as we hit the trail going downhill, at speed, and having to make a turn onto muddy grass. Goopy soft ruts of mud had formed where the pavement met the trail. We headed uphill on the muddy trail, after trying not to slide out in that turn from the pavement. At this point sciatic misery set in - my body was rebelling at going from zero to 60 with no warning. I felt the hamstring and foot cramp coming on, and thought I was going to have to drop out in the first lap. The pain continued but I kept the cramping at bay, and eventually was able to block it out. I totally lost focus there for a bit, however. Someone passed me. Somewhere after the uphill barriers I lost sight of Angela, who had been in front of me. I know that we often finish close to each other in WORS races, so I felt bad about losing sight of her. I should have been able to keep up with her. To me that meant I was losing more ground. I think that I lost some fitness when I had to skip the last four mountain bike races. On the next road section there was a woman on my wheel. The road part is where I do best, and I didn't want to tow her along. I tried to shake her off my wheel the way I was once taught. It worked, I dropped her, and did not see her again.

The section near the parking lot and expo area had lots going on in addition to people screaming - barriers ( yep, agony), downhill stuff, a log barrier step up, and a bunch of tight chicane-type things. All muddy, you were always at risk of sliding out. In later laps I experimented with rounding the corners or trees with both feet on the pedals, vs. having a foot out for balance. I decided that for me, taking the tight turns with a foot out was definitely faster. I have always wondered if that was a total rookie thing to do - it works so well for me. It probably looks like one when I do it, but I read somewhere that even the mtb pros do it on occasion. It seems like when it comes to cross, I can't do anything by the book anymore! I could probably be the example for how not to do dismounts, remounts, and tight muddy turns. But this is one of those cases where I have had to adapt and do what works for me, or else no 'cross.

At various points in the race, the faster juniors were passing me. Nate flew by first - congrats to Nate on a great race! Sometimes there was no one around, other times there were juniors right behind me. On the uphill barriers I would ask if there was anyone behind me, and by the second lap they would say the next person was way back. I still worried about those girls back there catching me, so I tried to keep up my pace. In the third lap I dropped my chain on the uphill before the log step barriers, and it took several tries to get it to stay on. Some juniors caught me then, but I was hoping no one in my race would pass me. Sometimes I could see the person ahead of me, but it would have taken a longer race for me to catch any of them. I think a warm up, not letting the girls get away at the start, and being more aggressive in the mud might have gained me a couple of places, but not too many. In the first lap I coasted out of the saddle over the bumpiest sections to save my back (in the process letting people get away), but in later laps I sat and I pedaled more.

That last lap wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. As hard as the race was and as muddy and yucky as the conditions were, I really enjoyed the course. It had the feel of a mountain bike course in places.

Thanks to everyone who cheered me on! After it was over, I didn't know what place I had gotten in my mid-pack finish, but I knew I hadn't finished well enough to win anything. So I was excited to find out that I had won something in the raffle. I got a wonderful wooly/fleecy black turtleneck top with orange trim that I really like. And it fit !!!

My riding clothes were beyond muddy. Taking off the gear didn't get rid of the mud - it was still there. It migrated right through the lycra. Ugh. And lots of people were smiling at me - I asked why and someone said it was the mud smeared on my face!

It was nice to see Kim and Chris out with the World Bicycle Relief tent. I bought some raffle tickets from Kim. I won a sweet t-shirt, and Holly K. won some socks. Holly had a very strong field for her women's 1/2/3's race. Unfortunately someone right in front of her let a gap develop at just the wrong time. Devon H., who crushed us all in the 4's in the Chicago series last year, won both the women 3's race AND the women 1/2/3's event. Wow. She will be on fire at Natz.

Fellow blogger MountainGoat put on a good show in the last race, hopping some of the log barriers. It always amazes me that people can do that. It seemed like a particularly difficult place to do it, in terms of the approach. Chris was out there in the thick of the 1/2's race, getting acquainted with the mud after a strong finish the day before at CamRock! Scott got to test his Red components in the mud in the 1,2's. He was happy that the solid Red cassette and the components in general did so well in the mud. If I get a chance I'll post a pic of the muddy cassette later. And, no surprise, Jesse won the 1/2's race with Ronsta next, then Scott in third, behind him. The singlespeeds ruled.

And, when I was getting close to leaving, I heard someone calling my name. It was Troy T., who I hadn't seen in ages, since before he moved from Evanston to Madison. We got to chat for a little bit. The drive home was ok until the end, when I was tired, having not gotten much sleep. The way I felt Monday, I can tell I shouldn't have raced, should have just spectated. Too late now!

A fun day, in spite of the less than ideal weather conditions!