I got to race my first Cyclocross race in Oklahoma!!!!!
A little background
Cyclocross in Alaska was so easy, ok not the racing but the locations and access. It was and still is a seven race series mostly in town.... I didn't realise how lucky I was up there. Throwing back to 2018 in Oklahoma, unfortunately I didn't make any of the 2018 series. Why? Mostly due to not having a USA cycling licence. But also having to take Fiona with me but not having a network of friends yet to look after her whilst I raced.
This year I am going to try and get to a couple of the races, CX is about the most fun you can have on a bike, and all in a spectator friendly environment.
Foster Cross
This was the second round of the OKGPCX series, it was held in Stroud which is around 60min from where I live.
The course was a fun one, I have been told by many people in Alaska, some of the courses we rode in Alaska for CX were not really true cross courses as they were more mountain bike courses. I was fine with this to be honest.
The course today was flat and had some fun albeit short technical sections. The sand section was around a set of swings, it totalled 25' not 1/4 of a mile like Goose lake, or the dune of doom at Jodhpur :) There was no river crossing and the course was dry and dusty, I'm sure if it had rained it would have been a totally different course.
The course started off on a road/gravel section on the dam, then it was a slight uphill across the finish line before dropping onto grass and a sandy right hand off camber turn, next was a right around a tree then into the sand pit. We then crossed a ditch before some tighter turns under trees with a couple of roots thrown in for good measure. Through another little ditch then a fast section looping back around a couple of times before a set of barriers at a deeper ditch. Then there were the up and down sections around trees and back towards the lake. One of these turns I dismounted for as it was way easier to run over the roots and up the little incline than riding it. There was one more tight turn before we dropped down onto the dam. The lap was around 1 mile long and took me around 5:40 to complete.
I race in the Cat 3, there are some really fast people in Cat 3, then there is me :) Some people should probably be Cat 1 looking at the lap times from that race and the Cat 3 race but, it is what it is.
The munckin's race
Fiona raced the 9-14 juniors race, she took last place but finished with smile and had a good time I believe. Her warmup was on the play area
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| Warmup sure that'll work |
As the 13 and 14 year olds tore up the course she just pedalled her way around mostly smiling.
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| Lap 1 |
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| Lap 2 about 1/2 way around. |
The kid who won, put it lap times similar to mine, yes I'm that slow.
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| Check out those lap times |
My Race
The kids race finished and then it was my turn. The Cat 3 and 4 race. Due to looking after Fiona I had yet to ride any of the course. We set off at mach 1 and in a blink of an eye we were at the sand pit for the first time. I was pretty sure I could ride it, though on the first lap with so many people I decided to run would be safer, sure enough someone went down. I did mostly ride the sand for the remaining laps even though I am not sure it was faster.
The pace was relentless, I had forgotten how at CX its full gas all the time. I did my best to cheer on my fellow teammates who were ahead of me as we passed by each other at different parts of the course. The grass felt so slow, yes i know it's the same for everyone but I am pretty sure I have less power than many on the course.
I did have a lot of fun and really enjoyed the technical sections, especially once I had figured out some of the lines. I'm definitely out of practice with dismount/remount and barriers. I am sure that many here from Cat3 up jump the barriers but today that wasn't really an option due to the barriers being at a ditch.
I finished in 18th place but didn't get lapped. My lap times were fairly consistent, I just ran out of gas on the last lap, especially when I realised I wasn't going to be lapped. I potentially could have caught/stayed ahead of Brandon but he was killing me on the fast sections but I was faster through the technical sections.
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| Consistent for me lap times |
All in all a fun race, I hope to make a few more of the series as we go through the season.
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| Communication with photographers is key whilst racing. - PC Kris Stephens |
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