Well, not the result I was anticipating at all........as the day started on Friday, Jan 13, how lucky, the muddy mess and rain of the day before turned to icy deep frozen ruts and 18 degrees. I had a hard time staying warm all weekend, spending a lot of time outside, forced car heat and hotel heat, the skin felt really dry. I did not pre-ride the course the day before in the mud and certainly had no interest in trying to ride icy ruts, so I walked the course again. My heat for my age was 11:30am, the first was 11am. I drew 18 of 23 riders for the back row. That was not a problem for I found the front before we hit the ice. I tried to warm up on the bike trainer next to the car, but could not get warm and was not feeling my toes orfingers, so I went back in the truck and did a Lance warm up, basically the seat warmer and heat on high thru the a/c vents with my stocking feet directly on the vents. It worked. I was thinking of just packing it up and going home, but to race the championship race you had to do the heat event. A quick phone call to Jeff did help me stay and race, if that's what I did. Thanks for the motivation Jeff! I think I ran 75% of the course and rode the other. I got 15 in my heat, which equated to 30th to start the championship race on Sunday. 4th row.
The course conditions changed all 4 days, and from morning to afternoon and in between races. Dry to muddy, to frozen ruts, to slightly thawed slime on frozen ruts, to standing water on top of ice. I guess if your are truly a cross racer you excel no matter the conditions. I have only had a handful of experiences in those type of conditions. Unfortunately, it is usually a major race with top competition, and I'm basically a beginner. So instead of racing, I'm only riding, and very conservative at best. The somewhat good news the promoters were making the course shorter and shorter, and widening it to get new turf, that was helpful. In the end I finished 27th in my first world championship. I finished. Normally medals mean little after a race locally, but I was really, really happy to finish. There were podium girls at the finish giving out medals and giving congratulations for finishing. It felt nice.
In retrospect, given the time of year, the weather. It would be very helpful to have a pit crew. I needed a bike change 2X per lap. The bike got really heavy with the ice and mud, in combo with the water on my gloves that froze, the bike was almost impossible to lift, it felt 20 lbs heavier. As a club that would be a nice goal for next year to have support??
Interesting observation on my part, the winners of the 45, 50, 55, 60 and one or 2 master women's fields, I'm not sure of the 30's and 40 group, but anyway, they were all past multi-national cross champions, or world mountain bike champions, and 2 were past Olympians!! So the top guys/gals were truly the elite, the rest of us were just sort of average. There was no real group riding, each was on there own. The only exception were 2 teammates in the 40-44 age, Brandon White and Pete Weber, they matched each other in the yucky conditions stride for stride and ended in a sprint.
I did feel I improved in my technique on riding muddy frozen ruts as the weekend wore on. I need much more work there. One would almost have to race/practice on a set up course right now thru out the winter to hone those skills. What we do at Waterford is great for the Tailwind Michigan races that end early Dec, but training in nasty weather conditions would help. That is tough to do locally when its nice to feel warm in the comfort of your home. Just a thought.
Hope to return next year, and be all the more wiser, I still love riding and racing, I will not give up.
Sincerely,
Mark Wolowiec
FRCC Road Captain
ps. Had 10 riders at Kensington on Sunday!
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:24PM