Nittany, or the race I swore I wouldn’t do. And then I did it.
Summer cx racing sucks. It just does. Skinsuits with short sleeves are another punch in the wallet. And heatstroke is no effing fun.
This weekend was my first time racing in a while. I did two races, poorly, last year, but those were more for gits and shiggles. This weekend was the first of what looks to be a fairly full racing calendar that’ll wrap up in Louisville at Nationals.
I’ve forgotten most of what I knew. Happily, that wasn’t much.
@Norm and I have been burning whale oil pretty regularly all year (he more than me, but I’m hangin’ in there, baby), so there’s a bit of a base in the engine room. Not much, but mebbe enough to get through a race.
Edwin at Van Dessel Cycles repurposed some scaffolding into bicycle shaped objects, then painted them and sent them out to play with me. The builds are not exactly ground-up, but I’m using SRAM for the first time on the A bike. The B bike is still Shimano. That should be fun, should I have to flip bikes mid-race.
Oh, and he put a hole in one, so I did something silly.
Day before Nittany Day 1, I finally had the A bike ready to go, so off to the Tourne to make dumb spirals in the grass. Bike felt super solid. Way snappier than the now-retired Kona, and way less harsh. The SRAM took a bit of doing to get to used to, but it’s pretty intuitive. At least at low speeds on a Thursday. And the dropper was just a f*cking blast! Right now it’s a goof, but…
Day of – Racing at 11:30 in the Masters 50+ means a relatively mellow morning. Get there at 9ish, park in the upper grass lot facing the straight-way. Lots of familiar faces. Lovely bunch of folks, each and every one. Got two pre-rides in. The early morning mud looked to be drying out pretty quickly, so I didn’t feel like too much of a chump for just bringing one set of wheels. One day on the tubeless Schwalbe X-Ones wasn’t enough to get a good feel for them, and I had zero idea what pressure I wanted. By feel, I tried to dial ‘em in just enough to get me through the still-wet corners in the woods without folding in the fast chicanes. Day one, lucked into the right combo (30f/32r for the nerds).
Lined up 6th row left side. One down from the gearing I’d use for a front or second row start. No way we were gonna be crisp back there. Left side was stupid, as it was the pinch when the course doubled back on itself. Duh. Happily, the early season 50 yard crash was in the middle of the field. Skirted that one. The first sharp uphill hit a Claymore that spilt opened it up a bit and then we settled in for the first lap idiocy. Lots of dive bombing and yelling. By the we got through the mud pit, the silliness had quieted down and the racing started.
I ate a proffered grape. (And was berated for not taking it from the guy's fingers with my mouth. F*ck you hipster.)
I didn’t eat it over the barriers.
Straightaways were tough. That’s just power, but I did myself no favors in the corners. Too much braking meant I had to burn tiny matches constantly. Which is what I get for not spending the time on the tires. I started to trust them halfway through, but by that time when I shook the box, I could hear mebbe one match.
Gut it out, and sure enough 45 minutes will pass.
it did. 35th. 2 minutes out of the real-racer bracket and 4+ off the leaders. Meh.
The bike was awesome, and the SRAM shifters felt purty dang good. Which from a lifelong Shimano guy...
Hung out and yelled at folks, spun down with the Finkraft kids for a bit, headed out. (My idiot plan of using the Kreitlers to warm down was stymied by the grass. Duh.)
Left my suntan lotion on the windshield and it flew off as I got onto 100 headed back. Stopped and looked for it. No luck.
Drove back on 22 to 517 to whatever to avoid the 78/287 boredom. Lovely.
Tried to keep drinking water and not eating like an asshole on Saturday night. Partial success!
Day 2 – up and kinda rested. Another nice morning. Parked in the lower lot so I could use the rollers. File that under dumb f*cking ideas. Rollers aren’t fun when you want to look at stuff and talk to people. Also, when you’re at 30 psi, you bounce. Not confidence inspiring. Sigh.
The quest for a thru axle warmup machine that isn’t $400 continues.
Got a pre ride in. Tires were squirrely, though the dirt was tacking up nicely, almost minute by minute as the thermometer climbed. Shot the shit with
@Magic and Tatiana, saw some folks, hung with
@taylor185 and his pal Brian (of the newly acquired
@xc62701 Cannondale). Justin’s gonna get upgraded soon. Winning the 4s in MAC races will do that. Those are serious fields. I’m sorry I missed that race. Note to self: get up early you lazy bastard.
While we chatted, I tried to figger my tire pressure for the day. Ended up running 29f/30r.
Decided to skip the second pre-ride and get myself together with some 40+ Masters race-reckon (mud pit, stairs, off camber). Nice racing up front, too.
Suddenly, there were 20 minutes to go. And it was hot. Oppressively hot. Skip the race hot. But I’m not that smart. Slammed two bottles of Nuun and a sleeve of GU Blocks. (I was gonna be bleeding electrolytes…) lIned up 5th row and got serious.
This time I went left on purpose, knowing we were going counter clockwise. Right into the mud pits. First one was ridable, but not first lap. The second was a runner all day long. No crashes through the straightaway, mud pit survived and BAM, two guys in 10 yards.
That broke us up nicely. I skirted em both again and lucked into a little group. Which shelled me a lap later, leaving me dangling equidistant between my erstwhile companions and a pretty coherent group coming up on me. Stayed away for a lap, but being out there like that was taking it’s toll. I wanted a wheel. Also, that’s when we got the lap card. 3 to go. I felt like bad diner bacon at that point. I just wanted to be scraped off the stove and binned. No such luck. I kept on keeping on, and the group behind me broke up. Two solo strong guys went though on lap four. I was able to hitch my wagon to them and hang for a bit by a) not braking through the corners and b) pedaling really really hard. The HR was lower than yesterday, but the shivers I was having presaged heat stroke so I tried to race a bit smarter and let them drive. That worked for a while.
(
@Magic took this!)
Lap five, and I was in a group of four. Weirdly I was riding them off my wheel in the upper chicanes. Not usually a strength. Conversely, they were right there on the long stretches. Kept switching til folks started making mistakes on the last lap. I slid through a coupla corners and had to watch that I didn’t start my accelerations too early coming out of apex’s as my rear was underinflated and would fold a bit. That kept me smart, so mebbe was a good thing.
I got the last man standing on the downhill straight and kept him behind me through the chicanes near the finish drop. He’d always gunned this one corner, so I knew it was coming. Sure enough, click click mashing sound. But I’d already started sprinting like it was the finish and kept him behind me going into the finish drop. Stayed ahead across the line. And won! Which is a total and complete lie.
25th.
Despite the heat, a much more pleasant race. Mostly because my brain was involved a bit. I didn’t even notice we’d done 6 laps. That’s a lot. I cried a little when I heard. But that was ok ‘cause I was showering with Richard Sachs at that point. Nittany has showers. Which is great if you wanna get your core temp down. And Richard brings his soap.
Hung for a bit. Ate burgers and a hot dog and watched regular people do amazing things.
Took another long way home, which was super-pretty. (After stopping in 100 to find my suntan lotion. And 3/8th inch driver!)
I don’t hate Nittany. As much. I miss the log-over though. And that one year without the barriers? Excelsior!
Tomorrow will have zero bike in it. Or not.
Next stops: Town Hall and Bridgeton
