Turkey Chase CX

Turkey Chase CX pb Fat Frogs Racing
By Avanell

This race marks the beginning of the VACX series for the 2012/2013 season.  The course was held on property owned by Jeff and Glenda Craddock who were wonderful enough to open it up to everybody for this great event...

I packed arm warmers, knee warmers, embrocation, a base layer, and a wool cycling cap for today's race.  I thought it would be muddy, overcast, and way cooler than it was.  My weather source was far from accurate.  The sun blazed down on us, and there were only a few muddy spots on the course.  Though those few spots would create a lot of heartache during the day.

There were five of us that lined up for the Women's 1,2,3 race at 12:30 this afternoon: Myself, Leslie, Alena Pugacheva (VCU), Jen Pope (Velocita), and Sally McMahon (Conte's).  Unfortunately, much different than the 30+ women lined up for the start of Charm City.  But it was still a lot of fun!  At the whistle (or siren), I took the holeshot into the first right hand turn, then left, and over the first set of barricades.  The course then opened up into one of the two non-grass sections...onto a dirt/gravel road with a u-turn around a small building (sorry I wasn't paying too close attention) where the Craddock's had the music blaring.  Another short section of dirt/gravel, and then the course turned us onto the grass field that the main portion of the race was on.  The grass was extremely thick, making any type of momentum hard to keep, and any chance of a recovery almost non-existent.  Even on the slight descents, keeping yourself from bouncing out of your saddle was high priority and took quite a bit of energy.  Twisting and turning, we made our way across of the field into the second set of barricades.  By this time, Alena and I were opening a slight gap on Jen and the remainder of the field.  Which just to point out, Jen had just finished the11:00 am Singlespeed race.  The barricades preceded a slightly mushy bit of grass that led into a double track section through the woods.  The first 100 feet into the woods, the hardpacked dirt turned to slick dirt, which turned to very thick, deep, wet, and gooey mud that would lead to many hours of bicycle cleaning.  The double track continued for about 1/2 a mile, and opened into the grass field again.  But not before hitting another section of mud.  Not the mud that slings up like at the beginning of the wooded section, but the mud that sucks your tires in and takes every bit of your energy to push through.  The lap ended with that patch followed by a gradual, grassy uphill.

We raced for six laps through this course.  All the while, Alena and I battled back and forth.  I tried several times to shake her off of my wheel.  Her having an all road background, she comes with quite a bit of power for her small stature!  The course was definitely designed for those road riders in mind!  She would make her way back up to any attack that I threw at her.  We traded places and pace-making every half lap or so, and she always seemed to be able to come around me in the last patch of mud before the climb to the finish (it really was very gradual...but because of the mud and grass it seemed endless!).  The last lap, I had to make some type of move.  I couldn't go into the last section with her on my wheel.  I had no sprint in my legs and that bit of mud would drain any bit of momentum I had until I was almost at a standstill.  After the second set of barricades, I gassed it into the woods.  The one place where I had a solid advantage.  With a mountain bike background, I'm more comfortable picking a line, pedaling through the mud, and taking the more technical corners at speed.  I couldn't bring myself to look back until I was at the line.  Through the mud, I pushed myself up that endless stretch to the finish line, crossing in first.

Completely exhausted and feeling like I needed to puke, I ripped off my W123 number and lined up a couple rows behind Chris for the Men's 3/4 race.  I had no expectations for this race, just to finish.  I did, however, pass a few guys before I got lapped by the leaders (Chris included!) and did not finish last like I had expected.  I finished with five more laps under my wheels and Chris completed his second race of the day in 4th place out of 40!  Less than 5 seconds from a 3rd place finish.  FYI, his first race was Singlespeed where he flatted out with three laps to go.

I am not typically a fan of the "grass crit" type course, but there were enough technical aspects that made this course much more interesting than I had first anticipated.  Glenda and all the Fat Frogs crew did an awesome job coordinating...I just wish more people would come out and race cross!!!  Great job to everybody out there today and thanks to everybody for giving me shout-outs during my races!

In Motion, Training with Tradewinds

Training with Tradewinds

 

by Morgan

My workouts today were two-fold. Started in the morning with my baseline testing which included getting beginning measurements and data. Activities like long jumps, standing jumps for height and acceleration. When I came back at night for the team training session we started with warm up which includes some dynamic movements with resistance bands to warms up the hip, knee and ankle joints. Warm up progresses with some larger movements to get that blood flowing such as marching, high knee skips and so on... My individual strength routine includes lunges with weights, bench presses, arls and pull downs. We moved onto core work to include planks, twists and bridges. Whew!

Charm City Day 1

Charm City CX

By Avanell

So just because we don't always have a good race, doesn't mean the story shouldn't be told!  Being my first UCI race I was quite nervous.  I didn't know what to expect, I just knew that it was going to be a very hard race.  Several big names in cx were there, including Helen Wymen, Joyce Vanderbeken, and of course our own Patty Buerkle.

The start was fast and hard and I found myself in the same situation as Tacchino, trying to pick everyone off.  I settled down and was able to pull myself into top 10 or so.  The course was dry and dusty, the sun blazed down on us.  Still, my legs felt great and my mtb background was letting me slowly pick people off.

On the second lap, the stairs were moved a couple feet forward.  Or another way to put it is that I waited too late to dismount and went straight into the first of 4- 1.5ft high wood steps.  No time to waste, I jumped up and climbed to the top without losing any places.  As soon as I remount, I notice my brakes rubbing and I lose a couple places trying to fix it while riding.  I needed my pit bike.  But I knew Chris wasn't there for a handoff and I didn't want to lose too many places to search for my bike.  Through the natural barricades around U-Turn Tree, I saw Chris at the man-made barriers and asked, well told really, that he needed to get me my bike.  By now a big group of five or so has already passed me.

In the pit area Chris and I fake our way through a bike switch.  Wasn't too bad either considering we've never done it!  My pit bike is different.  The shifter hoods are shaped differently, its longer than my race bike, and it handles like a cruiser.  It was like I had never ridden a mt bike before!  Just after the stairs there was a sharp right turn that, with my pit bike, I leaned into too much.  Coming off the bike I barrel rolled several times before getting back up and remounting.  The extra 5 pounds that my steel pit bike has over my race bike is also a massive difference over all of the barriers!  Because of all of these issues and not being confident on that bike I lost 15-20 places total.

My knee started to swell from my first crash, and the shifter hoods were giving me blisters on my hands.  But Chris stepped up to bat and got me my race bike back running for the final 2 laps.  The familiarity helped and I started feeling much better.  Though a little too late.  I only ended up making 1 place back and there was a massive gap to the other groups.

I still had loads of fun, and tomorrow is a new day.  Hopefully with 2 less crashes and 1 less bike!

Julie H finished directly in front of me and Patty was near top 5 I think.  Official results to come!

CX season is here! Tacchino & Ellison Park

Rohrbach's Ellison Park CX, UCI
Patty went to Rochester, NY this weekend and placed 3rd and 5th!! Thanks kind of a big deal. Nice job Patty!

Tacchino Cross 2012 
(Also congrats to teammate Morgan, and new husband Steve!)

The Women's 1,2,3 field had an awesome turnout for Tacchino Cross this year.  Over 20 starters, I got a place in the 2nd row...behind a girl that for some reason decided to start in her small ring.  Obviously slowing my start and making me chase the lead group from the whistle.  The start took us through the 2nd half of the course, all the while trying to pick my way into 10th place overall.

For the first full lap, there was a small group of us trying to catch the leaders: myself, Jen Pope (Velocita), Sam Rynas (NCVC), Jen Tillman (Kelly Benefit), and Lyndsay Bayer (XO Communications).  The five of us stayed together through about a third of the second lap.  The long finishing straight brings us up to the announcers tent and pavilion.  Through a few tight technical spots, the barricades came immediately after a 180 degree left turn, only to bring us into another short technical spot before opening up into a power section.  Coming back around to the pavilion, we had a couple more tight spots before the group split even further to myself, Jen Pope, and Lyndsay.  We were able to put a small gap between the other girls before the second half of the lap.  The backside of the course had some tighter, technical sections, and it was also slicker from the rain the previous evening.  Down a straight, fast decent, the course brought us to a slick uphill with 2 logs strategically placed so that only a select few could actually ride it.  Dismounting and running up the hill and over the logs, Jen Pope and I pulled away from Lyndsay before the last couple switchbacks and back into the finishing straight.

The third lap, Jen lost a little time on me through the barricades, and I took a little time to try to allow my heart rate to recover.  This gave her the opportunity to catch back up right before reaching the backside of the course.  A few encouraging words passed between the two of us (gotta represent Hampton Roads!), we stayed together until shortly after the hill run up.  A short singletrack section gave me an yet another opportunity to stand and push a little harder.  This time to open up a gap before starting our final lap.

Until the backside of the course I maintained no more than a 10 second advantage.  I opened the gap a bit more through the tighter technical section before botching the hill climb.  I dismounted too late, running my front wheel into the first log.  The gap started to close.  Feeling a slight bit of panic, I slipped just as I was grabbing my top tube to lift it over the log.  The mud, though tacky, was about an inch deep, and my left knee sunk in very quick.  It seemed like my recovery took much longer than it should have...the seconds seemed to tick by and I knew Jen would pass me at any moment.  I picked myself and my bike up and over the first log.  My legs felt heavy running up the hill and over the second log (not sure if I was moving fast enough for that to have been deemed a "run").  As soon as I remounted I pushed as hard as I could, knowing that the short singletrack and a few switchbacks gave me a slight advantage.  I crossed the line in 5th, barely making the podium.  Jen crossed shortly behind me in a well-deserved 6th place.

Cross season has officially started!  The first race of the season is always bitter sweet.  The tension (at least for me) is slightly higher than normal since I'm unsure how I'll fair for the first race of the season, I almost forget what the race dynamic is like (especially after coming off of road season), and I DEFINITELY forget how much it hurts!  I stayed in the red zone for the entire race, and my legs are extremely sore while I lounge on the couch writing this race report.  Sounds terrible, I know.  But Cross is an unbelievable amount of fun and everybody should try it!  For those who don't...Jen Pope and I feel sorry for you!

See everybody at Charm City!!!