|
Gran Prix of Gloucester - 28 September 2013 |
|
Cat 4/5 - Junior Varsity Start I first attended the Gran Prix of Gloucester in October of 2011 as a spectator. At the time, I wasn't thinking of riding cyclocross, and I certainly wasn't thinking of riding with the big boys in Gloucester. Fast forward a shade shy of two years and I found myself clipping in at the start of the men's Cat 4/5 35+ start. I'd finished 73rd out of 100 starters at the Midnight Ride of Cyclocross in Lancaster several days earlier. The question was, could I equal that against what I imagined would be a stronger field in Gloucester? The whistle blew. Having been "seeded" in the last 8-10 spots of the 109 rider field, I had a few seconds to wait before pushing off. In Lancaster, I'd allowed a number of riders to pass me on the opening straight. I had promised myself I wouldn't let that happen here. And with only a handful of guys behind me, that wasn't a tough bar to clear. I gained a few spots climbing the paved section leading under the finish line, then transitioned to dirt. I'll let my lap 1 video (below) tell the full story--here are the highlights.
Either Brad was riding twice as fast as I was (unlikely, but not out of the question), or he'd had a mechanical. Turns out it was the latter--front flat. Despite having to run some distance to the pit, borrow a neutral wheel, and get going again, he STILL beat me on the first lap. If he keeps at it, that kid might make something of himself. My race was pretty uneventful. No flats (Brad). No spiking heart rates (Patrick G). No crashes (Bill R). No lost watches while clipping the fencing and crashing (Jon M). (I was tempted to leave it unsaid that despite their respective excitements, they all still managed to beat me.) I was on the wheel of a rider as we made the final right turn onto pavement for the uphill sprint to the finish. We had another rider 10 or so bike lengths ahead. "He's tired--we can catch him," I said, hoping to get pulled to the finish. A spectator yelled, "You're tired too!" Maybe the guy ahead of me was tired, but I had a bit left in the tank, so I passed him, then caught the rider ahead just before cross the line. (Unfortunately, the video file was corrupted and I was only able to recover the first 2 laps or so.) I ended up finishing 81st of 109 starters, almost identical to my 73rd of 100 earlier in the week. The numbers
The south part of the course  The Cat 4 8a start (we had 9a)  The course map according to Strava  |
|