back to portfolio | back to deepbrook home | by Jeff Dieffenbach The Midnight Ride of Cyclocross - 25 September 2013 click here for slide show

Partial view of the new fBIKE Direct jersey There's very little that's midnight about a 4p race start, but that's beside the point. The Midnight Ride of Cyclocross now stands as my best 'cross race yet. Granted, at 3, the sample size is small. Before the start, I connected up with Bobby B, Patrick G, and Brad W, all three having just taken part in the "High Tea with Helen (Wyman) Cyclocross Camp." Attending the 2-day "camp" would almost certainly have been worth the $60, but they passed along some great tips for free. Run lower tire pressure. No, even lower than that. I went with 40psi, worked great, will drop a bit more for Gloucester. Take advantage of the wide spacing in the turns to set them up early. After the first barriers, run the bend, then mount up. In the mulch-floored "Barn," ease up a bit and recover--at full effort, too easy to fall and give up a lot of places. Dismount on the downhill approach to the u-turn leading the uphill barriers and run the turn, then remount ta the top of the hill. 100 riders filled the Cat 4/5 field, Bobby and Brad among them. We'd end up riding 5 laps--my times were remarkably consistent at 8:56, 8:28, 8:34, 8:25, and 8:13. Lap 1 video A few segments of note from the lap 1 video: 01:48 - Rider 524 appears to be riding in street shoes on platform pedals--EVENTUALLY, I'd drop him 02:46 - The sand section 03:48 - On 1st practice lap, the "bump" came out of nowhere 04:25 - The first set of barriers 04:55 - Almost washed out the front wheel, saved it 05:18 - I'd never ridden mulch before--tricky, and I never really felt like I mastered it 07:10 - The second set of barriers 07:35 - I'd end up trading places with the Landry's rider and one other for most of the race 08:00 - A rider behind touched his front wheel to my rear with predictable results--I stayed up, he went down Lap 2 video Lap 3 video Lap 4 video Lap 5 video I ended up missing the podium by one position. Of course, that was the "70s podium" for those not making the first 69 finishing spots. Still, at 73rd out of 100 starters and 86 finishers, I dramatically improved on my 85th of 95 and 93rd of 97 from last fall. My goal had been to escape the bottom 20th percent--goal accomplished. For Gloucester on Saturday, I'd like to make the top 70th percent-we'll see. One lesson coming out of the Midnight Cross--I gave up a fair amount of time not being aggressive on the first part of the first lap. I probably left 20-30 seconds on the table. My finishing time was 22 seconds out of my coveted 69th place. The numbers Distance: 8.6mi Average speed: 11.8mph Elevation: 253' Average cadence: 72 Average heart rate: 162bpm