**If you have no idea what cyclecross is I have a video at the bottom that hopefully explains it**
So collegiate Cyclecross season started this past weekend with a double header. The UVa race was on Saturday in correspondence with the Miller School of Albemarle Cross Race and then VCU was on Sunday. I almost went down to Blacksburg to ride the Owen Cup “Race Ride” which looked like a lot of fun but decided to help out at our race and figure out what the deal was with cross. Shout out to former UVa rider Marcos Lazzarotto for taking home the win at Owen Cup!
So collegiate Cyclecross season started this past weekend with a double header. The UVa race was on Saturday in correspondence with the Miller School of Albemarle Cross Race and then VCU was on Sunday. I almost went down to Blacksburg to ride the Owen Cup “Race Ride” which looked like a lot of fun but decided to help out at our race and figure out what the deal was with cross. Shout out to former UVa rider Marcos Lazzarotto for taking home the win at Owen Cup!
Thursday I got to take a look at the course as I helped with course set up. My job was to set up barriers and make sure they were rock solid. We had help from the Miller School of Albemarle Endurance Team, which is an awesome high school junior development program in the area. These kids look fit, or at least super skinny! You should definitely take a look at their website, it’s an incredibly program and opportunity to get into cycling during high school. Spencer, a Junior climber for the crew, helped me with setup. He was a great guy and I’ll definitely be following him this year, hope he crushes it. Also, check out this high school. How cool is that?!?!
So initial thoughts as we set up the course (apologies to the cross guys this is about to offend). Why? I just don’t quite get cross and helping with the course didn’t help. Barriers are interesting but I’m not sure if they are cool or just obnoxious. The course at Miller School is definitely tough. 4 tough little climbs, one of which was an extremely tight S bend. Most of the course was on grass which was good for me since I’d be racing my mountain bike. I hoped I’d figure out what the deal was the next day when I got to watch some races and then race it myself. It does have that gritty gnarly attitude similar to cross country running, which is fairly cool and something I always like (at least in theory) about cross country.
I got to the race on Saturday early to help Andy (The coach of the endurance team) with registration and in any other way I could lend a hand. It was a little bit smaller than I expected but the 3/4 race and then the 1/2/3 race were both pretty big. Maybe now I’d see what it was all about. Well, while the races were fun to watch it still looked like little fun to race. Didn’t seem like a big tactics thing (maybe the race was just small), it was just blow and go as hard as you can for 60 min. Uh…what did I sign up for? And there was running involved? I thought I was done with that. While skeptical I still got on the line to give it a shot. Don’t knock it till you try it.
So what is a cross race like? Essentially it goes like this…ride 60s, start hurting a lot and sky rocket your heart rate, continue until the race is over and hope your heart rate doesn’t go too far and you hit the wall. There is little to no rest and it always feels balls to the walls. I’m officially not a fan of cross, too much like running I think. The pain train can be a good thing but it’s really nice to have something fun to go along with it and I just didn’t really get that out of the race, although plenty of people seem to. Also what’s the deal with barriers? In my opinion they are sort of cool but sort of not fun and painful, they get tricky as you start getting cross eyed with the effort (I guess that’s the point). Moral of the story might just be that while I like laying the hammer down I like to complain about it more, especially continuous balls out efforts. I should fix that. All that complaining being said as a training tool it has to be good for you. It’s a really good hard continuous effort and you are going to get more out of it because it is during a race among fellow competitors that will push you. I’ll give it a D- for enjoyment and an A for good training. We’ll average it out to a C+/B-. It should get bonus points because it is a cool atmosphere (like most bike races). Also some people really love it, so don’t knock it till you give it a shot yourself. I was also told it is way better on a cross bike as well so maybe I’ll give it a shot one more time before saying no thank you for good. Darden Cross I’m coming for you.
All that complaining about cross being said the race itself went well. 3 of us had a good group for the first couple laps, I would gain time on technical sections but the road section was laughable, they crushed me. Fortunately running taught me how to pin it and hold it there without blowing up. Finally the guys cracked just a little and they didn’t get me back on the road and the gap seemed to widen. Twice people got close and threatened to take the lead but never got around and finally the last one broke and I was home free. Collegiate running taught me to never complain with a win and I was happy to get it. It was good to be mixing it up as well, brought out the competitive side.
Andrew and Steven did well in the B race as well finishing 2nd and 3rd. I was pumped to have Andrew racing on a mountain bike too, he even rode out to the race, baller. All around it was a solid day and a good experience. Just not sure I want to relive it very often. Rubber side down.