After learning that CX Nats was in Austin, Texas it seemed like the perfect time to pick up my Cyclocross career. I obviously opted for the obnoxious mountain biker route all season. What does that entail specifically: mostly donut feeds, one handers, wheelies and general tom foolery. I had a blast ripping up races with Jay Catlett across the collegiate CX scene. Collecting enough points and races to qualify for Austin I prepared for what would be a warm weeks worth of riding, some fun racing, and a chance to see a real big Cyclocross race. I was fortunate enough to hang up the mountain bike and race a real cross bike at Nats as well thanks to Chris Jones and #POTP. The Masi race bike might not have been considered the top of the line race bike that some of the guys were on but disc brakes and some great handling sure made it a heck of a fun ride!
Unfortunately as the week drew near we weren't receiving the weather we hoped for but instead a week of on and off rain and mid 30's and 40's temperatures, all culminating with a serious rain and 36 degrees predicted for the Saturday race day. I guess you can't win them all. With the weather limiting my desire to ride I focused on finding some great BBQ and Tex Mex, something that Austin had plenty of! The following postis as much a story of general hooligans and general debauchery that occur with 6 college kids with too much free time on their hands. It most definitely wasn't great race prep but it definitely turned in to a week to remember.
We arrived to Austin on Wednesday, took an Uber to our RelayRides rental car, picked up our bikes from FedEx and headed to the AirBnB house we rented out with 5 other Atlantic Coast Cycling Conference (ACCC) Collegiate racers (Go ShareEconomy). I'd never been to Austin before and didn't have any idea where we rented the house but apparently the house was located in the Barrios, south of downtown. It was comfy enough and never caused us any issues other than a laugh. Over the next five days we managed to avoid completely ruining the house and all in all it turned out well. We built the bikes and got to the course right about the same time Richard from UNC arrived at the airport. Being the courteous college students we are we picked him up about 2 hours later after we spun around the course. To make up for it we headed straight to the best BBQ spot of the trip. I mean look at that beautiful and delicious picture. The food came out within minutes of us ordering, hard to beat that after a long day of travel! The Texas BBQ didn't disappoint, I was most impressed with the sauce, unbelievable. As dinner rapped up we got a text from App State and NCSU, they were at the airport, we were conveniently 30 minutes outside of town and to pick up those guys up we had to drop off Richard and Jay at home first. Needless to say we scored a heavy F in the picking up from the airport department. Sorry guys!
We arrived to Austin on Wednesday, took an Uber to our RelayRides rental car, picked up our bikes from FedEx and headed to the AirBnB house we rented out with 5 other Atlantic Coast Cycling Conference (ACCC) Collegiate racers (Go ShareEconomy). I'd never been to Austin before and didn't have any idea where we rented the house but apparently the house was located in the Barrios, south of downtown. It was comfy enough and never caused us any issues other than a laugh. Over the next five days we managed to avoid completely ruining the house and all in all it turned out well. We built the bikes and got to the course right about the same time Richard from UNC arrived at the airport. Being the courteous college students we are we picked him up about 2 hours later after we spun around the course. To make up for it we headed straight to the best BBQ spot of the trip. I mean look at that beautiful and delicious picture. The food came out within minutes of us ordering, hard to beat that after a long day of travel! The Texas BBQ didn't disappoint, I was most impressed with the sauce, unbelievable. As dinner rapped up we got a text from App State and NCSU, they were at the airport, we were conveniently 30 minutes outside of town and to pick up those guys up we had to drop off Richard and Jay at home first. Needless to say we scored a heavy F in the picking up from the airport department. Sorry guys!
Thursday brought a new day but similar bad conditions. Getting a slow move on in the morning some of us held fast to the "no chain restaurant's while in Austin" rule while the other half hit up the McDonald's down the street. We headed to Austin Java for some great breakfast taco's. Man it was good to be in Austin. After breakfast we went to check out the course and see what was going on. On the way back from the course another Austin tradition began, Richard (UNC) found a Torchy's Tacos. He apparently knew something we didn't so we swung in and went to see what this local spot was all about. Basic taco place with a some awesome options and unique combination. Since I can't make a decision I asked the cute cashier what her favorite was. She told me to try the Brushfire but gave me a warning that it was a little on the spicy side, being the cocky 24 year old I am I assured her I was good with the spice. Phew, two bites into that taco and it was a serious kick in the nuts. I spent the remaining bites fighting away tears and refilling my water cup about 10 times. So, in the end she won. Phew. Lucky for me another discovery was made, deep fried cookie dough, called Lil' Nookies. Woah. They are way better than they sound. From there on out, if we ever drove past a Torchy's we got at least one taco. Luc, or unfortuante, for us there are more than a couple of Torchy's in Austin, never once got sick of them.
We headed home to continue the eating fest with some good old spaghetti, sausage, and garlic bread. Who said college kids couldn't cook? Another day, another 3,000 calorie bonus. Oops. Worth it.
Friday rolls in another dreary day for some pre-ride and a nice relaxing day prepping for the slop fest that would be race day. Friday night my good friend Tyler Cloutier got in to town and we spent about 2 hours trying to find some food. After finally deciding on Stubbs, made famous for their BBQ Sauce, we waited another hour without being seated, before finally realizing if you ordered to go you get your food in 5 minutes and can eat it in the car. Well it was still some delicious food, but I never realized how hard it is to find food at 9:00 on a Friday night in Austin. Some really high quality decision making and planning on our part. #KillingIt. This was about as perfect of a pre-race evening as you can plan I'm sure.
Friday rolls in another dreary day for some pre-ride and a nice relaxing day prepping for the slop fest that would be race day. Friday night my good friend Tyler Cloutier got in to town and we spent about 2 hours trying to find some food. After finally deciding on Stubbs, made famous for their BBQ Sauce, we waited another hour without being seated, before finally realizing if you ordered to go you get your food in 5 minutes and can eat it in the car. Well it was still some delicious food, but I never realized how hard it is to find food at 9:00 on a Friday night in Austin. Some really high quality decision making and planning on our part. #KillingIt. This was about as perfect of a pre-race evening as you can plan I'm sure.
We Racing
Finally race day. We raced in the afternoon so nothing exciting in the morning besides praying for a cease fire from the angry clouds above. We got there early and made sure we made it in to the warm up tent first to guarantee a trainer, a crucial factor in having a chance to actually be ready to go before the race. I started in the 5th row or so which on a sloppy day can be a huge problem. As the gun fired I saw my chance up the inside, gunned it only to be shut down at the last second, unfortunately the race was all but over before we hit the dirt, the next couple laps were a complete mess of flying people, bikes, and mud. I would gain a couple spots and then someone would slide out, a wheel would knock in to me and back 10 spots I would slide, eventually after 3-4 laps or so it settled out and I was sitting around 30th. After 3 laps of Tyler (running the pit for me, thanks bra!) yelling at me to take my pit bike, I finally realized why. You don't pit because your bike is broken you pit so your mechanic can clean your current bike and you might get a couple feet without a mud bogged machine. Hmmm, novel concept. The concept I didn't consider was that the pit bike Tyler wrangled up for me was running Sram, and I have never had Sram on the road. I've always heard it's double tap to shift up. So when I got on the bike just before a 180 degree turn and tried to shift to an easier gear I quickly dropped down the the hardest possible gear. Awesome.
Eventually I figured out how to shift but I lost the group I was with and never quite got back to them. The remainder of the race was just a long hard grind and a cold realization that I have no idea what I'm doing in a cross race. It was however, the first real cross race I had been a part of and it wasn't too terrible.
With the race out of the way it was time to enjoy Austin the only way we knew how. Food on food. The Austin Beer Garden provided some okay pizza and a great sub, but Jay and I decided on the way home that we needed some real live Austin Pizza, so two larges and a dozen more nookies (we got busted by another Torchy's), and we headed home to put ourselves into a solid food choma. The food was delicious but I hit the sack with way too much food ingested, but man was it good.
With the race out of the way it was time to enjoy Austin the only way we knew how. Food on food. The Austin Beer Garden provided some okay pizza and a great sub, but Jay and I decided on the way home that we needed some real live Austin Pizza, so two larges and a dozen more nookies (we got busted by another Torchy's), and we headed home to put ourselves into a solid food choma. The food was delicious but I hit the sack with way too much food ingested, but man was it good.
Sunday brought forth our last day in Austin and a big surprise. CX Nats was cancelled on the day of the Pro race. The day was spent trying to figure out what went wrong and how in the world they cancelled nationals for the Pro race. It was a huge mess with Austin police sending people home before USAC was told the city planned on shutting down the event. It created quite the mess and a great little twitter account (apologize for some less than PC tweets), @ZilkerParkCX. Fortunately this gave us time to rewash bikes and find some great Tex Mex before we left town. A final stop at Torchy's and a 4:30 wake up call and back to the east coast we went.
It was quite the crazy weekend, with a ton of food, fun, and even a little riding, a great way to unwind before getting back to serious training.
Keep those pedals spinning,
BSlow
It was quite the crazy weekend, with a ton of food, fun, and even a little riding, a great way to unwind before getting back to serious training.
Keep those pedals spinning,
BSlow