In video form, on a beautiful October day…
…in my defense, I’d like to point out that it took 40 minutes or so for me to slow down that much. (Oh! And my wife yells “GO-GO-GO!” right near the end, so careful if you are watching at work.)
All told, it went OK. Hopefully, with a little judicous speed work and transition “smoothing”, things will get better.
The event itself was the 2nd race of the Bay Area Super Prestige Series put on by Pilarcitos. This race was held at Candlestick Point Park, which may have been a more understandable name when the stadium in the background also had the same moniker. Now, they call it “Monster Park” (which I don’t think is related to Halloween). This is the fifth season for this race series, and the group who puts it on runs it pretty flawlessly. At least they manage to put up the start/finish banner and start the races on time with a minimum of fuss. This should not be underestimated.
They also (wisely) reworked the pre-race warmup access. In the past, the later riders would be out on the course at all manner of times, periodically causing issues. This year, they don’t let anyone but racers onto the course until after the first riders have finished.
Pretty immediately after registering, I noticed a parade of riders on the course. As they all wore knee and arm warmers, it was pretty obvious that they were warming up. After slipping under a barrier to join them, I did have a moment or two of “what the heck was I thinking?”, especially after touching the front brake at the wrong time and washing out on a slightly tricky bit.
They cleared the course and I headed over to the stationary trainer - a trick that really helped keep things warm. Pedaled easy for a while in the cool breezes and watched folks negotiate more broken glass than you find at the local recycling center, while taking warmup laps around the parking lot.
The course didn’t have too much in the way of elevation - there was one little 20 foot runup (after a little off-camber wiggle-n-dogleg). The fast kids actually rode up that, but it was a bit beyond my momentum. The race organizers also made optimum use of a levee-type features in the middle of the park, and we rode up onto it in any manner of ways.
Basically, it started on flat pavement, then reversed itself to run through bumpy dirt and dried grass for a 100 or so yards. It swept right to reverse again, then cut hard right to jump up over the levee, with an immediate 180 degree left to come back over again. Then it spat you onto a paved path for a while, before veering towards the water with a few 180 degree turns. The first barrier had been humorously placed near the base of the levee, so you were forced to remount (if you lacked the bunny-hop skills) at the top. However, this one was narrower than the first, so you (well I…) fought momentum slightly to remount before spilling over to the downside. Another immediate 180 (to the right this time) and back over the levee before finding a bit of flat path again. Another lazy, left-turning loop towards the waterfront before heading onto a sllllloooooooooowwwwww section on the dirt/grass ending in double barriers and the pits. A quick 180 among the spare bikes and wheels, before a dip, a path, the afore mentioned off-camber wiggle-n-dogleg leading to the runup. Cowbells and cheering folks (especially for those who could ride it). Then a lot of slaloming through rutty bits before the trickiest levee topper - a dogleg approach with the ascent in a switchback left hand turn. Again - a bit tough for me to ride. Another slalom and one last clean, square approach up the levee, before dropping down and beginning the open road end of the course. First was a few hundred yards of dirt road, with glass and imbedded concrete lumps to avoid, then after a quick couple turns came the paved bit which led all the way back to the finish.
And repeat. 6 laps for my bunch. 10 for the fast folks.
As I mentioned in the recap post - didn’t get lapped (though that meant I was the last one on the course in my div, so I’m not sure that’s “winning”), didn’t crash, felt better than I’d hoped but couldn’t sustain things all that well. But, my calf held up and that is a happy thing.
All in all, as is obvious from the video, too much braking, not enough pedaling, kicking my leg too far back on dismounts, leaning the bike away on dismounts, and there’s a little half hop-step which I’ve got to lose. Hope to make some progress before the November 4th race in Mclaren Park.
Other good photos from the folks at Abbiorca (#107 in M/B/35/45 is me lifting my bike too high over the barriers), Lauren (see her blog, too), plus bicigirl, Coda2, Evan’s BASP#2 series , Jamfoto’s set on smugmug and of course more are trickling in on Flickr. My photos were kinda ho-hum, but I’d left my good camera at work so I had to use the pencam, which is why everyone is so equally far away…
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:06 am Totally fun! Thanks for the viddy vid.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 am Thanks Gino! The CX Circuit is calling you! “Geeee-noooooo!”
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:58 am WOOT! Jim, I *love* the fact that you race in all-black! I think it actually makes you easier to spot among the other racers, and it just screams “privateer” in the best way! Props to videographer Tracy! I’m guessing this wasn’t shot on a Pencam SD? ;) Your number “841″ — is that arbitrarily assigned, or does it actually signify anything (your overall standings in the local series or something similar)?
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:54 am Thanks! I may be redefining the whole privateer thing… Yep, Tracy used a real vid-cam for htis one. The number is arbitrarily assigned, then stays the same for the whole series. The GC standings for the five race series can be seen here - http://www.pilarcitos.com/results/CrossResults/2007/2007GC.html - well, at least through race two. (Dunno if the url will change after the rest of the races).
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm Just have fun out there.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:02 pm Always! Thanks!
October 24th, 2007 at 9:42 am Jim — you’re a monster! You do things on a bike that I can only dream of. And even though you looked spent at the end you had great form. Congratulations. (DFL beats getting lapped ANY day.) I hope you had a nice cold beer afterwards. HooRAY!
October 24th, 2007 at 10:42 am Pop-Tarts back at the car. Mmmmmmm!
October 31st, 2007 at 11:58 am Nice video! At one point, I turned up the volume to hear what you said while passing, and it turned out to be “”. :-) Pretty impressive doing that on a singlespeed — it looked pretty brutal to build speed back up after those slow corners. Have a pop-tart on me…
October 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pm Thanks scott - I think I say “thishizzit” right at the end… English is tough at that stage. I’ll try to overlay some music like the kids do on the next clip…