Kirtland Park Cross, Sunday, November 2, 2008

From CRCycling

By Kevin

Since yesterday didn't go so well from the start, I decided to leave a lot earlier for Kirtland Park. I had an easy, sunny, coffee sipping drive downtown. Cleveland was emitting festive vibes as I drove along the lake and saw the skyline of the city coming into view. The Browns were going to play at 1PM, and Barack Obama was going to hold a huge rally on the Mall downtown. At least one of those two events will (probably) result in a win. A blimp was hovering over the stadium in a hazy low cloud layer. The rest of the sky was bright blue and the sun was sending some feeble autumn rays our way.

I rolled into the lot at about 11:30AM. There was a good turnout. I had plenty of time to setup the bike and get ready. The weather was pleasant, though a little chilly. By the time I registered, had a bit to drink, and ate some energy gel the "C" race was well underway. I put a coat on over my jersey and took a spin around the course with Scott Carter from Lake Effect.

The course was similar to last year. It made full use of the park. The main feature of the course is the amphitheater. The course crosses the three tiers of the amphitheater with a steep switchback turn at the end of each tier. It's hard to believe a bike can negotiate the second turn (shown at right). When you setup to make the turn, the decent appears to be almost vertical. The third turn is much easier, but maybe is more hazardous because it's easy to lose focus there. After the amphitheater turns, the course made its way around the statue in the center of the park, hit a short flight of stone steps, then rolled along a gravel path/service road to a long flight of steps. There was a short section at the top of the hill after the steps before the course bombed back down to the plain.

The plain section weaved around through some barricade tape turns before a long (100-200 meter) flat, straight section through the start/finish. Finally, there was another staircase to the top of the hill, where the course followed the edges of a baseball field, and one long off camber section overlooking a parking lot. The end of that section was really tricky. The drop from the field onto the off camber section injected a lot of speed, but the turn at the end of the section required hard braking before full torque up the hill back to the field.

I've noticed, over the years, that I'm usually much stronger the day after a super intense workout, like Saturday's race, so I was pretty confident as we lined up. Well, confident I wouldn't be lapped.

The "B" field was pretty big. There were probably more than 30 riders. I lined up at the back. The women lined up behind us. There was a nice turnout for the womens field, too. The start was fast. I decided to try to hang with the field as long as possible. The Kirtland Park course really suits me for some reason. I hammered along and passed many of the riders at the back of the field and swung over to the right of the course before hitting the first 180 degree turn. We were shoulder to shoulder through there, literally. I bumped elbows with riders on both sides. Sweet! I was amped.

The leaders of the field were really stringing it out by the time we got to the first staircase, but I was still there! I decided to conserve some energy and took it easy on the first ascent of the stairs and just settled into a good tempo on the ball field section. Julie caught up to me at some point. I don't know if it was on the first or second lap. I picked up my pace a little bit to match her. I was actually rolling along pretty well. I entered the amphitheater section again with a group of riders. Negotiating the steep corners with two or three people was fun.

A group of jets roared, I mean ear-splitting roared, over the course during our race to do a fly-over of the stadium. Part of me thought, "cool! jets!", and part thought, "that probably cost at least $100K, what a waste."

I took it easy up the long flight of stairs again, but felt surprisingly good and strong. Eventually, I decided it was easier to sprint up the stairs rather than jog. I was pleased to be holding my position during the lap. The long flat stretch helped. I was blasting along at road-like speeds.

I entered the amphitheater again, feeling pretty confident. On the second left hander, my bike inexplicably hopped sideways and I had to tap a foot down. The front wheel was making a fup-fup-fup sound. A flat? I could see there was still pressure in the tire. Maybe just some grass stuck in the brakes. I kept plowing along, fup-fup-fup. I dismounted, ran the short flight of stairs, and noticed the front wheel was stuck. Shit. I rolled the tire, and to add monetary insult to race injury, the sidewall was shredded by the brakes, more bike dollars fluttered away in the breeze. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I also left my spare wheels in the car for some reason. So I ran up the hill, changed the wheel, and got back in the race, totally screwed up. I lost several minutes. I was feeling great and probably would have had my best result of the season. Oh well, that's bike racing.

By the last lap, I was pretty tired, and focused on finishing. I just rolled around the course until the last 400 meters or so, and finished with a good burst of speed.

I'm feeling a lot stronger these past couple of weeks. I'm getting the same kick in fitness that I had last year from 'cross. Let's hope I avoid serious injury this coming winter!

Images from the "A" Race

I took some videos of the "A" race as part of the my Race Number Capture project. The program can make these funky composite images. This is a random selection. The following sequence is a composite of multiple frames superimposed on the same background.

This following sequence shows three frames. The background (non-moving portions) of the frame is removed. Note that the shadow on the ground is detected.