My First CX Race! …First TWO, that is! (Kisscross Cyclocross, Holland)

More Photos Below!Gallery
I finally did my first CX race yesterday. First TWO races, that is.

It’s Hard to Race …I mean, to GET THERE

I fought against entropic forces trying to keep me from attending and just went and did it. I had it planned and penciled in but life kept getting busier right when I should’ve been getting ready and fabricating some inventory and making signs for a display, etc. (The organizer was kindly letting me put up an OYB table.)

I had meant to do a race a month ago but entropy shut me down. Yesterday was the last race this season in the series so it was do-or-die.

It’s amazing the forces that tend to converge on a weekend, especially if it’s a semi-holiday. And if you have kids and a job. First things first, of course, but every now and then you just gotta make it happen if you want to do it.

Anyway, I loaded up the car in the wee hours then headed out the next day on a two-hour drive to the final Kisscross race in Holland, MI, on 11/29/09.

It’s not like I’m turning into a racer-dude again. I just wanted to do ONE event. Besides, I’d spread the OYB word while I was there. (Martha says, But you just want to do one everything!)

What It Is

Kisscross is a series based on the K.I.S.S. principle. It’s a flat $20 entry, no pre-registering. You count your own laps. You rank yourself by putting your name-tag onto a spindle as you finish. You help take down the course when it’s over. It’s been growing steadily for a couple years now. It’s put on by Rick Plite, the organizer of the sell-out Lumberjack 100 big-loop mt-bike race and the Barry-Roubaix race.

But Why?

I’d been practicing cyclocross ever since my brother and a pal started doing it. We’d all tried it in the early 80’s. We’re excited by it now becoming more popular than ever. Besides, by the end of the summer I was finally bike-fit and wanted to keep my hand in. It seemed like a fun way to go.

Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. Maybe it’s a bit like fixie hipsterism for the countryside. I like sociable cycling and that’s not always so easy to find. …Another reason to check it out. Then a friend said he’d barter me for a couple of his old CX sew-ups — which are known as secret weapons. They helped my bike shed a couple pounds. (Now that pie-season is upon us, I see that I need to lose about 10 myself! Yikes!)

Anyway, I’m psyched that bikes are cool all over again! Maybe even more so now than they were in the early 70’s. So show me the bandwagons!

Also, it’s known to be fun. CX is held in a park. It’s easy to run around and watch the races you’re not in. You probably won’t get hurt too bad. There’s no getting dropped because drafting isn’t a factor. There’s beer involved. People like to make noise around it. There are bells and horns. What’s not to like?

After I practiced it JUST ONCE I realized that I liked the rhythm. I knew I did because I wanted to go back out and keep doing it! If running up a hill carrying a bike over your shoulder and hurdling park benches with it and running and hopping back on can be FUN then something must be going on…

It was neat in that doing it for a half hour got me really cookin’ and worked. The exertion pattern reminded me of XC skiing. Maybe the slipperiness of one is something like the other. One good XC / CX deserves another!

Hipsters!

Speaking of hipsterism, here are some links for your viewing and groaning pleasure:

Here’s a text-to-movie thingy: www.xtranormal.com/watch/5684963/

Then there are the obligatory BikeSnob warnings about ‘cross that make me laugh pretty darn hard:

bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/10/cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die-bsnyc.html

bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2009/11/cross-over-appeal-it-shant-gonna-happen.html

Oh, OK, in case you haven’t seen a truly good Hitler YouTube yet, here’s a bikie one, which seems like the best to me (I clicked a few others, all lame):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TGH7vBC2nw

On to the Races!

I was hoping for an Easy Day. Dry weather. It rained and the course turned to mud. It was held at a Hope College stadium and playing fields. The soggy grass quickly turned to sticky mud of a nice consistency. Too bad I couldn’t ride nicely through it — no, I was able to chug along without strain. Just not fast, though. The whole scene seemed mellow and friendly, with some familiar faces.

I entered the first event, the half-hour beginner’s C-Race since, well, I had no idea what to expect. There were several dozen other riders. Plus the kids for their one-lap race. C’mon, kiddies!

We took off and I slid out when I got blocked by a guy who fell at the first slippery sideslope. Then I chased and that was it. I passed my one rival… a 13-year-old girl! …But she was wearing a full pro-team uniform. Maybe she’s a hot junior racer. I hope so! I ended up in 3rd place overall. It was fun.

It was also fun hearing the various “Hey, Old School!” shouts from folks — aimed at my bike and outfit. One guy said, Dang, he’s riding smooth tires! — Maybe he hadn’t seen narrow *pro* CX sew-ups before, yo!

My 25-yr-old Trek 614 all-rounder worked just dandy. It weighed 22 lbs, stripped down. It even had regular brakes. Man, the sport-tourer type is great: I’ve used this bike as a commuter, tourer, racer, semi-suspended roughstuff rig, fixie and now crosser…all with no fuss. (A bike built for 27″ wheels can easily take wide 700c’s, allowing a wide range of tire widths, many fenderable. Mine accepts up to 38mm’s! 32 with fenders. All on one set of brakes.) I suspect a 17-18-lb compact bike could be made with such versatility as well, without breaking the bank.

I was chagrined to have a 34-tooth big cog in the back, like some kind of little old lady, but in that thick mud I often needed it to ride even on flat ground! (When I was practicing a couple days before the race — I don’t call it training coz I’m mostly just learning how to do it — I felt my freewheel get weird and looked down and I had twisted it sideways on the old Normandy hub! Thankfully, people give me their old sewup stuff and I had another wheel and one remaining big freewheel, an old 5-speed that was TOO big. I was running only one chainring so, sheesh, I only had 5 gears. Who’d a thunk it in this day’n’age.)

I saw a couple other old “steel is real” bikes, but the rest were new-style 16-lb’ers.

The tires hooked up great. They say narrow is good for mud. Well, they’re right! I didn’t slip or slide much, though I suppose that means I should’ve pushed it more. I even did OK on my mounts and dismounts but they didn’t seem to be making all that much difference to my placing. I did RUN every stair-climb!

A trombone guy encouraged us with rock’n’roll variations.

The course had a few stair-climbs, a twisty descent, a couple off-cambers, one chunk of pavement, some humps and bumps and one special doozy…

The course featured a Spiral of Death — an ancient Celtic labyrinth, actually, as I informed the race director, who hadn’t known. Someone asked, Is that bad? I said, No, that’s good — the Druids are on our side!

The Spiral started out nice grass but turned into pure mud. I kept to the shorter inside line but on my last lap I went outside where people were obviously faster…and so was I. I had kinda thought I was being lapped occasionally and that those on the outside were just in a different league from me. I kept expecting to see superfaster guys come blasting past me but actually it never happened! Anyway, it was just my peers catching some easier speed on the outside line of the Spiral of Death.

At the finish, I ran into some ski pals who’d also just discovered CX and one said, “I had thought you were going to be B-Race material!” They were in the B-Race. Which was starting in a half hour.

Our good neighbor friends were also there as a family. They’d been cheering me on. Their 24-year-old son has been ‘crossin’ for a couple years now and loving it. It was the first time they’d come to see him race and he was in the B-Race, too, wearing a sweet skinsuit. So they were getting excited for their main event.

I couldn’t resist. I paid another $5 and signed up for the longer, harder B-Race!

It was warmer racing than standing around in the rain.

I changed into a fresh suit of wool and hit the starting line again.

There were 50 in the Young B’s and another 50 in the Old B’s (Masters) fields. I sorted myself to the oldsters. I probably had the only heavy old steel homebrew bike there. Those guys weren’t fools.

The superdude A-Racers were also making their appearance, rolling around, doing practice laps, looking gaunt and teamed-out.

The faster the racers the less they wore. It was raining off and on and in the low 40’s and the superdudes wore just a jersey and knicker-tights.

I saw more than a few singlespeeds, including a young woman on one. Supposedly one A-Racer went fixie.

One B-dude was riding an old Miyata converted to Sturmey 3-speed…wearing a gray jumpsuit and skate helmet with an ammo belt strapped to his frame. A nice addition to the colorful atmosphere. …Along with the lady in a neon tutu.

I had a dandy time doing the B-Race.

I was even up in the hustle so it paid off to keep my smooth flow going and to hit all the dismounts, etc., fast. I did pretty good. Darn, the bike picked up mud. Not any worse on the brakes than anywhere else, though. I should’ve tried banging the bike at the top of a hill to knock some off.

I had some decent corner moves. And sometimes folks would crash into me or swerve out into me but that was never a problem. I’d fend em off easily with a gentle arm and keep riding smooth. The riders gave each other room when they could and often said Hi or made nutty remarks — especially in the coming-and-going carousel of the Spiral. Spectators cheered us on everywhere. I felt nice on the bike. But I overheated — 40’s means skin! I used my HRM and kept it red-lined at a steady doing-good-for-me 175-180 BPM whenever I glanced down. The course had nowhere to rest. I use it so I don’t let myself blow up. If I look down and see 183+ I back off.

It would be nice to push the skills parts more next year and dial it all in better.

I tipped over a few times — once my cleat loosened and wouldn’t let me out, and once I did a hail-mary shift for 1st and threw it in the spokes.

Before the B-Race I tried adjusting my saddle and my ancient bike picked that moment of its whole life to wear out its adjusting collar and not re-tighten. A guy loaned me a collar that kept it from slipping down but it could still rotate. It was no sweat, though.

I got 19th out of 50. Our young neighbor friend got his best finish ever, winning a finish-line spring for 8th.

We watched the A’s go last. Man, they flew! But even they, when they hit the first BIG mud, slowed to a creep. Still, they were darn smooth and fast with their change-up’s…and used many different styles. Lots of flat-bar bikes out there, too. The winner was clearly going lots faster. But everyone gets cheered for as they spread out on the course.

I heard that this series is, of course, mellow. The Eastside series, the Tailwind, is more pro — it’s grooming racers to take the next steps up, with micro-chip timing. And $35 fee for casuals.

My cousin Jon came along and watched and helped and took pics. My position looks awfully stiff and old-man’y, I think. Gotta get dyno next season!

Speaking of pics, here’s what a pro photog saw at this race: great shots of splashing mud and clattering cleats! www.dansocie.com/mudcross/

Afterward there was a raffle for fun stuff—plus a fancy bike frame and a fancy fork. I donated an OYB Bag to the cause in exchange for sales-table space, which act I never got together. Everyone helped tear down the course (took only 20 minutes, during which we all chatted up our races). Then there was free chili and cheap microbrew at a local brewery.

Good clean fun!

The mud actually seemed neat. The rain certainly was clean. Is the mud-love the allure of the farm? A deep organic appeal? Maybe some folks just have more mud-love in them than others. It was nice hosing it off, too, when I got home. And, ya know what? My tires are now cleaner than ever! The scrubbing cleanser of mud is a good thing, it seems… Still, it’s getting to be time for SNOW! 🙂

Here are a couple 45-sec YouTubes followed by a few pics…

The “Spiral of Death” with the leader (in red top) lapping a couple guys — watch how fast he remounts at top of stairs compared to the guy before him: