So, I did my first cyclocross race at the weekend and it was everything I thought it would be and more! I arrived nice & early, in fact a couple of hours before my race – I wanted to soak in the atmosphere. After parking, I wandered down to sign on & found myself in the middle of what seemed like hundreds of kids riding the u10/12 race. The noise of cowbells & cheering parents was brilliant & I was hooked.
In the queue to sign on, I bumped into Bill Young of Pedal Power – Bill has become a good friend online, although we’d never actually met! It was good to finally shake hands and be able to say thanks for all the advice & encouragement as I took my first steps in the world of ‘cross. Turned out that Bill was parked only 2 cars away from me, so I was able to ask a couple more ‘newbie’ questions before the race. Cheers Bill!
After getting the bike setup & my kit on, it was time to do a couple of practice laps. It was great to finally be on the course after weeks of training in the park – it’s totally different. The bomb hole scared the crap out of me, but I managed to ride through it. I also noticed that most people were running down the muddy hill, through the burn & then up the muddy bank, so all thoughts of riding down went out the window (which I was quite happy about!).
After this I did a quick warm up on the turbo, as Craig Hardie had advised, and I was ready to go. It seemed like there were hundreds of guys in our race (the vets 40-49) and everyone wanted to be at the front of the grid. The gun went off and it was no surprise that there was a big crash on the first tight corner – there simply wasn’t enough room for everyone to get through first!
My race plan was simply to gain experience, so I was content to start at the back and just get used to racing on the course. I turned round at one point on the first lap and was surprised to see that there was no-one behind me. Shit, I was last! Pretty quickly I pushed harder on the pedals and moved up a few places. Thing is, I have the fitness, I just don’t have the experience or race skills yet. With each lap I got more confident, and as my strava file showed afterwards, faster. By the last couple of laps I was much happier and despite being lapped by a handful of riders I was still moving up through the field. I was best on the flatter sections and got past people fairly easily, I’ll just need to get better at riding up / down hill and through mud!
In the end I finished 52nd (out of 70 starters) – I had Gordon Watt of Deeside Thistle in my sights, but I just couldn’t catch him, finishing 10 seconds back. I was content with this – as I said it was all about experience. Racing for places will come in the future.
It was also good to have one of my new team-mates from COG Velo there as well. Pete was riding the seniors race – his first ‘cross race too. Pete had pretty much the same experience as me, although had to ride for 20 minutes longer. I can’t imagine what that must have been like, especially after being out the night before. Chapeau!
My learnings from the race?
- Start position is everything & you need to fight to hold your position. It’s not like a road race where you can move up & down the bunch. It’s much harder in ‘cross once you slip back.
- I need to work on my trail riding – I was too tentative, particularly on the downhill sections through the forest.
- I was okay on the off-camber sections, but need to learn to ride them faster.
- I need to push myself to ride harder in the race. My average HR was 163 – I know I’m capable of pushing that up towards 170.
- Someone said ‘cross is like doing a time trial. That’s bollocks! In a TT I could pace myself to ride at a certain power and could pretty much predict what my time would be. In cross it’s eyeballs out and you go from threshold to above threshold a lot! It’s nothing like a TT at all….
- My running is pretty good – I made up time & moved ahead of guys on the running & banking sections.
- Cross is hard, but great fun with brilliant banter!
- You really appreciate the support from the crowd. Hearing ‘come on Ali!’ drives you on (thanks everyone!)
- Mud gets *everywhere*
Finally, I can’t sign off without saying a big thanks to the legend that is John McComisky. We’ve spoken a fair few times on twitter, and having watched a load of the DigInMate videos on You Tube, I already felt like I knew John pretty well, but this was the first time we’d met. John’s shouts of encouragement & friendly banter as I raced round the course were great and just what I expected to be on the end of. Loved it mate!
And so we move on to round 2 at Falkirk on the 20th, when there will be at least 5 of us from COG racing. Between now & then I’ll be training harder, running more and getting in some sessions on the trails. I might not be race-ready by then, but I’ll be a lot better & wiser than I was at the ‘Tosh. Bring it on!
Great write up, glad you enjoyed it. It is a strange one, you turn yourself inside out, know you could always have done better, swear at your kit and then cant wait for the next race. Tosh is a great little course, Callendar Park is totally different but again lots of fun.
Thanks Addy! It was brutal at the time, especially the first couple of laps when I was tentative and going backwards, but once I settled in and got some confidence I started to work my way through the field. Looking back I loved it and learned so much. Can’t wait for Falkirk now 🙂
Great write up, helpint to fuel the already-high enthusiasm for the sport of cyclocross in Scotland. A good off-camber tip I read somewhere: the logical assumption is to start high, but when you lose height you can’t regain it, so start low and ride up the camber if you can.
Thanks Owen. Thanks for the tip – heading to the trails on Thursday after work for some practice, so will try that one out