Book of Chad

CX Nationals

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the race after my feelings and abilities at nationals. The conditions were slick but not boggy, I hoped these would be the conditions to highlight my technical abilities while hiding my current lack of power. The first part of the course was a grassy frisbee golf area with slick muddy turns that had thawed out from the overnight freeze. At the end of this section was a long gravel straight with a few off-camber corners before entering pit one. The second part of the course was fast corners around a baseball field with four slow 180-degree corners in the middle followed shortly by barriers and a final few corners ending in a tricky off-camber downhill to pit two. The final section was the hillside of slow corners, an almost ridable run-up and Belgian stairs culminating in a final straightaway 180-degree corner on grass and pavement to the finish straight.

The race started fast and I immediately got shuffled back. I made some good passes in the first corner and a couple more throughout the first technical section. As we hit the straight I could see a flashback of provincials with everyone distancing me. At the end of the straight Andre was just in front of me I opened up the corner as he was on the inside so that I could go through the inside as he would be forced wide. I saw the gap open and I pulled up alongside him, only my front wheel didn’t hold up in the mud quite as well as he did and we bumped shoulders. With us all finding the edge this was enough to put him on the ground. “That’s racing,” he would say, however, I felt horrible. I was going to give him the place back right away and then try again only now there were two guys between us as we went into section two. This section showed my weakness and it was on the next straight that the two between us went through and I let Andre by (He was going to go by anyways at this point but I just made it a bit easier). I was right back on his wheel and felt my debt had been paid. We went through pit two together and I made a pass on the hillside, a fair one this time. As we entered the Belgian stairs he was right behind me. I got off the bike ran up the stairs and heard something behind me that sounded like a mistake and as soon as I got back on my bike it was head down and trying to capitalize.

I wasn’t sure what happened to Andre at the time but after the race, he told me that he had a never-ending series of mechanicals, chain drops to be precise. I started changing bikes in pit one as that was a much better pit, it was just as fast to switch bikes as it was to ride by the pits because of the corner before the entry and the straight exit. I changed on the second lap and again on the third lap. The bikes were caking up, and drive trains and pedals were completely clogged up in one lap. On the last lap, I was in 11th with 10th in-site and 12th about the same distance behind me. I went by the pits this time thinking that I had no reason not to pit other than I had a slight preference for the tires on the bike I was on. I passed by pit two and I had caught up to Matthew Hendriks in 10th place as we entered the hillside. He made a mistake on the run-up and I was trying to ride it. I had to get off my bike to make the obstacle and when I went to get back on my chain fell off. I leant over to put the chain on and turned the pedals by hand and it fell off immediately. I tried again but was extra careful to make sure I indexed the narrow-wide correctly, I turned the pedals by hand and then it fell off immediately. At this point, I had to run to the finish.

I hate running in general I don’t mind getting off the bike for barriers or stairs etc. but if I can ride it I probably will. It was roughly 700m of running in carbon-soled bike shoes to the finish watching places go by. And another spot 5m or less to the line to end up 15th.

I accomplished some goals and I felt great while riding. The finish fun nearly killed me I thought I was going to pass out and had to lie down for a bit.

Race: CX Nationals
Time: 51:00 Laps: 5
Avg Heart Rate: 188
Max Heart Rate: 197
Place: 15

Trek Bear Crossing

Day 2 saw only small changes to the first section of the course and without a good time to pre-ride, I relied on Lindsay to tell me the changes after her race while I was warming up. She said don’t follow the tracks on the ground. This time with a front-row start I missed my pedal. Shuffled back a bit I opened up the first corner like yesterday and jumped up from around 10th to 4th position. The first section went well the course was faster as the ground had not had any new moisture and the sun baked it the day before.

I felt like I was actually in the race and I was able to maintain a place on the back of the lead group for quite a while. my timing chip was not reading on one of my bikes so my times were all over the place as they manually entered me into the system. I could see the front of the race for the first two laps and as those in front of me got separated from eachother they were able to go faster and I fell behind.

As the laps ticked away I found myself back with my final lap rival from the day before Matthew Hendriks. I learned a lot about his riding the day before he was stronger than I was and I was slightly more technical was my observations. So we went around swapping places until on the run-up he had to get off his bike and I was able to ride it. I was to his left and he remounted higher on the bank and a little ahead. I saw an opportunity to get into the left-hand corner and he immediately shut the door on me. I am not sure the pass was on but I took my chances. Somehow in the clash, my hanger was bent and although my bike was ridable some of the gears were skipping and unusable. I lost some time here and switched bikes the next time through the pits and then switched back a lap later onto my preferred set up. I never got back in touch with him on the course and finished a lonely 9th.

I tried to find him after the race to offer a handshake and a sorry for trying to make that pass stick but never saw him again. I felt good in the race and was happy with my performance overall. Although I would have liked to finish higher on both days I gave it everything considering the season I had even finishing two back-to-back races feels like a win.

Race: Trek Bear Crossing
Time: 48:42 Laps: 5
Avg Heart Rate: 186
Max Heart Rate: 196
Place: 9 th