Race Report: Agawam (8/26/07)
You want cheese with that whine?
ok. a mountain biker, i am not. Today I drove down to Agawam for what was described as "... pavement, grassy fields and hard-packed single track and fire roads. It’s fast and fun with a few technical sections." sounds like it should have been right up my ally (not allie). i had a hard week of training, with 1-min hill intervals yesterday..so i wasnt expecting much from this race (officially). but i have to admit, with the amount of training i have been doing, i really did expect something. i expected to do well. not necessarily win...but i thought i would do well. i am going to go so far as to say i KNEW i would do well. thats how confident i was.
got there & was psyched to meet up with my friends... Meg, Zank, Yash, Hanson, Pierre, Ctodd, and probably a few others. Prerode the course and was like "hmmm... not what i was expecting". if you are a mountain biker, than you are psyched. if you are not a mountain biker (like me) then you are a little annoyed. I am just gonna come out and say it. I HATE courses like this. 90% trail/singletrack 5% fireroads 4%pavement 1% grass. yeah that shit is fun to ride... even fun to ride on a cross bike... i just dont like racing on it.
i line up...front row spot. whisle blows & i get a good start... paved climb before the woods & i think i go in there at about 4th wheel... not bad.. then the roots & rocks started jumping out of nowhere. ugh. i used to race mnt. but that was like 8 years ago... so maybe those skills are lacking a bit... but there is a reason why i quit racing mnt...
so i think after 1 or 2 laps, Ctodd caught me...& his buddy yells out that we are in 12 place.. ok.. i have moved back a few spots.. but i will make it up.
me & ctodd were together for a bit.. maybe another lap or two.. he was smooth as butter on the singletrack & i was doing my best to stick on his wheel.... we picked up a 3rd guy & rode together for a bit... then that guy got between me & ctodd, and ctodd sped up, while "other guy" slowed down... so that was the last i saw of ctodd (nice riding, bud!).
at this point, im tired. im frustrated. but i am trying to stay positive. i am no way near where i thought i would or should be...but im trying to push hard & make up some spots... but it just wasnt working. i was moving backwards, and fast.
im not sure what happend today. that was the worst i have felt or ridden in a long time. usually you can say "well, my tech skills were killer.. i just dont have the fitness"... or "well, my fitnes was great, but i sucked at the tech stuff". but i kinda sucked at both of them. i had high expectations, even though i knew i had just done a hard week of training. even though i know i suck on these courses. even though its august. nonetheless, it was dissapointing. very much so.
so thats it. i am putting it behind me. i cant see how it is even remotely possible that given all the training i have done over the past 6 months, i wont be fitter than previous years. so i am going to hang my hat on that. i worked hard. i am working hard. and it WILL pay off. (just not on a mnt bike course) :)
I stuck around for a bit... hung with Meg, JD, zank and Yash... good times. :)
Hanson took it home. He deserves this.
ps: the grass you see here is the ONLY grass on the course.
ok. a mountain biker, i am not. Today I drove down to Agawam for what was described as "... pavement, grassy fields and hard-packed single track and fire roads. It’s fast and fun with a few technical sections." sounds like it should have been right up my ally (not allie). i had a hard week of training, with 1-min hill intervals yesterday..so i wasnt expecting much from this race (officially). but i have to admit, with the amount of training i have been doing, i really did expect something. i expected to do well. not necessarily win...but i thought i would do well. i am going to go so far as to say i KNEW i would do well. thats how confident i was.
got there & was psyched to meet up with my friends... Meg, Zank, Yash, Hanson, Pierre, Ctodd, and probably a few others. Prerode the course and was like "hmmm... not what i was expecting". if you are a mountain biker, than you are psyched. if you are not a mountain biker (like me) then you are a little annoyed. I am just gonna come out and say it. I HATE courses like this. 90% trail/singletrack 5% fireroads 4%pavement 1% grass. yeah that shit is fun to ride... even fun to ride on a cross bike... i just dont like racing on it.
i line up...front row spot. whisle blows & i get a good start... paved climb before the woods & i think i go in there at about 4th wheel... not bad.. then the roots & rocks started jumping out of nowhere. ugh. i used to race mnt. but that was like 8 years ago... so maybe those skills are lacking a bit... but there is a reason why i quit racing mnt...
so i think after 1 or 2 laps, Ctodd caught me...& his buddy yells out that we are in 12 place.. ok.. i have moved back a few spots.. but i will make it up.
me & ctodd were together for a bit.. maybe another lap or two.. he was smooth as butter on the singletrack & i was doing my best to stick on his wheel.... we picked up a 3rd guy & rode together for a bit... then that guy got between me & ctodd, and ctodd sped up, while "other guy" slowed down... so that was the last i saw of ctodd (nice riding, bud!).
at this point, im tired. im frustrated. but i am trying to stay positive. i am no way near where i thought i would or should be...but im trying to push hard & make up some spots... but it just wasnt working. i was moving backwards, and fast.
im not sure what happend today. that was the worst i have felt or ridden in a long time. usually you can say "well, my tech skills were killer.. i just dont have the fitness"... or "well, my fitnes was great, but i sucked at the tech stuff". but i kinda sucked at both of them. i had high expectations, even though i knew i had just done a hard week of training. even though i know i suck on these courses. even though its august. nonetheless, it was dissapointing. very much so.
so thats it. i am putting it behind me. i cant see how it is even remotely possible that given all the training i have done over the past 6 months, i wont be fitter than previous years. so i am going to hang my hat on that. i worked hard. i am working hard. and it WILL pay off. (just not on a mnt bike course) :)
I stuck around for a bit... hung with Meg, JD, zank and Yash... good times. :)
Hanson took it home. He deserves this.
ps: the grass you see here is the ONLY grass on the course.
Labels: cross, race report
posted by Justin at
5:47 PM
7 Comments:
I too am not a mtn biker at all. I however will say I enjoyed the course. It was fun. In a wierd, painful way that CX is fun. It was however not at all as described, so I can see your disappointment.
I agree the course was not like advertised, but boy did I enjoy it. it had a nice LONG run-up, lovely single track, not too twisty, not too rooty/rocky.
It was our first race of the season JJ. You'll be kickin' all our asses in October...
Hey, dude you might actually have been a bit tired. Days like that happen, and you were TRAINING through it. Besides it was a little race, no worries. Stick to the program and when you might be tired you try to do what you can, so when you are fresh you will be rockin' it.
-C
JJ,
You ARE fit, just not october/november fit right now. When the rest of the field is burnt out by then, you'll be right on target. still early buddy.
so no eco-cross for you then i guess ;)
listen to your other comment-ers
They are right.
Keep doin' what you're doin' and we'll throw down in RI.
Here's a little motivation:
http://crossresults.com/?n=racers&sn=h2h&rID0=1138&rID1=80
Hey, I linked your race report from my blog. I'm trying to link as many race reports as possible so I'll check in from week to week.
brooke[ampersand]hoyerfamily[full stop]com
aka Gripped from roadbikereview
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