2005 Cyclocross National Championships
December 9-11, 2005
Providence, RI
Roger Williams Park
The 2005 National Cyclocross Championships were held in Providence, RI December
9-11. I am going to petition to have nationals moved to San Diego in November in
order to finally get a venue that is not 35 degrees and raining or snowing. 50
degrees and sun would suit me just fine, even 55 and raining.
From the race bible: “The course is fairly wide open and on the longer side to
accommodate large fields and to prevent too many riders from being lapped. There
is ample space for re-setting sections of the track that might get torn up too
much, so the following days/races may have fresh tracks. The ground is mostly
hard with very good drainage. It would have to be exceptional conditions to slow
the racing down appreciably (heavy snow for instance). There will be 4
obstacles: one long run with wood and earth stairs at the bottom, one 5- meter
set of stone and cement stairs, one set of hurdles on flat ground, and one 10-
to 12- second run that may have earth and wood stairs mid-hillside if the
conditions are dry. The course is 3.2km long, of which about 1 km is paved in 4
sections. There is also about 200 meters of gravel road. The rest is grassy
parkland.”
Thursday Chris and I prerode the course in the late afternoon. It had a bit of
snow on it, but everything was ridable. The forecasters called for “a few”
inches of snow for Friday. Little did we know that the first Nor’easter of the
season would blow in overnight. The first races Friday were in the snow. By late
morning, the snow changed to rain. The course was slick but still mostly ridable.
Chris’s Master Men 35-39 division rolled out in the rain. By the end of the
first lap, the winds went from calm to 35 mph. The temperature dropped from 37
to 31 degrees according to someone’s thermometer, and driving sleet replaced the
gentle rain. Chris was glad when he was lapped and pulled. Riders were treated
for hypothermia, and organizers cancelled the final two races of the afternoon.
Master Women 30-34
Saturday I awoke to temperatures in the lower 20’s with a high of about 38. My
race was the Master Women 30-34 National Championship at 10:45. By the time my
race rolled around, the first 1/4 of the course this morning was ice. Solid.
Ice. The rest of the course was a mix of hardpack snow and wonderful, icky,
wonderful mud. I LOVE MUD! This is the first time I've really raced in the ice.
I got a great start and was about 6th up the road and onto the course. From
there, it was all down, literally. The entire Master Women's field went
down....this way, that way, and every which way. Only once was my fault, but I
went down about 5 additional times thanks to other people. Before I knew it, I
was chasing from behind. The rest of lap one was spent getting passed by the
faster women from the other age groups and the Collegiate women. My hopeful Top
10 was gone. The second lap was decent. Since I was not in the midst of everyone
else, I was able to ride my own race and stay upright. I rode a lot of what was
taking others down and what the other women were running. The stair run up was
nothing but a sheet of ice. You had to be really careful not to break your ankle
by stepping wrong. One of the NC riders caught me and gave me a dirty look. I
passed her back on the next muddy section. She glared at me as she passed me on
the next road section. We came to the muddy runup near the start/finish road
section, and I had the advantage. I passed her back and flew down the steep
muddy hill. She passed me again on the road. About 100 feet into the icy
section, she fell. I cruised past her and put about 45 seconds on her in the
third lap. Since I was by myself, I made it my goal to not have her catch me.
I tried to have as much fun as I could, but the course conditions were unlike
anything I'd ever raced in before...again, the ice.
B Women’s Race
My backside has a bruise the size of Rhode Island. As the first race today at
wonderful 8:30 in the morning in 25 degree weather, the B Women had the
opportunity to ride on an ice skating rink posing as a cyclocross course. Did I
mention it was 8:30 am?
I rode the course twice before the race to see where the organizers rerouted
some lines and what was ice and what was soft. About a quarter of the way the
second time around, I flew backside and hip first onto the ice. This wasn't
soft, nice snow. It was hard, solid ice. I now have a bruise the size of Rhode
Island a place that shouldn't be bruised. The worst thing was that I could
barely walk on my right side. Combine this with my pulled left thigh from
slipping on the ice on Saturday, and I was in bad shape.
I lined up with 41 other women, which is by far the largest cyclocross race I
have ever done. I was in the second row thanks to an early registration. I was
in the middle going into the course. I decided to race the "I don't want another
bruise and would rather finish in one piece" race. Let' me clarify this now. I
DO NOT LIKE RACING IN ICE! Mud, yes, Ice, no. I love mud. I hate the ice. I was
not a happy cyclocrosser during the race. The first lap I managed to stay mostly
upright thanks to running the first 1/4 lap like the rest of the field. Unlike
Saturday, there were no lines, only hard ruts. If your front wheel got stuck in
a rut, most of the time you had to unclip, run, and try to remount. The runs ups
were not too bad, but my legs were already tired from running so much. The
second lap was ok other than getting passed by everyone else on the course
except for about 7 people. I stayed upright except for one slip. I didn't go all
the way down, but my left thigh wasn't happy with me when it strained to help
keep me upright. By the third lap, things unfroze just a bit, especially on the
back side of the course. I'm happy to say that I rode the big hill on the far
side every lap. This hill was the bane of most of the women in my class. I guess
10 years of mountain bike racing pays off for something.
I'm off to take more Ibuprofen.