Sucker Brook 'Cross, Auburn, NH, Sunday, September 17, 2006, Scott Brooks
I guess one of the benefits of writing a late race report is that the course has been described aud-nausium. I won’t go into those details, but rather discuss my race. As with most people at the race, this was my first one of the season. The pre-reg list looked very sparce (7 riders listed up until the last minute) and was pleased to see close to 35 people on the start line. With 15 minutes to go before the start, I wandered over near that staging area, determined to pick out a good spot, but not get lined up any sooner then I had to. I spun in circles waiting for people to make their way to the line. With under five minutes to the start, people finally started to congregate. I found what I thought was a good spot, slightly towards the left hand side of the road. My thinking was when the course made the left hand turn off the pavement I would be in a good position to have the left line. This line in the transition from pavement to gravel was the only solid line, and therefore the fastest. On the line I quickly realized that 100 feet into the race, the course narrowed by about ten feet, which meant there would be a potential bottleneck on the left hand side. Just one more reason to get off the line first. Dave Chiu lined up even further left then me and he too realized his mistake. Lesson one, line up better. Still, I was on the front line so all was pretty good.
The race started with a quick sprint to the hole shot. As Cris mentioned, it is a fine line between blowing one’s self up to get to the hole shot first, versus third or fourth, still having a good line into the course. Immediately two riders were off the front. I’m talking 100-200 feet off the front. Far enough that I wondered if they were still warming up or had they already created that much space?! I tackled the barriers fine, moved through some riders as the race settled in and began to find my tempo. Through the woods my mountain bike inner self came out and I found my pace remained high, still dropping riders. The course had two sand sections with some space to remount and ride between them, about 50 feet. You could plow through the sand on the right hand side, but then you had not line for a 180 degree right hand turn. In my preview of the course, I realized that the sand was a potential trap and thought better to just run from the first section, throughout until I was clear of the 180 degree turn. In hindsight I still think that this was a good idea.
Skipping ahead to the final lap, I found myself in the top 10, with one rider potentially in reach, and another rider potentially able to reach me. All three of us hammered through the grass sections. I made gains on the straight sections, but lost made time in the turns. Through the woods we remained at our appropriate distances. Going into the last section of woods, I made some calculated decisions that worked, lessons learned from last year. I gave it everything I had through the woods to keep ahead of the rider behind me. At this point I realized I was unlikely to catch the guy in front. We hit the sand about a second apart, him trailing me. We both ran through the first sand section, then I made a small gap as he mounted his bike for the section section. Since I was first I was able to choose the shortest line on the right hand side of the sand, still running with my bike. The trailing ride caught up to me in the sand, but couldn’t pass. I turned on a dime then remounted. He struggled to make the turn as he had no speed. Going through the parking lot he stayed on my wheel, then when I came out onto the straightaway, I sprinted for the line. He too sprinted but a full bike length was too much to overcome in the final 100 yards. I ended up taking 8th out of 35 starters.
This was a great reintroduction to cross. I had about the most satisfying personal race of my year. I gave it everything I had for 45 minutes and it felt great. Plus it was a lot of fun. If you listened to the stories about track all year, but decided to start late, only to find out how much fun that was, come try cross. I just about guarantee that you will have a blast. At its worst, cross is still much better then sitting on the trainer. We will race until December, rest for a month, then start building in January for the 2007. The alternative is to start building for the 2007 season in October and ride the trainer. Uggghhh.
Scott