Remember When You Were 5 Years Old...

...and you got to go play in the mud?

Sunday marked the day of the first official cyclocross race of the season (for me, at least) - Brecktobercross.  A 'cross race at 9900 feet.  Always a good time.  And the weather is usually beautiful...until this year.

Let's say the weather took a turn for the worse as soon as we (wife Erin and I) pulled into the parking lot.  What was sunny skies and 60F earlier in the day turned to 43F and rain.  Then sheets of rain.  Then some sleet/hail/ice/who knows.  Then a light sprinkle.  Then more steady rain.

Course was typical Brecktobercross fare:

• a long straight covered in wood chips right out of the gate
• some quasi-techy pavement
• a slippery dirt section with barrier #1 and a run-up
• another uphill pavement section
• some winding trail through trees with barrier #2 and a run-up
• fast winding trail through trees
  
• a 180 hairpin with barrier #3 immediately following
• a burst climb, downhill through tunnel, and burst climb out
• long straight covered in wood chips
• lap-through (back to first wood chip straight)

The rain turned everything to mud.  In the trees it stayed a little drier (clumpy mud), but the run-ups were super slimy, and the exposed areas were nice and splattery.  Rooty sections were downright treacherous.  Corners were all greasy, and were getting worse throughout the race.  Our Cat 4 group did 6 laps in 45 minutes, which was the same pace the Cat 3 guys were rolling at.

Race Recap:  Pretty simple, really.  Terrible start, fell back to around 27th out of 35, and spent the entire race playing catchup.  It was a tight starting area (only about 4 wide), so those that had the call-up were definitely at an advantage.  I didn't get a great position in the starting gate, probably 2/3 of the way back.  The official says 3 minutes to start, we're all chatting, then all of a sudden "GO!"  WTF?  Didn't get any sort of a countdown or 30 second or 15 second warning.  So, caught by surprise and spit out the back.  Many of the straights were single-file, so you had to pick and choose your spots smartly.  The mud also didn't allow you to come into corners hot for a pass, at least not if you wanted to stay upright.  The technique practice I've put in recently helped significantly, as I had zero problems with bike handling, dismounting/remounting, etc.  Had some issues with muddy cleats that cost me probably 15 seconds throughout the race.  In fact, I passed a number of people on the first two laps on the run-ups.  I think I've got a lot more power this year, too, as I was passing/pulling away on all the burst climbs.  Worked my way back through the field to a 9th place finish, with a pretty big gap back to 10th.  So, all in all, a stellar race for me.  Honestly, I just wanted to stay upright and finish at the start of the day.

Let the videos buffer - they're a little big...(my bad)

Burst climb out of the tunnel at the end of the lap:


Erin did a great job snapping pictures, taking some vij, and cheering me on in the rain.  Actually, there were a large number of spectators for a Cat 4 race in the rain and mud.  Great racing, nobody went uber-aggro, and we all had a frickin' BLAST in the mud.  My washing machine, on the other hand...

U-Turn on the pave, hopping into some sloppy mud: