I make no qualms about the fact that I love the long game. It is not that I love the agony of enduring pain for long periods of time, quite the contrary, I can survive long efforts because years of riding and training in the same format have given me the ability to endure ridiculous amounts of time in the saddle. Its what you train for that ultimately makes you the rider that you become.

I spent the summer months training for the WEMS series in MTB doing minimum of 3 hours of racing and upwards 9 hours of racing in a single day. This has done a number on my ability to tackle long challenges and the challenges within those long periods with nutrition, hydration, and motivation. I don’t have a pocket full of matches as many of my very talented teammates have – but I’ll wear anyone down if you give me distance. This is the approach I bring to Cyclocross racing.

After a good season of long endurance training for MTB – I couldn’t comprehend doing an all out effort for 45 minutes and calling it a day. That logic doesn’t work in my head – so I choose to do 2 races every Sunday because ‘I can’. I’ll go into the 1st race as the warm-up but I’ll still drive hard and keep my eye on the field and move up as the race plows along. The 2nd race depending is the race of truth as now, I have to have ensured that I ate some simple carbs, some protein, and plenty of fluids to regenerate the effort for another full on effort. I typically take the 2nd race harder than the 1st – and so far its been going well for me.

Jackson Park

I started the season out with the Masters 30+ finishing in 20th place and the Cat 4As in 17th place. This was a long day of volunteering and racing from 6AM til 5PM – and I couldn’t be happier about the performance given how great the day was. I knew I had an immediate upgrade to Cat 3 at that race and I was going to take it to the next race and change up the doubling up plan and prepare for a back to back.

DeKalb

I finished Masters 30+ in ???. Apparently my race result was not recorded a strange occurrence that seems to constantly be associated with me – for the 2nd year and after 8 cyclocross races so far in these two years, I have only officially done 4 races according to race results. I know I should be on top of this – but frankly I disagree. However, I assure you that I finished the Masters 30+ strongly and immediately toed the line a few minutes later for my 1st Cat 3 performance. I finished 25th in that field. I don’t warmup typically for my longer MTB events as the warmup will happen in the 1st few laps or miles of a long day of effort – I am quickly reminded that you need to warmup before a cyclocross race (at least for me) as the pace is very hot from the get go. I found my Cat 3 performance to be much more smoother and at a higher pace than the Masters 30+ race because I had that race to warm-up with beforehand. Pre-riding a course is an absolute must in MTB as the course terrain knowledge is paramount for understanding how you will tackle the course, how hot can you take corners, do you have the right PSI, and where your ‘resting’ points are. The same can be said for a CX course, to get the best performance out of a race, knowing when to turn the screws on your competition is an excellent advantage to have mentally. I fell a lot during the Masters 30+ race because I didn’t know how hard I could or shouldn’t have pushed the corners and with a slick grassy surface I overestimated plenty – a problem I shouldn’t have had, had I pre-rode the course and warmed up beforehand. I was still happy with the results and effort.

Hawthorn Woods

This time I decided to play with the big boys and hand down another duo effort in the mercy of 80 degree weather which is a good forte of mine. All MTB races are in the middle of a hot baking sun on the hills of a ski resort – the climbs are brutally hot and the heat alone in the air bakes your lungs in an already anaerobic blasted fury. This course was very reminiscent of an MTB course laying the hill at the beginning of the race and having two climbs under the sun that really baked your senses. I made the mistake of arriving too late for a warm-up and a pre-ride for the 2nd weekend in a row. I paid dearly for it in the Cat 3 race. I started out fast and couldn’t climb fast enough maintaining a high pace as I wanted to have because the legs weren’t there yet. I basically warmed up the 1st 2-3 laps and finally the legs turned on and the cranks were churning their 44X19 power turns and my speed and strength came back online, but unfortunately, that is half the race right there and picking up riders from behind the pack isn’t anywhere near as glamorous as maintaining in the lead pack. I finished the Cat 3 with plenty of gas and strength and annoyed that I didn’t warm up for a better performance – oh well, I thought, I’ll have to redeem the effort again in the next race.

I toed the Pro1/2/3 line with Brian Parker as the only other xXxer in the field and we both knew it was going to be a very fast hot paced race for 60 minutes (15 minutes more than the Cat 3) and at the nadir of the sun’s peak at mid-day. We took off and immediately the pace was blistering fast – we attacked the hill as if our lives depended on it and I found my strength in my legs immediately and succeeded to find my own groove within the 1st quarter lap of the race. I held down a hard churning pace sometimes pushing a 44X16 gearing through the bumpy grass sections but it was a great way to keep the momentum high and the pace reasonable enough to not suck wind with the competition. I was happy to have passed a young 20 something who did indeed look like they were suffering a bit on the flats at that high pace. My engine stayed kicked on and I hammered a good effort for the first 30 minutes knowing I could catch more folks. To my surprise, and chagrin at the same time, my best bud and teammate, Brian Parker, was ahead of me and losing ground to me. I kept steady and caught him at 30 minutes on the hill and we gave each other the three ‘Derkas’ and a handshake and I trotted up the hill and ran past to get the next downhill for myself. I came around the turn from the hill and shifted back into a taller gear and mashed it some more. It wasn’t until I came around the 2nd part of that same lap that I looked back and didn’t see Brian anymore and it was perplexing – I have never been in that position before. I remained steady and continued the hammer home and started gaining even more ground as I could now see the stragglers from the field in front of me. I caught the Turin rider and we traded some high octane pulls and he eventually started pulling away from me but the harder effort got me closer to the main field as we turned into the final lap. I wasn’t surprised, but was at the same time that I had enough strength to finish a very fast final lap and come in strongly – I survived the hour of power and finished in the top 20. I am making a safe assumption that I finished 17th but the results were again askew and not correct. I didn’t contest the results until far too late and as a result, the official USA Cycling results show me placing lower. I was miffed for a bit afterwards as the finishing place didn’t matter to me as much as much as the fact that I have been having a horrible streak with race officials not marking my races or getting my finishes correctly recorded. It is just points – but at the least, I am having a lot of fun inspiring others to race Cyclocross.

I encourage everyone to dig down and race more – its grueling yes, but the strength is within everyone.