Crank Racing : : News

If it’s one race that I was unprepared for, it’s this race. Not only have I not been on the bike more than two times over the past couple of months, but I also didn’t bring enough water or towels. Why did I need water and towels? Because this race had me as muddy—if not muddier—than the Northshore Classic race earlier this year.

The basic jist is that this is a cyclocross race put on by the University of New Hampshire's cycling club, on its Durham campus.

At first glance, the course didn’t look bad, although, to be honest, I didn’t check it out before I raced on it. Nope, I just showed up, registered, and waited for the start. Pre-riding, warming up, and stretching are all for sissies.

I simply looked at the course from my vantage point on the side lines and thought about the suffering that would commence. I did, however, note that in the race before mine, the riders were taking an exceptionally long time in a back section, and they came through each lap muddier and muddier. Hmmm, that should have been a clue.

Anyway, I gathered with the other Cat4 men (about 50-60 of us), and because I registered that day, I was staged totally at the back. Hmmph. We got the start and we took off. As soon as we hit the grass, our speed dropped because we were slogging through soft, wet, grass. Not a huge problem, but you could tell the difference between the riders that ride mountain bikes mostly and the road riders that just bought ‘cross bikes because they’re trendy. This first grassy section wasn’t anything compared to what was coming up though. It was pretty easy, just slow, and then we hit the first barriers. Up and over, down a short hill, and then through some deeper mud before we hit a short section in the woods. Once out of the woods, it was more grass, and more mud, then back in the woods, and then … hell.

Hell, was a totally flat grassy field of torn up grass and deep, deep mud. The kind of mud that you crank through as hard as you can and you only go about 1.5mph forward. It was nasty, slow, and it sucked the life out of you. It was like pedaling through deep sand with flat tires and a sock in your mouth and Anna Nicole Smith on your back. Yeah. I’m talking about a dirty sock too.

Could I please do five laps of this? Great!

On a couple of my laps, I actually ran most of the grassy field (maybe about ½ mile), and passed plenty of riders, but even running through it was tough.

All in all, it was a tough race. I was at about 95-percent max heart rate for 41 minutes. My bike suffered too! I had no brakes (not that I needed them), and my seatpost dropped about an inch. Oy.

It was all in the name of fun, and through it all, fun was had. I was a caked, muddy mess, and unlike every other race I’ve been to this year, I did NOT bring any water to clean up with. I walked down to the bike wash, but there were at least 40 people in line. Even if each one took a minute, that’s 40 minutes (I’m good at math, huh?). I decided that the Element was designed to accommodate muddy drivers/passengers, and just left as I was. It’s too bad that I stunk too.

My father-in-law, Del, and Luna the super-puppy came along too, just to watch me suffer. It was good to have the support.

I like cyclocross because the races are short and intense, they are usually close to home (at least the ones I do are), and you get some beat some people that spent a lot of money on special cyclocross bikes. They hate it when mountain bikers pass ‘em!

I have no idea how I did—but who cares. I beat some, I got beat by some, and I got a good work-out.