Ranek's Incredible Tour de Donut Performance

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Carbondale Cross Omnium TT (smooth and fast)

Intro

I arrived at the course in time to do one lap. It would have been better if I could have done a couple but I tried to look carefully through the extension and take some mental notes of where the tight sections were. Doing a good TT is very much about knowing the course, especially if it's a technical one like this. I think you could make a good comparison with this race to autocrossing. Lots of tight turns, some straight sections to get up some speed. It requires some guts and knowledge of how fast to enter the turns and where to apply the breaks.

Race

Buddy counted me down and I was off. Over the barriers felt smooth and I mounted and clipped in quickly. Despite the peg leg mount, I felt like I did this well. Around the 180 at the top of the course I carried speed, pedaling through the turn. This led me wide onto the straight heading into the extension. At this point I felt like I was getting into a good groove. I started looking ahead to make sure I knew what was coming. Everything felt smooth through the extension until I came to a sharp right hander near the end. This turn had a very wide entry but then narrowed quite a bit. There was a tree at the apex of the turn so I didn't really see how sharp it was and I had forgotten about it. Fortunately, I had plenty of room before I came to the apex so I just turned left instead of right and looped around and continued on. Much better than falling and remounting again, this was a much better way to recover from the mistake.

Now onto the short course section again. I carried good speed over the first berm, faster than last night I think but no problems keeping the bike on course from the exit. Gradually accelerate over the second berm and then on to the dense stuff around the hairpin, left turn and across the line. I was spent. Sucking lots of air like at the end of a sprint. How fast was I? Don't really know yet.

Conclusion

I was really in the zone. I saw everything well and I felt very fast and smooth. This might be the performance of the summer for me. And a short effort like this confirms that my anaerobic ability is good for my age. I just have to work on the longer stuff. Now if I can just pace myself better for the next race...

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Carbondale Cross Omnium Short Track (blowing up is easy)

Intro

This was a three race series that featured a short course and a TT besides the normal style cross race. This short course race was not only a short course but also a shorter race. Just long enough to open everyone up and inflict a modest amount of pain. The course was about 2 minutes per lap. Besides the obligatory double barrier set in the middle, there were two berms in the second half with steep upsides. They were about 6 feet tall. It was also all off road with a about a 250 yard straight that had some semi gravel/hard dirt and slightly downward which could work as a place to recover a bit each lap.

Race

I lined up on the front and at the whistle, I took off with the fast guys. I stayed with them for about a lap and kept them in site for another two or so. Well, that was just way to fast for me. I began to blow and give up ground. Finally ending up behind John R. who was my nemesis last fall. John finished ahead of me most of the time so I was starting to think that hadn't made much progress at all this year. But really, I just didn't think about pacing at all in this race. I just let 'er rip pretty good and suffered the consequences. I was pretty tired by the end of the race. My body had forgotten how brutal a cross race can feel. The jarring of the divots and gullies as well as the variation in terrain. There was some spots on this course where the grass was very dense and it felt hard and slow through those sections.

Conclusion

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Contact Me:
bobber at kc0dxf dot net

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