I learned a lot this past weekend racing cx..or maybe I should say re-learned. I got all cuaght up in the course and what others were doing that I forgot what type of racer I am and what works for me. I struggled Saturday with a course that was tailored for my strenghts because I was caught up in what others were using for tire choice. I bought some file treads...something I have told myself over and over never to do. I wised up before the race and used the Typhoons which was good until 20 min into the race I recieved a complementary fairpark souvineir a 2 inch long wood chip directly through my rear Dugast Flying Doctor Typhoon...not a cheap flat by any means. At that point it was file tread time on my 2nd bike and I was all over the course and frustrated. Using too much energy in and out of the turns
Sunday's race was better. I used a Rhino up front and rallied the turns and had a good race because I went with what works for me. I am looking forward to the rest of the season as my fitness improves and more importantly I keep learning
3 comments:
I imagine you read Bart's post about Saturday's race. Would you approach the course differently than Bart? If so, how? Still trying to figure out how to race cross, what my strengths are, and how to approach different courses. All I know so far is that I'm not Bart, and though I can learn from him, I can't be him and need to learn who I am. I also know that no matter how good I felt about my race Sunday, you were still riding a helluva lot faster than I was.
Yes and no...Bart excels in turns and technical areas and he works on those throughout the race to get faster at those critical areas. I am pretty ok with technical stuff but my weight holds me back a bit in the turns. I excel in flat fast sections but if I am getting killed in the turns and losing ground and energy getting back up to speed I cant use the fast sections other than to recover. There arent too many Barts in the world so take every bit of advise from him and use it. There is a reason I find him at the races other than our kids are friends and we survived a lightning storm in the high Uintas! Find your weaknesses and work on them so your strenghts dont suffer
Thanks for the advice. The learning curve is steep in this sport.
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