So, a couple of weeks back I won a raffle on Facebook for a free entry into a new, first year race in Harrisonburg, Va, the Rockburn Cyclocross Festival. This weekend was a break in the MABRAcross Super8 series and we didn't plan on making the trip to Granogue this year (next year we will), so we decided to go down to Harrisonburg. We've had some fun times at Virginia cross races in the past, like Bryan Park in 2008.
I did the 45+ race at 10 and Jake would do the 15-18 at 11.
We got there in plenty of time to pre-ride 4 or 5 laps. It was a short course, built on the side of a hill with a road start then a loose gravel climb, followed by some tight turns at the top of the hill, a triple barrier, then a more swooping fast lower half of the lap, which included a run up that had small barriers that begged to be hopped (but my old bones chose not to try). Then a last 200 meets of climb up to the final road stretch. We would do 8 5-minute laps.
It was a fairly small group. They start the 35+ 1 minute before the 45+. I'm in the second row behind the guys with VACX series points. Chris Huhn of Evolution is the only one I knew. I got a so so start stuck behind the group but was able to pass some guys on the loose gravel climb. Maybe in top 6 or so but the front 3 already had a little gap. After someone crashed on the triple barrier I moved up a few spots. Someone told me I was in 4th at some point. On the second or third lap a local guy came up to me from behind. He was strong on the road so I held on to him. Lots of people cheering for him ("Bill"). For the next 2-3 laps we were making our way forward, starting to pass some 35+ guys (who also cheered for him; interesting being the stranger from out of town). I could see that I was stronger than him on the gravel climb and, amazingly, over the barriers. With 2 or 3 laps to go I made my move past him over the barriers and quickly established a gap, starting to chase Chris Huhn who was in third maybe 5 or 10 seconds up. I rode alone for a lap chasing, growing my gap over 5th. The last time up the gravel hill I went hard and closed to within a few seconds of Chris. He knew I was coming and was taking risks, e.g., leg out on downhill off-cambers. Unfortunately I bobbled slightly through some mud that threw me toward a tree. I had to scrub speed and his gap then was too big for me to close with only 2 minutes left in the lap. I came across in 4th, which was cool.
Just like Bryan Park in 2008, it was a good building race. I felt good at Hyattsville last week and again felt solid all race today.
Jake's race was tough. The Miller School of Albelmarle brought a bunch of boys. Connor Bell, a 17 year old expert mountain bike racer, Chris Keeling, a 17 year old climbing Phenom who was second only to jeremiah Bishop and others at Devils Backbone. I told Jake to try and stay with them as long as he could. Well, he did, but maybe not the smartest strategy. He stayed with Connor for 2/3-3/4 of the first lap, then he was ahead of Chris Keeling for a bit in second, then he tried to stay with Chris for a bit.
Here he's just behind Keeling.
Then another older boy who looked to be a MTB racer (boy in red in the video) caught Jake mid race, moving him to 4th.
I could tell he was slowing down.
He said later that he got a stomach cramp. Going out too hard had caught up with him. 2 boys from Miller (who are older than Jake) caught him with about 2 to go and he was cracked. He finished 6th, which disappointed him. I'm sure that if he had ridden within himself he would have been 4th or at least dueled with the guy for 3rd (he was clearly older and strong). Lord knows I've gone out too fast and faded many times.
Luke Klausen also came and had a good race. Here he is on the run-up.
It was a fun race, even though Jake's result wasn't optimal. These smaller races can be a nice change of pace.
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