Comprehensive Racing: Plymouth North Cyclocross

So, this past weekend was the 2009 Plymouth Cyclocross Festival that takes place both Saturday and Sunday, at the North High School and the South High School respectively. Comprehensive once again had a contingent in the Cat 4's on Saturday, with Patrick "I'm a marathoner, but still rock the 'cross bike" Smith, Eric "I always race in crappy 'cross weather" Whewell, and myself, the muddy iron-muppet. The weather on Saturday promised to be wet and windy and the drive down was just that, wet and windy. Upon arrival at the course, the rain tapered to a mist, but the wind was still there. Not quite as windy as Canton but definitely windy... For those of you not familiar with 'cross there are two types of courses, technical and not technical. Plymouth is about as non-technical as they come with only 2 short sections of single track and relatively few turns, but lots of long power sections up grassy hills, around soccer fields, etc, which is really not my style of racing, but my legs have been feeling better and I figured as long as I could stay with a pack, I would be fine sucking wheels in the fields and then doing my best to make a pass or two in the turns in technical sections... That was the plan. For a change, we all warmed up together which was nice, chatting and tooling around the course, it was evident that there would be a few slippery corners, but beyond that, pure watts would rule the day... and then it happened... mechanical failure!!!!! As I was riding up a grassy hill, shift the muddy drivetrain and BLAMMO, the chain gets sucked into the drivetrain and jumps the cog to get stuck between the cassette and back wheel. As I fight with it, Patrick and Eric, watch me untangle it once, we all jump back on and THWACK!! Right back into gap between the cassette and rear wheel. Eric and Patrick continue warming up while I fight with it. Fortunately some guy and his girlfriend ride by offer up a cassette removal tool. I run the bike back to their truck, they dig through the their tools and next thing I know, I've got the back end of the bike apart, the chain free and we are up and running with 10 minutes to spare. A quick survey of the drivetrain and its evident this day is going to be tough, a slight tweaked derailluer would keep me from having my two climbing gears. I roll over to the start line and line up with Eric to my left and Patrick to his left, and Jim T from NEBC next to Patrick (both fast starters). The interesting thing in Plymouth is that the start unlike so many races is basically 2-3 really long rows, so as long as you can get out of the blocks quickly, a decent start is almost guaranteed. The rain has tapered to a light mist and the whistle blows. I jump into the pedals, and I'm off and then it happens. Someone to my right decides they want to avoid a puddle... Let the dominoes begin... I see out of the corner of my eye, the guys next to me going down into me, I scoot slightly left and then the guy in front of me hits the deck, I do my best to avoid him, hopping over most of his bike to avoid damage. I dab a foot, I hear Patrick to my left... Trying not to take down Eric and Patrick, I stay upright just long enough to make sure they are past me and I hit the deck. OK, stand up, regroup, hop on the bike... CRAP! Chain is off and the drivetrain is screwed. Spend 30 seconds putting the chain back on and straighten my derailleur and I'm off... DFL!!! With the pack already at the top of the hill through the start finish, I start chasing HARD! Up the hill and into the first set of turns I can see the guys in the back. The course loops back onto itself, so I can see Patrick, Eric and Jim , all friendly faces at least 50 wheels in front of me. This is going to be a long day... With everything left in the tank after my initial adrenaline filled sprint from the start I latch onto the back markers and begin the process of surfing from one wheel to the next. Because of the course and conditions, and as Patrick would point out, the level of talent at Plymouth north could be categorized in two ways, powerful guys and not so powerful guys and by not so powerful, I mean guys on full carbon 'cross frames, that had trouble just making around the first lap, not that I have a full carbon bike, but you get my point. Not wanting to be in the second category, I kept my head down and just kept hammering, 2 spots, here, 2 spots there, 5 spots there, 3 more, etc, etc, until I got into a group that seemed promising that I could relax for a bit. Starting the 3rd lap, I was cooked... Because of the loop layout, I could tell Patrick was close to top 20 and Eric was having a solid ride, about 15 places behind Patrick. This continued for the next 20 minutes and by the 5th lap, my legs were officially shelled from chasing and I ended up getting passed on the last lap by a guy from NHCC that was glued to my wheel for 2.5 laps. I would continue racing hard for the remainder of the laps but never made it up to the top half, finishing in the upper 40's out of roughly 70 starters. Patrick would break into the top 25 with a 23rd and Eric would finish right between Patrick and I in the mid 30's.

So what's the moral of the story.... If you are off the back, never give up, but make sure you smile for the cameras...

Me...