Yesterday was a long day for me and I didn’t even race. I think I made a good decision and decided to sit the race out. I was pretty tweaked from the previous two days and thought the upside was limited compared to the potential downside of competing.
This was really unusual for me. I can’t really think of a time where I overrode an emotional decision with an intellectual one, concerning competing. And it was really tugging on me in the morning up until the start of the race.
The intellectual part for not racing was that I hit my left shoulder pretty hard on a wooden post the first lap the day before and it kept me up most of the night throbbing. Plus my left hamstring and right achilles tendon were feeling “over used”. Probably from slogging through ankle deep mud for two hours the previous days. That and a million guys were ripping off their rear derailleurs on Sunday once again, I decided to sit.
Obvious I wanted to race. Building up to the start I could hardly stand it.
But this dissipated relatively early because of super bad luck by Logan Owen. He was leading the race, barely a minute in and got twisted up in some mud and ended up going off-course into the ribbon. He took a pretty hard fall. This was right next to where I was standing. We ran over to see if he was okay and he was holding his left shoulder. He seemed okay and said, as he was still laying on the ground, that he hit his left shoulder pretty hard the day before, on the same wooden post I hit, and it was still super tender. He didn’t get back on his bike.
His bad luck, for some weird reason, eased my mind on my decision. Strange how that is. I very much doubt I would have fallen on my shoulder, but the risk was still there.
Anyway, standing around for 4 hours, sloggy through the same mud, outside of the course, was nearly as hard as racing. I was wasted after. The races were super good though. The women’s race was exciting, as was the men’s.
Everyone was looking pretty beat from the two previous heavy days. I don’t know, but 3 days of muddy racing might be too hard, even for trained athletes. Katie Compton was riding pretty strongly, but was all over the course bike handling. Stephen Hyde had the race completely under control until 1/2 a lap to go and he completely fell apart, opening up the door to Jamie Driscoll who passed him and won. How disappointing for Hyde. He was riding a super race. And he and Jamie had both skipped Friday night’s race.
The 6 hour drive back was painless. We stopped outside Des Moines and met up with Michael Fatka. I’d left my chainsaw up in Ames last month when I was helping him with his roof and he brought it down. We had dinner at Panera, got some coffee and drove the last 3 hours. We got back around 11:30pm, which was relatively early compared to some weekends.
I didn’t sleep so good last night again. I think I’m going to wait it out a couple days to see how my shoulder heals. I talked to Stacie and she said there isn’t much back there that really needs attention if it is broken. I’m surprised it is getting worse still.
Okay, here are a bunch of photos from the last couple days, in no particular order. There are some better photos by Dave McElwaine here at Velonews.
The post that gave me problems.
This is my friends Kent McNeill’s kid, Dillion. He is killing it on a bike. He’s 14 years old and finished top 3 in the Category 2 races all three days I think.
Jonathan Page had a good weekend, winning on Friday, then finishing on the podium yesterday.
Logan Owen after he fell.
He sat up pretty quickly and seemed alright.
My shoulder after the race Saturday. It was much more swollen on Sunday morning.
So, so many missing rear derailleur walkers.
Stephen Hyde was so good until the last 1/2 lap yesterday.
The Grinch was all over the course. He’s cheering Katie Compton here at the top of Mt. Krumpet.
Local favorite Amanda Miller rolling in yesterday.
Michael and Keith last night at dinner.
This FMB tire would have probably been the best for the weekend. I was riding this same tire on my rear and it was hooking up good.
This was after just one lap in the final race. Crazy.
it’s good when the intellectual part prevails.
It was a tough weekend of racing.
One of you from Saturday on the run-up.
https://flic.kr/p/BKRJSP
Meanwhile at Ruts n Guts in Tulsa the conditions were perfect ….
Great to see you guys! Interestingly enough, Dillon’s highlight of the weekend…when we left the restaurant Saturday night he said. “Wow, this has been the best day! I got to shake the hands of two Legends!” He was more pumped with meeting you and Todd than his results. 😉
That pic of the bike is why I’ll never ever do Cx. I can’t stand washing my road bike every week. I’d never want to come home and replace ever damn thing on the bike.
After reading your 3 posts on the weekend, cyclocross seems like fun!
Your posts about cx and mtb are my favorites. Didn’t make it to Jingle Cross this year, thanks for writing it up.
You need to put some muscle mass on your body. You aren’t climbing Ventoux yet you look borderline anoerexic and you sure the hell don’t have any padding to protect even from the simplest of falls like at JMSR. I’d wager you are osteoporotic as fx’s like you have had and your matchstick body aren’t a coincidence of gloom and doom woe is me that you keep writing about. Consider weight training. I’d rather get dropped on the once in a blue moon I tackle the Gila’ then languish in recovery and self-pity from breaking a _____ (insert bone name here) all because I am too damn thin.
OTOH, my uncle worked his dairy farm until he was in his 90s and he would have made Steve look kind of chunky. A lifetime of farm equipment and cows made him plenty strong without any bulk (and a whole lot more hazardous conditions than bike racers face). Given the type of work Steve does in his off time I don’t think he needs to worry much about core/upper body strength. It’s not like he’s an office jockey…
You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don’t give up.
Chuck Yeager
Good decision Tilly. You should get the hell out of the cold and head out to the beauty of AZ. Awesome endurance MTB race this weekend at McDowell that I am sure you would enjoy http://www.dcbadventures.com/Event/dawn-to-dusk. I’ll get the hell out of your way when you come roaring by.
Why not have a specific bike for mud like that? internally geared rear hub so no derailluers, ultra big frame clearances, v-shape mud scrapers for the tires, some sort encasement for the chain, etc. if someone was serious about racing in sticky mud like that a bespoke bike would be an advantage.
or is the above against the rules?
The guy…the kid…who WON the Cat 2 race ALL THREE DAYS is 16. Seriously impressive.
like my dad said, father time is a mother fuc er.. reaction time aint there, injuries dont heal, or take forever.. everything just isnt the same.. you ought to just do road races.. less crashes than crits or mt bike racs or cross races.. why dont you ever do time trials? just about every state has a time trial series all summer.. do 1 a week all summer.. 10miles or -20miles or a -40k.. i dont think other that a hill climb at jo martin you ever posted about a time trial.. no crashes in those..
Steve! Turn around!
http://cx.cxmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/LoganOwen.jpg
How is Michael’s roof? Plenty of weather to test the patch since you did it.
Tim – Michael’s roof is good. I guess I luckily got all the holes patched. The main problem was a 15 x 15 section, which I replaced everything. But it still needs a whole new roof, which really won’t be that hard to do.
RB- That kid, Caleb Swartz, was killing it the whole weekend. I have a short video of him running up Mt. Krumpet on Sunday. He was flying. I’ll try to post it here soon.
RGTR – You don’t have to replace everything every weekend. This was an extreme. I don’t think I’m changing anything except the brake cables, which is a hassle. The real upside to hydraulic disk brakes and electronic shifting is that all you have to worry about is your chain and bearings. The power washers do a number on bearing. All of them – headset, bottom bracket, and hubs. The really just spray dirty water into them. And your bikes are getting powerwashed up to 8 times or more a day. Not good.
Kent – Dillon is a super kid and I’m glad I got to watch him for a full race on Sunday. He was going good, riding smart and moving up. Glad he is following in your footsteps.
Would love to see that video you have of Caleb Swartz running up Mt Krumpit at Jingle Cross. I was ankle deep in mud working the pits all weekend so miss out on watching him race.