2006 Michigan Cyclocross State Championships
The 2006 Michigan Cyclocross State Championships were help on Dec. 3 at the Waterford Hills Road Racing Track http://www.waterfordhills.com in Waterford, Michigan. The track made a great venue for the race. Registration was inside, which was very nice since it was below freezing outside, with a 10+ mph breeze. The race was the 8th in the series put on the Tailwind www.tailwind.net and there were series titles on the line along with the State Championships.
The course started and finished on the start/finish straight of the track, and went through turns 1 and 2 before hitting the grass infield. The course then weaved around the infield, through some soft sections of grass, a tricky off-camber turn and a slippery downhill hairpin, before coming back out onto the track and heading up to the ‘Hilltop Turn’. Back onto the grass, there was a fast downhill section before winding back and forth and up and down the hill. The first set of barriers were at the base of a short run up after a sharp right hander. The run up took you to the top of “Hilltop Turn” where you re-mounted and blasted down the hill on the pavement before making a sweeping right back onto the grass. There were a couple of fast sweepers on the grass before a hairpin turn that led to the 2nd set of barriers. There was a right had turn immediately after the barriers that led into a long straight that paralleled the start/finish straight. There was another 180 hairpin and you had to hammer back across the grass before making a sharp right onto the pavement to complete the lap.
It had rained all week, and they had been predicting several inches of snow for the weekend. The snow never materialized, although temperatures dropped into the 20’s and there were some flurries during the race. The course looked fast, with only a few technical corners, and a lot of straights.
I hadn’t ridden at Waterford Hills before, so my plan was to get there early to pre-ride the course before the B race as well as my Masters race. Unfortunately, I was moving slow in the morning and got there too late to ride before the B race. I registered and put my bike together and then tried to decide what to wear for the race. My friend Bob had raced the C race and he let me borrow his lobster gloves since I don’t have any real cold weather gloves. I usually get real warm while racing so it was tough to figure out what to wear. I finally decided to just go with knee warmers (I don’t like racing in tights), and a long sleeve base layer under by Team Sugoi gear. I also threw on a skull cap under my helmet. I warmed up with a jacket and toe covers, and was wishing that I hadn’t loaned out my trainer. There were several riders warming up on their trainers out of the wind next to the building where registration was. I rode around for a while until the B race was finished and then hopped onto the course for some recon laps.
I did a lap with Michael Seaman who I have been racing against for a long time. It was good to see him there. He took a header into a barrier the week before at the Bloomer race and cut his face pretty bad. He ended up with 7 stitches but said he was feeling fine for the race. I got in about 2 ½ laps before they started calling us up.
Everyone was waiting until the last minute to ditch their extra clothing. I was going to stuff my jacket into the fence, but another racer’s wife/girlfriend said that she would hold onto it for me. The Elite women started and I rolled up to the line with the rest of the Masters 35+. The Masters 45+ were starting a minute later. There were only 12 of us, and there was a nice long paved straight before the first corner, so it wasn’t going to be too crowded.
I normally have a hard time getting off the line and have to fight my way back towards the front, so I was determined to have a good start. I put it in a little bit bigger gear than normal and when the whistle blew, I got bogged down, couldn’t clip in and was almost left behind. Once I got my act together I worked to get back near the front. The course went up hill at the first turn. I hammered the hill and came around the outside to get into 5th position as we hit the grass. I stayed with the group as we wound through the infield. Michael Seaman was on the front and everyone seemed content to follow him. He had a small gap as we hit the pavement. I hit the gas again to come around and get on Michael’s wheel coming up the hill. I followed him down the hill and around to the barriers. He was faster through the technical sections, but I was able to get back on his wheel once things straightened out. I was content to follow Michael as we wound through the infield and through the 2nd set of barriers. I was trying to catch my breath from the efforts I put in to catch on. When we hit the pavement on the front straight, I pulled though and put the hammer down to try to break things up. I came across the line at 6:39.6 with Michael on my wheel just 3 tenths behind and Ricardo Lung had latched on and was just another 3 tenths behind Michael. Tim DiFalco was riding a mtn. bike and was about 4 seconds behind.
I kept the hammer down through the 2nd lap. Michael stuck to my wheel, but we were able to gap Ricardo. Michael and I had matching 6:40.9 laps but Ricardo lost about 16 seconds. Tim dropped another 20 seconds back and the rest of the field was getting strung out behind him. I was content to pull Michael while we built our lead on Ricardo, Tim, and the rest of the field. I really worked the front straight. The wind was a head/cross wind down the straight and a full head wind heading up the hill in turn 1. We were putting a lot of time into the field all the way around the course. He and I rode 6:42.3 and 6:42.4 respectively for lap 3. I had my head down as we came across the line and didn’t see the lap counter. I asked Michael if he had when we hit the grass, and he said that we had 4 laps to go. We gained 23 seconds on Ricardo and had a 37 second advantage on him at the end of the lap. Tim was gaining on Ricardo and was only 5 seconds behind him.
I was a little worried about the pace since we weren’t even halfway through the race, so I backed off a little on lap 4. When we hit the front straight, I let Michael pull though, and we crossed the line at the same time with 6:49 laps. Tim caught Ricardo, but there were just over a minute behind.
Michael and I cruised around for lap 5 for a couple of 6:58 laps. We added about 5 seconds to our lead, but Tim and Ricardo were working together and going faster, putting down 7:02.9 and 7:03.7 laps.
I pulled though on the front straight and picked up the pace for lap 6. The course was getting slick in spots. There was a thin layer of mud on top of the frozen ground. The off-camber turns were getting tricky and I almost lost my front wheel a couple of times. I am so used to maintaining high speeds throughout the bike leg of triathlon, that the slow corners in cross feel very strange. My fingers and toes were starting to get cold at this point, so that coupled with the burning in my lungs and legs had me looking forward to the finish. I was trying to decide when I would try to attack Michael to take the win. I figured that I could take him in a sprint finish on the pavement, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave it until that late. We got the bell as we came across the line with a couple 6:49’s. At this point, all of our laps had been within 3 tenths of each other. Tim was 1:22 behind and had dropped a fading Ricardo.
I rolled through the early technical sections of the last lap concentrating on not falling down. Heading up Hilltoop Turn, I opened up a small gap on Michael. I was able to hold that gap through the barriers and then the gap opened as we hit the long grassy straights before the finish. I kept pushing right to the line and managed a 6:44.5 last lap and a 47:24.8 total race time. Michael cruised in with a 6:59.2 to finish 14.9 seconds back. Tim took 3rd 1:43.2 back. Scott Chambers had a consistent race to finish 4th 1:50.0 back and Brian Neeley rounded out the podium 2:13.4 back. Ricardo faded in the last 2 laps and finished 8th.
Michael and I congratulated each other and went to a cool down lap around the race track before heading back to grab our jackets. The very nice woman who was holding my jacket came running out of the building when she saw me ride by. I couldn’t blame her for seeking shelter from the cold since I was anxious to get changed and out of the cold myself.
I got changed and had some hot chocolate and Bailey’s that I brought from home. Race sponsor Kinetic Systems, Specialized and the Flying Rhino Cycling Club had very nicely supplied a ton of post-race food, including a birthday cake for race organizer Robert Linden. I loaded up on some goodies and warmed up by the propane heater while watching the Elite race. I headed out for a quick and cold awards presentation, or I should say presentations, one for the race and one for the State Championships.
This was a repeat win for me. Last year it took me 6 races to figure out what I was doing. I finished 16th, 10th, 8th, 7th, 5th and finally 1st at the State Championships. This year I only had 3 races to get back into the groove. Fortunately, it came back a little faster this year, with a 5th at Munson and 3rd at Bloomer. I really enjoy racing cyclocross since it’s so different from triathlons and it keeps me on the bike in the late fall. I recommend it to anyone who wants to try something different. You don’t need a cross bike, a mountain bike will do just fine, just make sure you remove any bar ends.
