Race Reflections — Fifth Street Cross Black Friday
In order to feel better about stuffing my face full of mashed potatoes and stuffing on Thanksgiving, I decided to sign up for a race on Black Friday. I typically play at an annual charity ultimate frisbee tournament each Black Friday and every year the weather is wet, windy, and cold. That makes playing ultimate quite difficult. So, why not do something where cold and wet are part of the expectation, like cyclocross.
TL;DR — I had the wrong bike for the job and ended up spending a lot of time sliding around in the mud. But more importantly, I need to get better at bike handling in muddy conditions.
Recap
The weather on Black Friday ended up being okay. Still cold, but not windy or rainy. Unfortunately, it had rained a lot on Tuesday night. I was hoping the ground would have dried up by Friday and my gravel bike would have been suitable for cyclocross. It did not. The course was still a bit muddy and on the packed gravel stretch, there were still standing puddles.
I don’t have a dedicated cyclocross bike, so it was either the gravel bike (a Cannondale Topstone 4) or a mountain bike (a Specialized Rockhopper, a hardtail). I actually did think about bringing both bikes and just seeing how conditions on the course were like. But the night before the race, I reasoned to myself — it’s been a couple days without rain, the ground should have mostly dried up by now and clearing the barriers or running while carrying the bike would be much harder with a mountain bike. So, I decided to just bring the gravel bike. I made a bad decision.
The Fifth Street Cross Black Friday race has 50km, 50mi, 100km, or 100mi options. A hundred miles on the road is tough. A hundred miles on a cyclocross course is enough to drive you to the brink of insanity. Riders can choose to start anytime on Black Friday but must finish by 4:00 PM because that is when the prize pot is awarded. That means some will start right at midnight, if they want to keep their Friday open, some will start at dawn, or some will start later. I was in that last group. With evening temps around freezing, and me being weighed down by 5 lbs of Thanksgiving dinner, I wanted to wait until the temperatures were slightly warmer and I had digested all that turkey. Unfortunately, that also means the course would be more tracked out and more slippery. My 37mm WTB Riddler Comp tires were not well equipped at all for the slick mud, which I found out within the first couple turns of the first lap. After learning that lesson a few times, I ended up having to take all the hairpin turns really slowly or unclipping and dragging my inside foot on the turn. So, I definitely need to improve my bike handling skills, especially in muddy conditions.
What’s more, the course had some last-minute adjustments. The barriers and the stairs were both cut out. My concerns about having to carry and run with a heavy bike were all for naught. I never actually NEEDED to dismount my bike throughout the course, although considering how many times my bike slipped out on the muddy hairpin turns and how many times my tires lost traction climbing a steep muddy hill, I did dismount plenty of times. The mountain bike with thick knobby tires would have been much better. There were plenty of others who were on gravel or cyclocross bikes. Some have knobby tires, but they all probably have better bike handling skills than me anyways. I noticed some people who started on a gravel/CX bike and then later switched to a mountain bike.
Key Takeaways
Do your research. But be ready for anything. The pre-race info emails always mention that the course is subject to last-minute changes. But they never say what the changes would be. Consider what might be feasible and be ready for it, even if it means bringing some extra gear (at least in those cases where the race is local and I have plenty of extra car space to bring whatever gear I might need).
Things to work on: Bike handling in muddy conditions
