Iron Cross VII was last weekend, and it was a blast. Beautiful scenery, 40mph fire road descents, a 5 mile detour after missing a turn, it had everything that you could ask for!
Cloud in the road on the way to the start.
Before the race, I was unsure of how to dress. Temps were in the mid 40's, and it was expected to hit the low 60's around 1pm. Decided to go with a short sleeve jersey, wool armwarmers, and my normal bib shorts. This turns out to have been perfect for me, as the armwarmers never came off, they just got rolled down, and back up, a couple of times.
Another steaming lake. It was cold!
We missed the pre race meeting, but from what we gathered, they were lining people up by their estimated finishing time, which seemed to work out well, at least for me. I lined up just behind the really fast guys, in the second group. I had set my goal to be under 4:30, hoping for 4:15. We seemed to stand there forever, and I risked a quick jog to the woods to relieve myself one more time, and as I was headed back to my bike, heard "go!" Didn't lose my position, and did a flying mount onto my bike. Jake, however, was not quite so lucky, and was caught with his pants down!!
We did a shortened version of the IC Lite course, including the spiral of death, and then it was off into the woods along the rail trail. Fell into the paceline, pushing at about 25 or so, gradually moving up, to my surprise. Pop out into a little park, through about a 20 yard sandpit, barely sustaining my momentum without falling, despite having to dodge 2 falling racers.
After this, we had a long, gradual double track climb, where I was somehow able to pass about 10 or so more racers. I was worried that I might have been pushing a little too hard, but my fuel from Dunkin Donuts before the race had me feeling pretty damn good.
Continued up, into some singletrack, more climbing, and then finally hit the infamous powerline hike a bike. I didn't realize that it would be a seriously steep, rocky hiking trail! It was kind of slow going, and noone around me really seemed to be trying to go super fast up it, so I just settled in and worked my way to the top. Someone reminded us to take a look back at the top, and it was a pretty amazing view.
Get up to the aid station, and then more fireroad. Manage to catch up with some pretty fast guys, and worked with them for a bit. Two of us break away, and a third catches us. We make a right turn, the road curves around, and we start hammering the rollers. See another guy that is wondering if we are going the wrong way. Uh oh. He could be wrong, so 2 of us keep going, and then we hit a stop sign. Time to turn around. Apparently, if I would have gone to the pre race meeting, I would have known that there is one turn that is marked on the pavement, instead if the little black arrows on yellow paper that mark out the rest of the course. Yea, that was the turn. Get back on the course, a little upset that I just wasted probably 15 mins, and keep moving.
The rest is a bit of a blur, just kept moving along. Ended up getting passed on the last climb by the 2nd place female finisher, but got ahead of her again on the screaming fast road finish. 4:34, 22nd senior men, 42nd over all. Meh. Next year at least. I'll know better. At least I still beat Jake!!
Not bad for my first weekend of racin' on the 'cross bike!!
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