Great weekend for CBR Cross Riders

Cycle Cross take CBR suffering to a new level! Mike Reardon races Craigmuer 10/28/2007

This year has seen the virtual explosion of CBR racers trying cycle cross. This past weekend we had four riders racing Cycle Cross. The CBR riders racing are Mike Reardon, Ryan Crabbe, Adam Weinbaum, and Benjamin Weinbaum. Mike lives and races in New Jersey, this weekend he raced in Craigmuer, NJ. Ryan, Adam & Ben raced in Ft. Yargo, GA

Ben Weinbaum - Ft. Yargo

Results:

Ben Weinbaum - 1st (14 and younger olds)

Mike Reardon - 8th

Ryan Crabbe - 19th

Adam Weinbaum - 27th

Josh Dunn - 44th

Ryan - Jumping the Barriers

Ryan's recap of the Ft. Yargo race

It was toughter than last week. I finished 19 out of 48 scored. I went down on lap 2, dropped my chain and only made up about half the positions I lost. I have a couple of pics as well. The Weinbaums were there.

Race #2 of the GA Cross series provided a number of new challenges not seen last week in Conyers. The second installment of the series took place at Ft. Yargo State Park in Winder, GA. CBR was well represented this week with myself, Adam Weinbaum, and his son Ben.
This course featured a paved start followed by a very fast technical section, tight single track, another tight technical section, and then the main feature of the course; approximately 100yds of beach, fully dismounted and running through the sand with the bike shouldered. This section was the gateway to another dismount over a set of barriers before heading back onto the road for the start/finish line which was a long uphill drag. Something that I am learning about cross very quickly is that every course features very different and very challenging characteristics.
My own race started about the way I expected sitting around 10th through the first lap. A mishap on lap two in the first technical section cost me a couple of spots that I was never able to recover. On an off camber turn with very loose traction I came in a little fast and went down. I was in the middle of a fast pack of about five riders at the time. Dropping my chain at this point did not help either as riders from a group just behind caught me. From that point on, the day was about getting positions back and I fought hard all the way. The final tally was 19th overall out of 48 scored riders. Due to my schedule it may be a few weeks before the next race so I will keep training hard and keep having fun with this new endeavor.

Cross - New Jersey style....by Maj. Michael Reardon

Pain, Misery and Suffering in Craigmeur, NJ
NJ CX CUP race #4, 28 OCT 07

By the title you can guess how I felt today. But I suppose that's to be expected after coming off of a strong three weeks of no training at all. I really need to get a different job, or at least find one that doesn't screw up my training plan by sending me packing a few times a month.

Despite returning from my latest trip a mere 15 hours prior, I was back at it in the fourth race of the NJ Cup series, fighting to hold onto a precious 56-point lead for the overall. I had a few riders marked that I knew I had to beat, but the 'cross gods would see to it that we all were beaten.

The course was brutal. It had rained for the past five days so the ground was a soupy quagmire that all but swallowed our tires. I barely made it through the 3 km course during my two warm-up laps without falling over. The course had a fast gravel start that led into a gravel chicane -- I knew this would be a key section as I expected lots of crashes. I got a good start (hard not to with a call up) and went into the chicane in 3rd place. Then the course wound through what could only be termed a grassy swamp, or swampy grass, I don’t know, it smelled bad and slowed me waaaaaay down. After a few switchbacks on this, the real fun started. The middle part of the course consisted of a fast stretch about 200 meters long that led into an off camber section. Only the perfect line would do here as there was a 30 foot tumble to the left and a chain link fence to the right. Throwing caution to the wind, I put in an attack here. I know, dumb, 1st lap, bad section, but what the heck, I hadn’t been training for three weeks, what could go wrong? I hit the gas and the course then plunged hard and to the left onto a steep downhill section, then it was a hard right turn onto some chicken head-sized gravel that led to a nice steep uphill section. As if the gravel wasn’t bad enough, the top of the hill had four railroad tie stairs. The course then took a hard left and hit the only barrier section of the course. I was sitting in first but all that was about to change.

The barriers led to some more gooey terrain and then it was into the woods where I saw my race start to come apart. We left a short section of woods and hit a section of asphalt and I got passed on an inside line by the three individuals that would go on to take 1st, 2nd and 3rd. A hard right led to a sketchy downhill that required the use of the all important S.P.I.T maneuver, also known as the "seat post implantation technique." I was so far back on my bike that my butt was dragging on the rear wheel, this was actually a good thing as it slowed me down enough to make a hard right hand turn into some more chicken head-sized gravel. As is consistent with cyclocross, just when you expect the suffering to be enough and think that maybe the race organizers might work in a nice flat section so you can recover, well, think again. I came to another uphill-downhill-uphill section, hard to describe, you have to experience it. Trust me, it hurt. That led to another long hard slog uphill through a mix of pebbles, gravel and more foul-smelling mud. I was still holding 4th with four people on my wheel. We had a big gap on the field so I wasn’t pushing it too hard, not that I could have if I wanted to -- remember three weeks off, yeah, another bad idea. There's no rest in cross so after the uphill the course came to a section that I believe was designed by a medieval torturer. It was a run-up, but not your ordinary short steep run-up, no, this run-up was up a flight of poorly laid, uneven, slick rock steps. I hit the top and that’s when the legs went out. I boffed the remount and was quickly passed by the four dudes behind me. I looked down, saw I had no gears left to shift into and I knew that the rest of the race held the pinnacle of suffering that is cross racing. All I could do was sit and grind away, the lactic acid in my legs knew no rest, often times I felt it taunting me, telling me to quit. The lungs went next, every breath was a new journey into a world of suffering. Each lap was worse than the last, each lap I looked back waiting to see if anyone was chasing. I knew they weren’t, they were all in the same painful world of existence that I was, no attacks, just keep on going and try not to give up any spots to the poor miserable sap sitting on your wheel trying to suck up any draft he could find. My mind wandered off for the rest of the race, trying to focus on the technical sections so as not to become a permanent fixture of the course. When I thought I couldn’t take anymore, off in the distance I heard a sound, a sound that must have come from someone more merciful than the sadist that designed this course, yes, it was the bell signifying the last lap. I dug in my heels, gritted my teeth, and downshifted, I was going to show this course who was boss. I started to speed up, only to be slowed a few meters later by the greedy grass taking all my momentum. I stood up only to have my rear tire spin and lose traction, all my efforts proved to be futile. I was not master of the course today. As I finally rolled across the finish line, not really knowing what place I was in, I jumped off the course and into an open field adjacent to the finish line. I dropped my bike and before I fell to the ground gasping for air, I looked around and saw the first seven finishers doing the same thing. Some were leaning on their bikes for support, others, still clipped into their pedals, were lying were they fell, we were all beaten today.


To race cross is to know every emotion you can experience in the field of cycling -- the amazing highs of crossing the line with hands held high to the incredible lows of coming off a course with nothing but the clothes on your back holding you together, physically and emotionally. I was beaten today by the course, but I’ll be back to ride again. After all, I don’t ride to get weaker!

This is the world of cyclocross; this is the sport I love.

At the end of the day, I finished 8th out of 51, enough to hold the overall lead in the cup series. Whether that lead will keep me there through next weekend will be determined in my absence. Darsi and I will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary in a warm, sunny location so I can only hope that the cold, wind, and sadistic race organizers will be just as brutal on the riders as they were this week so I can return once again to defend my lead in what should be another hotly contested suck fest.