Good to be back.

It had been a very long time. The last bike race I’d done was a solid 15 years ago. At some point racing was the most important thing in my life but times and priorities change over time and without really ‘quitting’ I found that I didn’t race any more. In retrospect there were two things that kept me from racing the way I had in the past — the first being that I had developed back problems that turned out to be a few bulging discs and this made deep training less than rewarding. The other and more compelling reason was that after racing BMX, mountain and road bikes for 16 years I just didn’t have the competitive drive any more. It just seemed silly to toe up to the line when I really didn’t care if I won. In the past I wanted to win everything but at some point I just didn’t seem to care. I still loved riding my bike and riding it hard but racing just wasn’t happening.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I found out about a cross race here in Bozeman — the ‘Mulecross’ event – http://mulecross.blogspot.com/ . I’d been riding a good bit with my friend and fellow framebuilder Carl Strong and he and I talked each other into doing the Mulecross on October 29^th. As the date got closer I found myself being less excited about the event and thinking of excuses of why I couldn’t do it. The weather over the past few weeks wasn’t all that good for riding and I was feeling stale and a bit unmotivated. But the day before the event both Karin and Carl said they were going to do it so I got excited again and the race was on.

One of the fun and cool things about this event is that they strongly encourage some type of costume to be used so the night before the event Karin and I found ourselves on the living room floor making ears for our helmets — Karin made cat ears and I made bunny ears along with a perky little cottony bunny tail. Serious stuff.

Race day was clear but cold and windy and it was pretty raw to be honest. I was dressed like I was ski racing and not bike racing but once we started racing the temp was fine even in the brutal head wind sections of the course. The course itself was a mix of high-speed sections where drafting was key, very tight BMX type rhythm sections and super steep but short climbs — overall it was a really fun course.

Our event started (masters B) and I found myself at the front right after the start and the old instincts kicked in and I put the hammer down for all I was worth to get a gap and separate the men form the boys and get out of traffic. Sounds good but I went a bit too hard for my level of fitness and found myself a bit too deep in the coffin. But it worked out OK and only two of the other masters B guys caught me. One then broke his chain on a forced shift and the other guy and I battled all the way to the finish. He and I yo-yoed back and forth for a few laps and when he made his final move about ¼ mile before the finish I had nothing to counter it. I ended up finishing second, about 5 seconds down, behind Blair from Missoula Montana. I was perfectly happy to take 2^nd out of 13 masters racers considering I had done no training at all and the last cross race I’d done was back in the mid 80’s when I used toe clips and bar end shifters.

My riding partners Carl and Karin both raced and had a great time and the event has us thinking about doing a bit more riding, training for next year races — this is how it all starts.

One of the highlights for me was when I was on one of the far sections of the course and I came to one of the sets of barriers alone and in the lead and as I dismounted and ran over the double barrier one of the spectators yelled “Go Bunny Man!!” It was hard not to lose it from laughing so hard. Being called the ‘Bunny Man’ was a first for me.

It was a really fun day and it felt great to push myself so hard. It also felt good to want to compete again. I always wondered if I would feel that urge to compete again and after all those years it was back — and it felt good.

Dave

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2 responses to “Good to be back.”

1. John says:

   November 13, 2011 at 12:36 pm

   Hi Dave,

   Just curious what kinda’ tires you roll with on your CX bike? Are you doing Stan’s, Sew-Ups, or just good ole’ clinchers.

   If your are doing the latter, how do you avoid pinch flats?

   thanks,

   John

2. kirks says:

   November 14, 2011 at 7:26 am

   Hey John,

   I’m using simple clinchers – 33 mm run at about 35psi F and 40psi R for that race course. It had a few section with sharp rocks and if that wasn’t the case then I’d have gone a bit lower. I’d like to go with tubulars and may do so for next season.

   Dave