Team Rambuski Law – Cyclocross Racing Team

Masters World Championship – Louisville, Kentucky

Photo Credit: ©Brian Nelson (from the cxmagazine.com article)

Story and photos here:
http://www.cxmagazine.com/

Masters World Championship – race report by Karen:

When I first heard that Masters CX Worlds was going to be held in the US for the first time in history, I decided to make that the goal for my 2011-12 CX season. I also figured how bad can the weather be in Kentucky?? It had to be better than nationals in Madison, right? Well I was wrong about the weather, but still a good goal.

The course in Louisville (which will be used for Elite Worlds in 2013) was not hard in itself: mostly flat grass with a couple of straight power sections as well as some tight turns and 3 trips up the side of a berm along the river. 2 of the berm climbs were forced run-ups: one with barriers, one with giant stone steps set into the side of the hill. Turned out they didn’t really need the barriers… The 3rd berm climb was made unrideable by the conditions and even the downhill after it was run by almost everyone. There was also a flyover with really big, steep steps to run up.

The weather conditions changed everything. Wed and thurs saw warm temps and a lot of rain. Pre-rides and qualifying heats turned the course into sticky mud with deep ruts. Then temps plummeted into the teens thurs night and all that mud and ruts froze solid on Friday. I think most people would agree that frozen ruts are one of the most challenging conditions to ride in. I tried to ride on Friday and did about 1 1/2 laps in 45 minutes, riding maybe 10% of the time and kind of using my bike as a scooter with one foot on the ground most of the time! Imagine trying to race in parallel railroad tracks! The race organizers were busy moving the course tape over in spots, so that there was about a 6″ rideable line on one side or the other that was new, un-rutted turf. Then the trick was riding that line, crossing the course perpendicular to the ruts when needed to try to get to the other side when the rideable line moved over there. Basically “paper boying” the course. I did not want to spend too much time trying to ride in those conditions and scaring myself (or crashing) since I knew the conditions could easily change before my race.
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National Championship – Madison, Wisconsin

Only Edwin and Katrina represented Team Rambuski Law at the National Championships. On arrival on Tuesday 6 December we found a hilly, icy, long parcours. As most of the track was covered in ice, practice consisted of riding carefully next to the course tape on a sliver of grass, and very carefully throught the corners. The promoters applied plenty of salt and sand to the track and the first day of practice was salty-cross. But things were going to change as Madison was headed for a heat wave, predicted to be 50 degrees by Thursday when the championship races started. One more day on the ice, and we had to ride the road as the course was not open for training. Katrina found out how hard it was to ride on ice and broke her helmet on a bike path slide out, scary.


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