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.
Saturday temps were in the mid 20s, and by noon when I rode during the open course time, the top layer started to thaw a bit, making for mud on top of the frozen ruts, which I found to be much more rideable. I knew that with my race at 9:30 am the next day though, it could easily freeze up again.
Then Saturday afternoon and night, we got about 2″ of snow for yet another change. The advantage of racing early was that I could warm up on the course and at least know more or less what I was in for. When I got out of the car to get on my bike at 8am (sunrise is at 7:55 am there!) it was 22 degrees. The ground was frozen again, but not quite as hard as before, and the snow filled in the ruts a little and provided at least minimal traction. After a lap or so, I realized it was actually pretty rideable and tried to pick up some speed. I still really don’t know exactly how the course went or when each section came up – you have to just focus 100% on that 6″ rideable line and plan out where you want to cross from one side to the other in and out of the turns.
My field had 21 riders and I knew that my biggest competition would probably be Kris Walker and Catherine Kohlberg, who has just finished 1st and 2nd at nationals last week, and who have both beaten me at nationals. Catherine and I were new to the 50-54 age group and Kris won that age group at nationals the past 2 years (and won the 45-49 the 2 years before that). I also knew I would pretty much be racing the course, and have to let the other riders do whatever they did. Being in front was a huge advantage though, as everyone would be making mistakes.
Start grid was by random draw and I was lucky enough to get number 7, which put me on the far side of the front row (8 per row). I did not have a great start and fumbled with my pedal a bit, but it was a long pavement start and I managed to move up to 3rd in the first turn onto the dirt. In talking to other racers and from my own pre-rides, I was sure that the best line on the first dirt section was on the left and that is where I headed. Catherine and the other rider in front of me went to the right for some reason. I accelerated up the left and took the lead and went as fast as I dared. There was a little chicane, a dirt bump and then a wide, rutted turn, which my teammate who had raced the same course at the USGP in October, told me after the race was actually a sand pit, but it just looked like the same muddy, snowy ruts to me!
It was quiet behind me, so I knew I had a slight gap and then we hit one of the very few straight power sections of maybe 200m and I went as hard as I could. Then it was back to riding the line again. When I went by the pit after half a lap, I heard Karl say I had 15 sec. Next time around it was 30 sec and then 40 sec and then 1 minute with a lap to go. Since I knew I was continually gaining time, I knew I just needed to ride a sustainable pace and stay upright. I still went as hard as I could in the few straightaways, and took the turns with caution. By the finish (4 laps) I had almost 1:40 on Kris who was 2nd. Bronze went to another American, Ruth Sherman. Actually the only non American in our field was an Italian who finished 6th.
Course was literally changing by the hour and it got slightly muddy by my last lap, but epically muddy for the later races! The pit crews were very busy!
Overall I was happy to win another rainbow jersey and it was probably more meaningful to win on a course that was not at all suited to my strengths! I think I had the lowest average heart rate I have ever had in a CX race, but there were just not that many power sections, and you had to slow down so much for all the technical sections.
Big thanks to Edwin and Trina from Team Rambuski Law, who found a great rental house for us in Louisville, got us into the team parking area, and generally made everything but the actual racing really easy. Thanks to Karl who made sure my bikes worked perfectly and were clean and ready after all those muddy pre-rides! We also had a good contingent of NorCal racers to cheer each other on, which made the trip more fun.
Karen
Masters World Championship – race report by Edwin:
Three riders (Karen, Katrina, Edwin) one gold medal, one knarly race ending crash and some of the worst frozen ruts ever. The parcours was long and appeared to be not too technical on Tuesday when it was bone dry. But then the rain came, and the qualifying heats laid down some deep ruts on almost all of the track, course tape to course tape. Then came 2 days of night time lows below 20F. Frozen ruts that could take the bars out of your hands and break an ankle.
The Louisville promoters have a long way to go if they expect to hold professional world championships in 2013. They were ill prepared and undermanned. No power washers at a cross race in January in Kentucky, are you kidding me? Well they had power washers they just did not work. Who would guess water would freeze here, after all the average low this time of year is only 20F. The ruts were not rolled before they froze, although they apparently had a roller available. By Saturday morning when the championship races started the Belgians deemed the track too dangerous to take the start. The promoters mad a feeble attempt to move course tape onto virgin grass, but I think the Belgian handlers probably moved more tape on their own. The course was shortened, some sand was laid down, and the rut racing started.
Edwin started number 18 ( third row) after a 9th place finish in the qualifying heat but was never able to get a handle on the frozen ruts, finished 32. So many crashes. The promoters continued to work on the track and it did continue to improve, so most of the ruts were gone by Sunday. Karen did the very first race Sunday morning on a frozen track, no mud and most of the kille ruts removed. Both Karen and Katrina started front row. Karen just annihilated her field and time trialed to a 1+ minute win over second.
This was a day of the highest high and lowest low. We had a gold medal before 11 am, and some Champagne after a very late night with 5 Belgians. Needed some help from Karl on the Champagne, even Karen had a sip!
Katrina was the last race of the entire event and by now it was way above freezing and super muddy. Had the bikes tuned and coated in lemon pledge, all ready for bike changes every 1/2 lap, pit crew was psyched and ready to go. Katrina crashed into the steel barricade within the first 300 meters, and her race was over. Another bump to the head and a cut to the face, and a trip to medical. So there we were all standing ready to race and nothing we could do. The race was won by a woman Katrina beat the week before at Nationals, the track was muddy, technical and we had great expectations for a second medal. As it turned out many women were running because the bikes were so muddy the wheels would not turn. We are all still recovering from this one, but Katrina will be back stronger than ever and we have one gold medal.