Omaha Cyclocrash Weekend

Everybody seems to get pretty fired up for the local races, and the hype machine was in full effect going into the Omaha weekend, which for all intents and purposes serves as the first race of the CX season for most of us. This year I already had a tune up race in Iowa and some big time racing at the USGP in Madison under my belt, so I was ready to rock out in the open race. I helped Randy set up the course and organize the registration in the morning so I had a chance to peruse the start lists and noted that while the field wasn’t huge it would be filled with some quality riders. The course at Swanson is a real doozy with lots of grunty short climbs, one sustained climb, and plenty of off camber turns to keep you from getting too fancy. On top of that was a nasty maze slammed down on the side of a hill that was giving riders fits during the practice laps.

After a hard weekend of racing in Madison, and a pretty solid week of training leading up to the Omaha weekend my legs were a little less than fresh, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect after the warm-up. As a result of too much dinking around prior to staging I had to start on the third row…oops. I burned some matches trying to move up early on, and probably got myself up to about 7^th wheel before we hit the maze. I got gapped a bit coming out of the maze and really got on the gas to try and make contact again. As a result I came into one of the downhill off camber turns a little too hot and slid out…right in front of a mob of pac man ghosts. I got up quickly for fear of being eaten.

Things happen fast in CX and just like that I lost about 5 positions and almost got eaten by ghosts. I had to take a moment to get my chain back on and get rolling again. I was annoyed with myself for having made a mistake that I knew would cost me, especially so early in the race. Eventually I clawed back most of the positions I had lost, but not without a herculean effort. As the race wore on I found myself locked in a battle with Tyler Carmichael as we went back and forth alternately attacking each other. I had a good gap going for a while, but eventually Tyler worked his way back onto my wheel. We were together flying through the sweeping downhill left known unofficially as the “walnut turn” when I heard the unmistakeable commotion behind me that signifies a crash (usually the sound of grunting, swearing, and bending metal). I didn’t look back, but I knew that was probably the end of that battle for the day. I went on to grab another spot as a tiring Nate Woodman gave me some encouragement as I went by. I finished the race 8^th overall out of 18 starters, which was o.k. I felt like I could have done better, but people always think that, it’s just human nature. I promised myself that on day 2 I would avoid the costly mistakes of day 1. Boy was I wrong.

After a restless night of lazing about with achey legs I headed back to Swanson early on Sunday morning to help with course set-up and registration again. I watched the early races with anticipation and cheered on my girlfriend Emily in her second-ever bike race. I was proud of her for bucking up after a tough first day on Saturday which was capped by a less than fun crash. I reminded her that crashing is part of the framework that makes up the learning curve in cycling…or at least in off-road cycling. And of course by this logic I should be learning a shit-load this season because I’ve hit the turf in every single race so far!

I had a nice start on Sunday, but I was too tentative on the fast downhill section and lost some positions I would have liked to have kept. My legs didn’t feel awful, but had no real pop. I lost the front group early on, and again had to fight back after dumping the bike on a dry slow 180 turn. After that the top 7-8 guys were just gone, and I didn’t have the legs to bring any of them back. Eventually, Steve Jarrett caught up to me and we waged a nice back and forth battle for a while. I fought hard to stay in front of Steve knowing that he would likely gap me in the technical sections if I let him get ahead. I could tell he was working hard by listening to his breathing, and I decided to keep applying pressure when I could, namely in the running or power sections. Eventually, I was able to get a gap that stuck going into the last lap, and was somewhat happy that I would come out on top of this battle.

After completing the climb I bombed the downhill leading into the maze to maintain my gap. Unfortunately, I “got a little too big for my britches” (as Stamper was fond of saying) heading into the sweeping left at the beginning of the maze and slammed hard. In fact it’s probably about as hard as I can recall crashing for quite a while. I landed directly on my left shoulder and the impact was stunning. After I regained my wits I started to worry I had broken my arm or shoulder. After a few moments Steve passed by and told me that we had a good enough gap that I could probably maintain my position (minus what I’d lost to him) if I could ride it out. I checked the bike and assessed the usefulness of my arm. In an effort to see if I could finish, I mounted the bike and gingerly made my way through the maze using the left arm as little as possible.

I was initially so defeated that I didn’t entirely care if anyone else passed me. As I reached the Omaha version of “hooligan hill” the assembled crowd started chanting “beer, beer, beer”, collectively urging me to take a handup. Normally I’m so focused on going fast that I wouldn’t even notice, but in the wrecked state I was in I was happy to oblige. Half a Miller High Life and a few turns later, I limped in for a 10^th place finish among the 19 starters. This was the start of basically a week of moping, poor quality sleep and partial disability. Happily I’ve been able to get back to riding recently, and the shoulder/arm doesn’t seem to be broken or anything. It’s weird what the combination of a bad day on the bike compounded by an injury does to your mindset. For most of the week I didn’t even want to ride, but as things got better I eventually began to think about Mullets…

( I should also add that a number of other VV rides had great races this weekend. Todd Eyeberg, Dave Randleman, and Jonathan Neve raced well in the Cat. 3 races, Ben Swan got after it in the Cat. 4 race, and Randy Crist competed in a stacked masters race.)