De Stad Cyclocross Van Mud Bath

The final event of the De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series was Sunday, November 15. I would have to say that it was definitely the most memorable event of the series. Chris Locke had truly designed what I thought was a great course for the Series and Kansas State Championships. It did not favor either the mountain biker or the roadie. The course had its normal start on the brick pave’ and dumped into the grass at the normal place where the brick ends and the pavement begins. Then it turned slightly upward towards the wheel pit and snaked through this cool little wooded section, before diving down a long descent and turning back up another hill which switched back to head down through a wooded section towards the ball field and a small run-up that was ride-able for some. After that section, you curved around the ball field toward Mt. De Stad, a gigantic wall that only a few could ride up. Once you climbed the giant, you worked your way down along the brick road, on the grass though, past the start line to the Spiral of Despair. The spiral basically circled in on itself and back out again. It would look cool from the sky, I am sure. Once out of the spiral, you worked your way through some turns to Chamois Butt’R Alley which ran along the pond and used the pond itself as the outside course marker. After the alley, you snaked up through a wooded section and back onto the brick pave’. The brick section took you up to the opposite side of the road where you had to climb a small hill and then ride an off camber section to a nice short flowing downhill corner that took you along the brick road in the grass towards the Cow Town Barriers. After the barriers, you did a U-turn and headed up the brick pave’ towards the finish line. It was truly a thing of beauty.

Now, take everything I just said and throw it out the window. The class that raced at 10:00 AM was the only one to enjoy the course as it was meant to be. It started to rain steady at about 11:00 AM, just in time for the start of the Master’s races. The course turned to soup pretty quickly and those that could ride in it had a huge advantage. I tried to watch the Master’s closely enough to see who was riding the mud well and how they were riding it. Cow Town’s Tige Lamb and Local Cycling's Mark Studnicki were battling back and forth through the entire race for first and second. On the final lap, Mark had his front wheel wash out on him, so Tige put in an attack to open a gap that Mark was unable to close and won the Kansas State Championship for the Master’s 35+ Category. Congratulations Tige! After the race, I asked Tige if he had any pointers and he said to basically avoid taking the line through the corners and try to take them wide to avoid the mud. That was my quick lesson of how to race in the mud, because this was going to be my first muddy race.

I lined up at the start of the Master's 35+ CAT4 race and was in a good position, 5th I think, exiting off the pave’. We went past the wheel pit and that is where the fun began. The cool section that went through the woods after that was a sloppy mess. Nobody was hammering through it, because if they did, they would have ended up on the deck. The long downhill stayed in good shape, but the uphill after it was a challenge to climb, as it was nothing but mud. I was maintaining my position, when the guy in front of me lost it on a sharp corner and went down hard on a stake. I tried to avoid him, but when I made a sudden movement in the mud, my front tire washed out and I was passed by 3 or 4 guys. I tried to get going again, but we were all riding at the same speed. Now, I am sitting in about 9th and trying to claw my way back, when we get to the little run-up and the guy in front of me loses it on his dismount and then he couldn’t get unclipped from his pedal, so I got passed by about 3 or 4 more people. I tried to get settled down, so I could focus on the task at hand, which was pulling back the 8 guys that passed me, including my teammate Jeff. I bombed down the hill towards Mt. De Stad and on the run-up the hill, the guy in front of me slipped out and I had to change direction and go around him. Are you seeing a pattern here? No problems on the downhill leading to the Spiral of Death and I actually was gaining some ground back on the people who passed me. We got to Chamois Butt’r Alley and the pond bank was deep rutted sticky mud. I tried to ride it on the high side, but I got stuck in a deep rut and had to unclip. That was the race for me. The gap opened back up and I could not close it. The rest of the race was most of the same, but I didn’t lose anymore places. That is cyclocross racing for you. Anything and everything can happen during a race. I ended up finish 14th out of 25 on the day.
I was unable to really watch any of the other races, do to my volunteer activities associated with helping out at the event, but I do know that Cow Town's Christopher Locke won the Junior Men's Series Title and Tige Lamb won the Master's 30+ Kansas State Championship. Congratulations to both of them!

Chris has already called me to see when we can go out to work on repairing the grounds. There are a few other races still to come around the area, but this was probably the last race of the year for me. It is time to start re-building my engine for next season as a CAT3. Stay tuned……