MM Racing |
NEW ENGLAND CYCLOCROSS & ULTRA CYCLING TEAM |
Maureen Bruno Roy 's Race Reports
US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS Kansas City, KS
December 14-16, 2007
Kansas. Better than I expected. Not as flat, we found a great vegetarian restaurant and coffee shop and the local Whole Foods Market was close by. Oh, and the racing went better than expected!
We flew into KS on Wednesday with plans to race the Masters race on Friday and the Elite race Sunday. We had arranged to have the folks from Cyclocrossworld.com take all of our equipment out to Kansas in their big truck and meet them there on Thursday. We headed to the course Thursday morning to meet Marc at the truck. He was also racing in the B men’s race and Matt planned to be his pit crew for the day. There was a recent ice storm in Kansas and everything was covered in inches of ice, which was now melting in the warming sun.
I checked out the course and it was mostly frozen, flat and pretty slick but as the day wore on and all the riders took to the course, it became a mud bath. I couldn’t be happier! Marc was out racing and we were able to see how nasty the course was getting by how muddy his bikes were. Marc ended up winning his race and proclaimed that it was the first bike race that he had ever won! It was a very positive way to start the weekend.
Here are some photos from the day. Congrats, Marc!!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/matthewr8/
2007CyclocrossNationalsDay1MenSBRace?authkey=6_9ef3iIuWM
MASTERS 30-34
On Friday, the course was very much the same, wet, muddy and slippery with some very slow deeply rutted mud pits. I was at the start all ready to go and waited to be called up to the start line, and waited and waited and waited. Apparently, I was lined up in order of registration… I was called up next to last, in the back row! I hoped that I had lined up well enough that the girls in front of me would open up a gap that would allow me to move to the front before we hit the dirt sections. Luckily, I was able to move into 5th by the dirt and quickly took a nice sweeping turn and passed a few more riders. I really let the bike go wherever it wanted through the mud and soon found myself with one other rider on the front. This was the same gal that had crashed me twice the weekend before in RI, so I was gunning to get away from her asap. There were only a few short hills on the course and I pushed the pace and was able to move to the front.
The name of the game was to stay upright because falling in the mud could cost to a lot of valuable time. I rode a super smooth race as a steady pace and was able to increase my gap each lap. I swapped bikes in the pit several times because the mud was making the bike about 5 pounds heavier each lap. We had also put a slightly easier gear on my rear wheel and it made riding through the slow thick mud much easier and it was so much fun to zigzag along the course looking for the best places to ride. Heading into the final stretches, I had a comfortable lead but kept the pace high to take the win and the Masters 30-34 National Championship!!
Reports and pics here:
Cyclingnews:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2007/dec07/UScrossnats07/?id=results/UScrossnats075
Velonews:
http://www.velonews.com/race/cyc/articles/13799.0.html
Dave McElwaine:
http://www.trailwatch.net/cross07/kansas/women30/thpages/index.html
Matt’s Picasa album, including some of Dave’s shots.:
http://picasaweb.google.com/matthewr8/
2007CyclocrossNationalsDay2WomenSMasterS3034?authkey=0RHYBHVwn1g
ELITE NATIONALS
After a great race on Friday, I was excited to ride the course again and was feeling surprisingly fresh with good legs. Over the last day or so, it had snowed several inches and the course froze solid. All of those deep muddy tire ruts were now a frozen solid mine field. Fantastic!! After a pre-ride, I put a little extra air in my tires so that I would not get a flat bumping over all the frozen ruts. It was a bit tricky because the lower tire pressure gave more traction. As the day went on, a little bit of mud appeared on the course, but it was just ice underneath and was very slippery.
This time I was called up 3rd and started on the front row.
I knew the start would be vital and I would need to get onto the dirt section in the top 5 places. I was sure that many of the riders would take the first lap with caution and try to make up time later, but the conditions really made it difficult to ride too fast without crashing. I stuck myself right behind the top 2 riders and we headed up the road, the 3 of us took the turn onto the dirt on the far left and just swept by most of the field as we flew onto the frozen course.
I was sitting in 3rd for most of the first lap with just seconds between me and second place. Coming into the second lap, another rider caught up and moved ahead to second place as I chased to catch 3rd. The ruts and snow and ice made it so that I could pretty much ride at one speed and only pick up momentum here and there. Again, the key was to stay upright and just let the bike go. So I rode smooth letting the bike lead the way. I was joined by one more rider as we battled for 4th place for a while before she got ahead of me and I was able to round out the podium for 5th place.
This was the perfect way to end the season and wrap it up for the year.
Next up, we’ll be planning the mountain bike season this summer and cross again in the fall.
Reports and pics here:
Cyclingnews:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2007/dec07/UScrossnats07/?id=results/
UScrossnats0713
Velonews:
http://www.velonews.com/race/cyc/articles/13803.0.html
Dave McElwaine:
http://www.trailwatch.net/cross07/kansas/women/thpages/index.html
Matt’s Picasa album including some of Dave’s great shots:
http://picasaweb.google.com/matthewr8/2007CyclocrossNationals
Day4WomenSElite?authkey=mDYIw8UGyig
Thanks for reading.
-Mo
