Kutztown Cross 2011

If last week everything went perfectly, this week was the opposite. Hopefully, I learned a few things in the process. Although my bike stayed together, I pretty much fell apart, and I could tell instantly.

Right after the start, on the sweeping 180, my front tire was squirming out and I couldn't properly turn. I had taken a lackadaisical warm up off the course, and a tire pressure that felt ok at putzin' around speeds, was way under pressure at speed. (Later I checked, turned out it was only about 12 psi. Clearly, not enough for any tire.) I had to back off in the turns and realized that I was holding up the line behind me. Plus, I then attempted to hop the log on course, although it didn't look so difficult to do, my lack of skills just about put me over the top, "ass over tea-kettle". The course this year was super twisty, and I was totally washing out all over the place. I decided to pit and try my other wheels, as this arrangement was pretty much un-rideable, or rather, un-corner-able.

I had the Captain CX mounted tubeless on my pit wheels, and what a world of difference. Immediately, my confidence started returning, and I got focused on trying to catch back up as much as possible. The difference in cornering traction was astounding, and I gradually started to carry more speed into turns, feeling out the new limits of this tire arrangement. On the next lap, however, I came through a tight turn and BRRAAAPP washed out the front entirely. There was a hissing sound coming out of the front tire, some dirt and rocks had lodged into the tire bead opening the seal, and was letting the air out. I'm not sure if the burp triggered the wash-out, or vice-versa, but now I had a very flat front tire. This was now completely un-rideable. I half jogged, half coasted my way around the lap again to the pits, where I used a pump to inflate the Captain CX again. Fortunately, it held air, and I was back on course rolling on two wheels again.

But now, trying to focus on the race again was difficult, it didn't take long before the top 3 came through and blew right on by. Joe came up shortly afterward, lapped me as well, and asked what happened, all I could think to say was "nothing good...". My race ended some 100 meters after it started, so I just tried to work on finding some flow, and riding the twisty sections. I think that it would have been a pretty decent course, but I was mentally checked out and never gave it a fair shot.

Although not super technical, it would be a good course for those with good bike handling skills, and those are clearly cross skills I have room to improve on. Fortunately, the PA series have a range of course types, suiting all kinds of riders, Town Hall has got the St. Luke's Staircase (hill), Spring Mount is the power course, and apparently Kutztown is the swoopy: keep-turning-now-turn-the-other-way course. It takes all kinds to make a complete season.