VeloCX & Back to School course review
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009I was too busy to write reviews during the build up to state champs last week, so I am catching up now.
First up VeloCX.
Negative: The Start – The roll out from the starting line was longer than last year but still was too short before the first left hand turn and this caused a real traffic jam. The VeloCX course, while expanding each year, is still wedged into a fairly small amount of real estate and as long as this is the case there is not much that the promoters can do to let the field get strung out before going into the technical stuff.
Positive: The wet straight away – This was a fun sort of technical section. If you missed the high line through the right hand turn into the straight you ended up down in the mud and had to work your way back up to the high side of the straight. I made the high line as often as I missed it and it was fun to try and work this section of the course.
Negative: Right hand turn past dorms – Probably because I was not driving the bike correctly, but I took this turn wide a few times and ended up pile driving myself into a ill placed tree on one lap. I understand a number of riders had the same problem. Maybe they will cut that tree down for next year. (kidding)
Positive/Negative: Riding inside the velodrome – It’s fun to ride inside the track during the off season but I thought the trip inside the velodrome was overly technical.
Negative: Hard right turn through the velodrome gate – Severe loss of tire grip on the asphalt caused a number of riders to go down. Sure, riders should practice this section before the race so they know what is coming but it would have been good to have another turn just before this section to slow riders down.
Negative: Over the road before the straight back to the start – Need to improve the transition over the curbs. At full speed if you miss the hops over the curbs it’s a brutal shock and could have blown a tire.
It would appear that I am overly negative on this course, maybe I am. But on the whole this is a really fun race and I looked forward to it all year. I will always race the VeloCX. It’s a tight and technical course and it’s good practice for me to drive the bike better. I had a bit of bad luck this year with a rolled tire, but otherwise it was lots of fun.
Back to School.
I was not planning on doing this race but after my bad luck at VeloCX I decided to try and salvage the weekend.
Positive: The start – Long enough, even with a right hand turn, to get the field strung out before any technical stuff.
Positive: Long straights – It was easy to keep track of your progress around the course compared to other riders thanks to the long straight sections. Along with the hill these long straights made this course one for those with power and fitness.
Positive: The uphill – Really tough but made a huge difference in separating the field.
Negative: The downhill – Not really much you could do about it, but I get a bit nervous about these long and uninterrupted descents. It was pretty open and not much of a problem so you could take it at speed, but ideally it would have been good to figure out a way to slow things down somehow. Probably not possible on this course.
Positive: Second barrier – A great approach and a barrier you could take at speed. Some were hopping this barrier, I never did. If you could totally clear the barrier it was way faster, but a number of riders were just lifting their front wheel and dragging the rest of their bike over. Way slower, plus it was pissing off the promoters who had to reset the barrier every single lap after it got knocked around.
Negative: Pinwheel – I hate pinwheels. This was a fairly small pinwheel so it was not that big of a deal. But I still hate pinwheels.
Positive: Long straight before the finish. Good to have a nice clear run to the finish line.
It was a beautiful day in Northfield, actually too beautiful. I was cramping up big time on the final lap. But it was fun to be out on the bike riding hard on another nice day in November.
I won’t comment on the state champ course due to a conflict of interest other than to say it was the most awesome course in the history of cyclocross bike racing.
I’ll summarize my 2009 cross racing season later this week.
