Cross Border Clash~ Saturday

Working the barrier

It's not hugely problematic but the issue of non-standardized classes in cyclocross has me confused when it comes to registration day. At Mahon and Vanier I registered as Citizen Men. In the Cascade Series I registered as Men C for Cross Border Clash and Mens C Masters at Silver lake. I will be 40 in less than a month afterall.

My results are all over the place and I'm not sure if it's time to move up a category. At Vanier I placed 9th. At Silver Lake I placed 3rd. At Mahon I placed 2nd and at Cross Border Clash I placed 1st. 

Cross Border Class

Cascade Cross Series organizer, Ryan, called us up and divided us up, Canadians on the right and Americans on the left. The Americans had won the cup last year so it  gave them an advantage going into the first corner as it was a lefty. My wheel was on the line to start and when that blast went off I pinned it. Redlined my heart rate and made sure I was the first rider into that left hand hair pin. It worked. I came out of the hairpin and doubled back on the next hairpin, a righty. That was when I saw the mish mash of bikes and some serious congestion. It was me and one other rider out front. He sucked off my wheel for quite some time and made me work bloody hard. The true reason I went out hard was yet to come, the Flyover. If multiple bikes go into this thing together the results are another lot of congestion and then carrying your bike up the "stairs". Once over the flyover and through the halfway mark of this 3.2 km course, I started to widen the gap. I shouldered checked several times and didn't see anyone. Of course my mind had me convinced that someone was breathing heavy behind me, so I kept my head down and continued to push. With each lap I could tell I was increasing my lead.

Cascade Cross Series Flyover

Of course I'm thrilled with the success I'm having but when is it time to move up a category? This past weekend, as you can see from the results above, I was a good distance ahead of the rest of the pack at the finish. If you think about it, close to two minutes is quite a distance when you're on a bike. I don't want to seem arrogant by moving up a category prematurely. And I definitely don't want to continue racing in a category where I am riding alone. That's true sandbagging. And a bit assholish. 

When I finished the race on Saturday I apologized to race director and told him that I wasn't sure what category I should be riding in. I even thought about dropping out of the race at the mid point but that too would have been a disservice to the people I was racing. 

I'll have to make a decision before the next Cascade Series race, Thanks Given'r. I'm thinking I should race Men's B, but I don't know.