Surviving Boulder Cross

(Editors Note:  Lauren Hall quit her job of five years to pursue a professional cycling career.  She moved from Mississippi all the way to Colorado for the best training anywhere and has embarked on her first cyclocross season.)

Haunted Cross and Boulder Cup

Finally my first cross race and it was UCI, what was I thinking!? Hind sight, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It was a chance to race with the best in the world along with some of the most experienced girls in the sport today.

It has been a fast progression from being offered the opportunity from Hudz-Subaru to be a development rider, to learning how the races actually take place to the cross lingo and finally to a full on race. I would call myself a decent mountain biker with some skills but nothing could have prepared me for the mud and sand of cylcocross. I’ve been practicing and learning technique for less than a month with Chad Wells and the Fort Lewis College training races when I decided to try my hand at a race.  At the time, I had no idea of the ramifications of going to Boulder for this race. It was the hardest 45 minutes I’ve ever experienced and loved every minute of it.

If you are thinking about getting into cycling, I highly recommend cyclocross. It is perfect for beginners because you can learn how to handle your bike, work on clipping in and out of the pedals, get a heck of a workout in a short amount of time as well as play in the dirt, grass and sand. The race venues are full of energy and it seems everyone is willing to lend a hand, racers as well as spectators. It is family friendly, pet friendly and a blast to watch.

Driving to Boulder I quizzed Chad on what I should expect. His response, “It will be muddy, technical with variable conditions.” As a mountain biker he was looking for more mud and more technique  and was a bit bummed when the Sunday race was moved to the reservoir because he knew it would be more advantageous to a road racer rather than a mountain biker.

Sunday was just as hard with the sand pits and I struggled finding a smooth or fast line through the sand. It seemed to just zap any energy and momentum I had. Thank goodness I had awesome teammates and fans cheering me on from the sidelines which just put a huge smile on my face, all that cheering sure does help!

Chad had also said that start position was key. One part of cross races is that the starts are staged, so for example, Katie Compton, Allison Dunlap, Georgia Gould, etc, started at the front based on UCI points and then the rows that followed were based on registration order. I ended up starting pretty much in the back, which was fine with me because I wasn’t confident in my skills and I wouldn’t want to slow up a contender, plus that way I could see the line that most of the women were taking, again another learning opportunity.

Starts are also interesting because as soon as you hit dirt from the pavement, the speed slows down creating a bottleneck situation with everyone fighting for the same single track. In part of the race on Saturday I ended up carrying my bike over a whole section that the leaders rode because of the slow speed and bottleneck situation. It was so muddy, some of the places it felt like you were pedaling in place and I was covered from head to toe in mud from the riders in front of me. A couple of the sections I never found the right line and it was so slippery I just fell over or just totally clipped out and picked up the bike and ran while the skilled riders rode through. Skills will come in time  with more racing and different conditions, along with being more smooth and efficient over the barriers.

My progression from this weekend will be to work on becoming more smooth with my mounts and dismounts and just overall being more confident on the cross bike. I know it will take more than just one race to get it down, heck for that matter it will take this whole season and then some to become a contender but I plan on making it happen for sure.  I will continue to race throughout the fall and winter and I’m signed up for cross nationals in Bend, OR in December. So keep checking the results at www.cyclingnews.com and see how I progress this season.

Www.hudzsubarucycling.com
www.prettytough.com
Www.laurenthall.blogspot.com
Haunted Cross and Boulder Cup