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Pieman Wraps Up Stellar First Year of Cyclo Competition
The report below was submitted by Pieman:
 The
picture on the right by Gary Burkholder captures the essence of the
last cyclocross race of the season in northern Ohio. Mud, ice, and
rain were the order of the day. This was also the last race of the
six- race series, and my last race until March, although I hear there
are a couple of mountain bike time trials in Michigan in January
and February. I raced in five of the six races, and the miss of
the first race ended up costing me third place overall in the Intermediate
Masters (40+) division. In this particular race, each lap was about
2
miles of icy double-track, muddy single-track, swampy grass sections,
and a short stretch on the road. For those not familiar with
cyclocross, it's a race run mostly off road, with a couple of barriers
to jump over. The races are usually run in the cold, the sport is
very popular in northern Europe where it's cold all the time, and
it's
becoming more popular over here.
The race was at Boughton Farm in Copley, Ohio, and was the second
race
there this season. The first race was run in slightly warmer weather
but much muddier conditions. In this race, I targeted a guy I figured
would finish in third place in my race and tried to stay within
striking distance to see if I could grab second place to move up
into
third in the overall points, but third place was just a bit faster
than me (as he was all series). Like everyone else in the race,
I crashed at least three times and on another occasion my front wheel
kind of washed out and I ran into a tree, but the gap I had opened
on
fifth and sixth was big enough to let me finish fourth. Last week,
in
the mud, I finished fifth after carrying my bike the last third of
a
mile after I ripped my rear derailleur off in the mud so finishing
on
my bike and riding pretty fast was a real pleasure. I didn't want
my
last race of the year to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
In the overall series, I tied in total points with third place but
he
had more points coming into the last race, and that turned out to
be
the tie breaker. He had raced all six races and I had only raced
five, and that proved all the difference. Still, I had a pretty
good 'cross season for my first real foray into it on a cross bike.
I had
a 2nd in one race, and a fourth and a fifth as well.
 Overall,
I had a pretty good season. I had a couple of top three finishes,
several top ten finishes, and I helped teammates finish high
in races as well. I also finished well in races from late spring
through early winter, which means I was able to keep some form
throughout the year. I had scaled down my training in the past weeks,
and had used the cross races as my only hard ride of the week. Now
I'll start training more intensely so I'm ready to really train
hard in January and February so I can hit the spring races hard again.
We
have great sponsors for next year and it's always good to give
sponsors some early season results. My goal is to race about 25 times
next year, which should be doable with a weekly criterium that
runs 26 times over the course of the summer and is staged about 4
miles from my house!
The picture on the right is of me at the "Cross my heart and
hope to
die Willoughby Cyclocross Spectacular" in Willoughby, Ohio.
I
finished 11th or so in the Intermediate category, then jumped off
my
bike to help run the Expert/Pro race. Our team put on this race so
I
wasn't too worried about finishing high, just finishing. Notice the
lean, hungry look on my face? That's not because I'm weighing my
food
to drop pounds. It's because our team needs a food sponsor, so if
anyone knows of a rep, please let me know. Until next year, have
fun.
I would recommend to anyone contemplating competing to just do the
races. The more you race, the faster you'll get. That's why I always
do an early season race--to see how fast I really have to go in training.
I seem to forget over the winter, or maybe I'm not disciplined enough
to go that hard in training until I get really shelled. I always
also plan on getting totally spanked in a few races, and in at least
two races this year I got dropped by the lead pack, chased back on,
and finished in the top ten. Everybody gets punished. It's just part
of the game.
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