So, about that race...

I find myself here with a free night (thanks snow) and may as well put it to good use.

After the gun went off, things went pear-shaped pretty quickly. We were off down the starting straight at breakneck speed, but what made it breakneck was the fact that I couldn't see anything. Stupid me who almost always rides alone and almost never in the wet (and even more rarely in a race) was stunned by the amount of water being thrown up. I think I got soaked through in that first two hundred metres.

We thundered down (in my mind, at least) the first straight, Fu-san and I holding position somewhere better than 20th, and rounded the first right-hander onto the gravel road climb. It was wet wet wet but easier to climb than the morning's ice. I was still feeling un-warmed up, so it was hurting a bit and I was questioning my gear choice. Not for the last time...however without a choice of going slower I stuck on Fu-san's wheel and we crept past more than a few people, and must have been close to tenth by the time the gravel road had levelled out and delivered us to the entrance to the singletrack (ST). The three or four riders in front of me, Fu-san included, all swerved left to make a wide right-hander into the ST, but then slowed riiiight down as it was muddy and snowy and altogether slippery-looking. I jumped at my chance, shot up their inside, made a sharp RH turn and safely got in ahead of them - YES!

The ST was fun, really fun, my tyres were gripping wayyy more than expected in the slop, and my mountain bike experience really paid dividends here - I was able to sneak past another couple of riders. The rest of the course passed in a fun blur, I was enjoying the ride, the bike was feeling great and the only hiccup proved to be the dismount/remount (lack of CX skilz cost me big time and energy), luckily there was only one point where I had to get off each lap - a very MTBer-friendly CX course, this one.

It was awesome to shoot past the gang as I neared the finish of the first lap, their cheers gave me a boost, and I shot up the short climb in front of them and passed another few riders. After weaving through the pit area and heading out for lap two there was a course marshal calling out places - he said "FIFTH" as I went by - WOW! I can't believe it - I'm doing OK! I can have a shot at this! I was feeling a bit more warmed up by now, and the riders had spread out, so the riding became a lot easier.

On lap two I managed to sneak past another few riders, and soon found myself with the rider in 3rd within sight. Once again, the dismount/remount cost me too much time and energy, but passing the support crew again gave me another energy boost, and I repeated my climb, this time blasting my way into second! I could see first about a hundred metres ahead of me - thanks to the ST I was able to get right up on his back wheel about halfway round lap three; he really didn't seem comfortable at all in the tech sections, and at one stage almost went down.

Once the course opened up again he put about 10-20 metres into me, enough to sneak into the last ST ahead of a slower rider, and that turned out to be end of my challenge for first. The slower rider realised pretty quickly that I was on his wheel and pulled over to let me past, but I'd already lost too many seconds. I did manage to hammer my way back up close to first again (right in front of the gang on my favourite little climb of the whole race), but the effort was too much; it was very unsustainable and not a real challenge for the lead.

With just over a lap to go, I decided to ease up a bit and try to hold on to second. The rider in third had never dropped far back, and would have gotten by me easily had I slipped or cracked. However, he seemed unable to bridge the gap up to me, so I thought if I could maintain my current pace I'd make it round one more time for second place. Turned out to be a good choice, as the third lap had hurt quite a bit, I was close to throwing up on one climb and had been very, very anaerobic for as long as I could remember. I love singlespeeds!

The fourth lap was a blaze of pain and pedalling, I felt every single pedal stroke on the climbs, and was counting them off, every one I made it up brought me that much closer to the finish line still in second place. I negotiated the ST fine, and the gravel and road sections were mere survival trying to get my heartrate down below what felt like about 300bpm. Up the steps for the last time, onto the grass on the edge of the sports field; I could see first not too far ahead and if I were tougher I'd have hammered here to catch him, but alas, I'm not, and with the feeling that my tyres were sinking deep into the wet, grassy muck and my gear was getting heavier and heavier, I trudged out and back; down the steep bank safely again, and coming past the gang again I knew I had second; there was enough left in the legs to hammer the last little climb, 'through the last few turns, and onto the finish straight - it felt so great to see that banner, even knowing I was in second and not the winner I couldn't help doing the raised arms gesture like I'd won the Tour de France; the photo shows how tired I was. That look on my face! Actually, it seems to be in every picture of me from the race...

The response from my friends, strangers with big cameras and the race MC added to the feeling that I was a star; up on the podium I was interviewed, and plenty of photos seem to have turned up of me on various blogs, and the race website. It's really cool to be treated like the elite racers were, and I really think Kansai Cyclocross deserves a huge round of applause for having this attitude. Everyone, no matter what category, got their two minutes of fame. Wicked.

Thanks also to the random strangers that were cheering on riders they didn't know. It helped more than they could possibly know.

I'll be back. Next post: post race brainfarts and the rest of my Kansai roadtrip.

Photo credit for all in-motion photos in this post to Musumemiyuki on Flickr.