Our cyclocross series wrapped up on Saturday, Oct 4 with a great race at Goose Lake. This course was the best one of the season. It combined pavement, trail, and even sand to make what I considered a true cyclocross challenge. This race was worth double points, so everyone showed up. I finished 13th, and also finished 13th for the season, though I only did four of the six races.

Results | Photos | Photos below by Peter Lekisch

I really enjoyed the cyclocross races, but I can’t help but think that the current cyclocross format is handcuffing the sport. In an article earlier this year, I discussed the similarities between cyclocross and cross country ski racing. In my opinion, cyclocross also suffers from an unfortunate similarity: the over-use of multi-lap courses.

I absolutely hate this trend in skiing. It makes the races boring and repetitive for the racers. Its called cross-country skiing, not gerbil-loop skiing. Let’s cross some country. I long for the days when I could do a 15K or 30K race without having to count laps on my fingers and toes. And the tiny loops necessary for these courses degrade our trail systems. Instead of long, winding, scenic trails through the woods that everyone can use, ski racing now demands extremely short loops which are of little use to non-racers. Case in point: the “new and improved” Kincaid Park. Whoops, sorry for the rant, let me reel it back in here…

I understand that there are many good reasons for using short loops for cyclocross. Its a lot easier on the organizers, it impacts less land, and it is easier for the spectators to see the racers (though it can be impossible to figure out how they are doing - just ask my wife).

But why pigeon-hole cyclocross into this format?  In many ways, cyclocross is the purest form of cycling. The bikes are pared-down. No suspension, no disc brakes. The objective is to cover all kinds of terrain in order to get from point A to point B. So why add in all the contrived stuff like a one hour time limit, multiple loops and man-made barriers?

While skiing has moved to this rat-in-a-cage environment (I’m going to see how many rodent analogies I can squeeze in here), fortunately there are still some ski races that don’t conform to the new standards. Likewise, we need some cyclocross races that break the mold. Let’s have a good old-fashioned bike race from point A to point B over lots of different terrain.

Think about the races we could have near Anchorage:

1) Start at Hilltop, go down the Seward Highway to Indian, up and over Powerline Pass and back to Hillside. Or the same route in the other direction.

2) Start at Kincaid and make your way to Glen Alps or the Dome, using the Coastal Trail, Chester Creek trail, and various dirt trails in between.

3) Start at Moose Run golf course, go up Arctic Valley road, and up the ski area to the ridge, along the ridge and drop down to the South Fork of Eagle River trailhead and back to Moose Run on the road.

4) Start at the Hatcher Pass Lodge, go up and over Hatcher Pass, then climb up Craigie Creek Rd. Then drag your bike up and over a couple of passes to get to the Fern Mine area off Archangel Rd. Ouch. Then back to the Lodge on the road. Is it even reasonable to hoof it up and over while carrying a bike? Probably not, but it would definitely be interesting to try.

Each of these routes offers plenty of the elements that define cyclocross (pavement, trail, bike carrying) and it would be a hell of a lot more interesting that going in circles. I know all of these examples would have issues that could prevent a race from happening, but the point is that there are other options out there.

In no way do I mean to criticize the organizers of our great Arctic Cross series. They do an outstanding job, and it is important to have a series that conforms with international standards. But this is Alaska, where we have the potential to do things bigger and better. Maybe we need to branch out and make this its own sport with a catchy name (Cyclocross Extreme!!) and sign Red Bull up as a sponsor. So who’s in? And more importantly, who wants to organize it? After all, I want to DO these races, not organize them.

Its funny that just last week I made this statement about my results in local fun races:

I could have a great race and finish 15th, and I could just as easily have a bad race and finish 4th, if no one shows up.

Well, in this week’s Tuesday Night Race, none of the fast guys showed up.  And I finished 4th.  It wasn’t a bad race by any means, but maybe it was a self-fulfilling prophesy.  For most of the race, I was in the top three, but faded to fourth with a half-mile to go.  I guess I should have written that I could win if no one showed up!  Nonetheless, it was fun to run with the leaders and entertain thoughts of victory.  Even if those dreams were shattered when the top two guys picked up the pace with two miles to go.  TNR Results

After two weeks of finishing the same place in both TNR and cyclocross, I knew I had my work cut out for me going into Saturday’s cyclocross race.  If I was going to keep the streak alive, I had a long way to go to reach fourth place.  The course was rooty, muddy and very challenging on skinny tires.  The course had very little running, so it felt like an ordinary mountain bike race, exept I was on the wrong bike.  So I was not surprised when the eventual winner blew past me on a hardtail mountain bike.  But it was still fun.  I managed to get a good workout and finish 10th.  ArcticCross results

And finally the highlight of the week was a spectacular weekend.  The kind of crystal clear weekend we’ve been waiting for all summer.   I didn’t get away for any adventures, but I did manage to kick-off the weekend with a spectacular run around the Williwaw Lakes - Ballfield loop from Glen Alps with Rob and Chrissy.  The evening light lit up the fall colors and contrasted well with the confirmation dust on the peaks. 

Normally, the first snow on the mountains is called termination dust because it signals the termination of summer.  But this year I’ve dubbed it “confirmation dust,” because it confirmed that the summer of ‘08 is never going to happen.

Anyway, a few photos from our run, courtesy of Chrissy…

Well, last week was an eighth-place week.  It appears that this week’s number is ten.  I guess I’m slowing down.  The truth is that with these local races, it all depends on who shows up. I could have a great race and finish 15th, and I could just as easily have a bad race and finish 4th, if no one shows up.  That said, it might also be true that I’m getting slower.

Tuesday Night Running Race: 10th place

Wednesday evening Cyclocross: 10th place

I was just happy that I got to do the ‘cross race.  My bike broke while I was warming up.  The chain got snagged on the derailleur and snapped the hanger.  I walked back to the start, very dejected.  The race organizers, Bruce Ross and Patrick McGownd,  saw my situation and jumped into action.  First they tried to find parts to fix my bike.  When that was hopeless, Patrick loaned me his bike and they found tools so I could swap the pedals.  They did all this WHILE they were also running the pre-race meeting, five minutes before the start.  They certainly went above and beyond, and I really appreciated it.

The bike was small (52 cm, whereas mine is 58cm), but I was just glad to be riding rather than driving home early.  And I’ll leave you with a great photo.  I think the caption should be “I just realized I’m going too fast down a muddy, rooty, narrow trail on a bike that I’ve never ridden before.”  either that, or simply, “Uh oh.”

Photo: George Stransky.  Here’s more.

This week I did two races. A Tuesday Night Running race and a cyclocross race. With all of these fall races, I try to emphasize the training benefit rather than the result. Often, this means not red-lining the whole way, but instead starting conservatively (under aerobic threshold pace) then getting faster if I feel good. I did a good job of that in the Tuesday race, and I finished 8th.

In the cyclocross race, I probably started too conservatively. I got intimidated by all the fancy bikes at the start, and the fact that there was a nasty hairpin turn 200 meters into the race. So I seeded myself way in the back, even behind most of the juniors and women. I realized after about 30 seconds of the race that this was a mistake. I spent the rest of the race playing catch-up, which admittedly was a lot of fun. Much better to be the pursuer, than the pursuee. By the last lap, I had moved into the top ten and, with a devastating sprint at the end, was able to nail down my second 8th place finish of the week.

Photos by George Stransky . A ton of great photos can be found here.

So after all my big talk about Cyclo-cross, I missed the first race of the season on Saturday. But for good reason. We were offered the use of a cabin in Talkeetna for the weekend. I wasn’t going to turn that down for a one hour cyclo-cross race. Now I remember why it took me so long to try cyclo-cross: there is just too much other fun stuff to do as well! But no matter, I still managed to get in two races this week.

First, the Tuesday Night Running Races started this week. These races are huge, but very informal. The courses are always on very interesting trails, but are not always marked well. Its seems like every week a few people take a wrong turn. This week, it was me. I was attempting to pass someone, and completely missed a marker signaling a turn off the main trail. The two of us lead a group of 5-6 other runners on a minute-or-so detour before we got back on track. Oh well, it was fun, and I got a good workout. Results here.

Thursday was a GPS Orienteering event. Usually you don’t use a GPS for orienteering, but this event was a little different. Instead of punching controls hanging in the woods, when we reached a control location we just punched a waypoint into our GPS. At the finish, our routes were downloaded onto a computer to confirm our score. It was a neat new twist, but I missed the satisfaction of finding a control and punching it. Without the actual controls, there was no positive feedback during the event. It felt more like a guessing game. And with the margin of error of a GPS, it turns out that guessing once you were in the general area was usually a good strategy. It was fun, but I’m glad that the entire sport of Orienteering has not gone this direction. (Results aren’t up yet.)

We had a fun sprint Orienteering race at APU on Wednesday.  It was less about navigation and more about making decisions quickly.  It was a lot of fun, and I managed to win.  Here are the results and the race in RouteGadget.

The orienteering season is pretty much over, so now its time for me to move on to another obscure sport.  Cyclocross.

The Arctic Cross season starts on Sept 6th and I’m pretty excited about it.  So excited, in fact, that I wrote an article for FasterSkier.com. The Anchorage Daily News also mentioned my new fondness for ‘cross, but nobody is going to read that article, because apparently there was some other news story today.

Photo: Peter Lekisch