Crosstafarian Cyclocross Hurtfest

Pic - Craig Madsen

A fine sunny morning heralded the arrival of the second Crosstafarian Cyclocross Race in Upper Hutt's California Park.

Mike from The Bike Hutt and his fine team had laid out another good course. This time geared more heavily towards the CX machines. It was faster and had a longer fast gravel section, and the steep climb to the hairpin, had a barrier at the foot of it, so you couldn't just ride it. You had to do a proper dismount and run up. Good stuff.

Crosstafarian Cyclocross - August 2009

Clicky clicky above to get to our Picasa Web Album. Many, many thanks to Craig Madsen for allowing us to pilfer his outstanding photos. There are also a few from Davo's wife, Amie, too. Revolution's Facebook page also has a great album courtesy of speedmachine, Al Revell.

Repping for the BLRT were Me, Hinge and Slackshanks. Here are our reports:

Nicko - Winner:

After having such a great time in the first race of the series on a borrowed ride I decided I had to get my own ride. Through the wonders of Vorb was able to track down a NOS Singlecross frameset and collected up the parts for the build. Was a bit touch and go whether the hubs would turn up in time but they came through in the nick (a pun? Ed.) of time.

Sat turned out to be a cracker of a day and Mike had pulled out all the stops to put on a great course. A couple of slight changes made the course a bit longer, faster, more technical and probably more cross focused.

Story of the day was Bushlove domination with Davo and I busting off the front from the getgo. Over the next few laps put the hurt on Davo to up a nice gap that wouldn't be closed. The 45min went pretty fast but will still stoked to hear the belllap. Showboated across the line to the waiting fans (Mrs K & my dog) and some cupcakes.

Was stoked how the bike rode. Probably a tad overgeared but no matter what the gear was it was always going to be a hurtfest. Will give a more compete right up for those nerdy enough to care in a future blogpost.

Scored a sweet maxxis jersey for winning although made the faux-pas of not thanking the Mrs, therefore missing out on extra brownie points.

Big thanks to Mike at The Bike Hutt are in order for putting on the race. Hope to see more of you out at the planned 3rd race. Cross is a rad sport so come out an give it a go.

Dave - First Loser:

I was a bit worried about my SS as it's gearing is pretty low at a tooth lighter than 2:1 (34.18). Turned out that it was still fine for almost all the course which was a relief. Unlike Slacky, the grass puts up a lot of resistance, so I went for 1.9 sparsely treaded Conti Twisters, thanks to the generosity of Harry Potter. Apart from the weather the best thing about this race was going to be that my wife and daughter, Amie and Ella, had come to support and I wanted to dig pretty deep for them.

After watching the ladies race I did a bit of a warm up on the grass and realised how tough the race was going to be. I lined up in second row, thinking my low gear was going to be worthless down the start straight but when the 'gun' went, I managed to surge straight through and read Slackshanks his horoscope before the first bend. I had to spin like crazy on the gravel stretch and this was going to be my undoing every lap. I had oodles of Spartan power to drop into the cranks, but kept spinning out and had to freewheel a lot.

Pic - Craig Madsen

Nicko and I moved away from the pack and rode together for a couple of laps before he started easing away from me on his new CX machine. I could see Vaughan and a Nic Blair from Revolution working together to pull me back, so got my shovel out to dig in harder. I was loving the course. I was making good time over the barriers and on the run up and was cornering as hard as I could. It becase clear that Nicko must have been pulling time on the start finish stretch and the gravel loop. (Nicko pirated the draft to replace this sentence with the following. Crafty S.o.b: It became clear that Nicko was edging me out on all aspects of the course like the cross god he is. Damn him and his madcore skills!)

I had a great time knocking out my 17 laps and propelled by the cheers and encouragement from the family and friends, finished a fine 2nd place, apparently less than a minute behind Potter on his new broom. I was really pleased with how I had ridden, and even managed to lap a few chaps. I even managed to lap the Godfather after a couple of struggle laps, as his pride spurred him on to not get done over. But I came inside him with a couple of hundred meters to go. I also remember coming inside Slacky on the barrier jump, but I doubt he remembers it, as he was wearing the mask of pain from hauling the dog around the whole course! I even came inside Sifter, much to the delight of the crowd, as we rounded the big tree.

The bike was still a good choice. Last round I kept trying to roll a bigger gear to make progress and just smashed my legs. So the lower gear saved my legs in that way, but if I had dropped 1 or 2 teeth at the back I should have been able to keep Nicko a bit more honest!

I chose a mint Bike Hutt hat from the prize table, to go with my bag of energy bars and goodies. Mike also hooked me up with some new Louis Garneau gloves too. They are very comfortable. I borrowed the mic to do some thank yous, especially to Amie and Ella, at which point Hinge probably realsied he had forgotten to publicly shower Sarah with praise. It was to be expected though as Nicko is a podium 'freshman', where as I am more 'Alumni'.

Went to Pauahatanui for lunch after and lazed contentedly with the family, a coffee and a good eggs benny. Cracking day.

Slacky - Rear guard:

CX is the harbinger of pain, and I knew I was going to be suffering. I even had a side bet that I'd be struggling so much that I'd puke from the effort. And naturally I was going to keep it in the DOG!! Luckily I was too tired to vomit by about halfway thru the race.

Davo seemed to think he was outriding me at the start, but it was tactical as I hadn't even done a lap of the course so was letting an idiot lead out and show me. Both Davo and Nick took up the offer. I rode at a pace that I thought I could maintain. I found that EVERYONE was slow over the barriers and around the corners. I snaked Kenny on the downhill corner, foot out Cully styles. I think he was so suprised he lost his rythmn for a few laps. The Godfather started slow, and Old Man Red was struggling on the boards.

Pic - Craig Madsen

However as the pain fog descended around the halftime mark, Kenny came back past, Old Man Red came back past, The Godfather came back past, a bunch of people before them had gone past.

Deep from within I summoned the Bushlove spirit of never give up (hmmm.. actually Davo proved otherwise at the Moonride) and struggled on, thru the pain barrier, then the fufu barrier. The speed and style over the barriers dropped off, but not the re-mount at the top of the run/walk up the bank. That style remained and was always quick and effortless. If not the walk/stumble/crawl up the hill.

After 4 years or so, Mike called 5 mins to go. Somewhere around this time Nick past me the 2nd time. Quickly. I rode backwards to help him feel like he was riding fast. On the last lap I dropped the hammer. Unfortunatly the rest of my energy also dropped with it. But never fear, for my sideburns pulled me around one last time, making sure that Davo didn't catch me.

I might have passed out at the finish line, I can't remember, it was all blurry. A steady diet of track building and only riding my downhill bike doesn't make for a very good top end. It does however make for tight lycra tops.