Submitted by Karen Brems on 12/1/09
Sunday was race number 4 of the Bay Area Super Prestige CX Series (aka Pilarcitos series) in Golden Gate Park in downtown San Francisco. This is a classic course and similar to the one that was used for the USGP of CX in 2005. It has a bit of everything: 200m pavement start/finish, some flat power sections, loose turning sections, small sand pit, 2 run-ups (one with a barrier at the bottom) a double barrier and a couple of very short climbs. The most treacherous part was a new for 2009: a deep, steep sandy descent right into the 2nd run-up that got more and more churned up as the day went on. At least one in every 10 riders in the masters and B fields were crashing here and the hecklers (aka spectators) were lined up 5-10 deep to watch the carnage!
This course is one of my favorites - as cross riders say, it has "flow". I placed 3rd here last year, which was a sort of breakthrough race for me. Going into the race, I was tied for the lead on points with Sarah Maile (Ventana) but she had the leaders jersey by virtue of finishing higher in the last race, Sierra Point. Kerry Barnholt has also been marching up the standings despite missing the first race (she got stuck in traffic and missed the start) since she won the 2 next races and points are quite top-heavy. Sarah had told me after the last race that she would not be at the series finale race. But if I was going to take over the jersey, I wanted to do it in a race, not because the current leader didn't show up, so today was my last chance for that! Plus you never know when people are going to change their minds!
Special guest on our start line was Katerina Nash from the Luna Pro MTB team. Katerina is not only a current MTB pro, but one of the top female cross riders in the world right now with some World Cup podiums to her credit and gunning for the 2010 CX World Championships in her native country of the Czech Republic. Prior to racing for Luna, she was 4th in the Olympics in Nordic skiing. Barb Howe (Vanderkitten) was also racing along with all the usual top NorCal riders.
After my first lap disaster at Sierra Point, I vowed to get going faster and not get passive about letting others slip by me in the first half lap. I raced 2 years in the Italian Peloton on the road and have contested many a 100 person criterium field sprint, but CX takes maintaining position to a whole other level! The start at Golden Gate park is on a wide road with about 100m uphill, then 100m flat and then a right turn onto really loose section with some deep sand and then single track for only 200m or so before a narrow, rooty run-up. I knew from last year that first right turn would be chaos and getting to the front early was critical.
CX starts are not like TTs or the track where you get a nice steady countdown. In CX you maybe get a 30 sec. warning and then it is at the whim of the official to blow his whistle. I watch the official put the whistle in his mouth (they always do that well ahead of time) then watch his chest for the inhale before the blow and we are off! For the first time in my 2 year CX career, I clip in on the first try at the start and sprint up the hill. At the top, there is nobody around me. This is odd, but I keep going. I do a nice setup into the right turn, take the one best line through the sand and turn again onto the singletrack. I still don't hear anyone immediately behind me. Very strange, but I don't want to waste the effort, so I keep going hard. At the top of the run-up I hear someone behind me, but I don't know if it is a small group or the whole field and I don't want to risk looking backwards. I keep going for about half a lap in the lead. Eventually I hit an open straight section and the rider behind me comes around and it is Katerina. There is nobody behind her and I slot in on her wheel. I know it won't last forever, but the longer I can stay here, the bigger the gap I can get on everyone else. I stick about 6 inches behind her going into every turn to try to follow her acceleration out of them. By the end of the first lap, I am pretty gassed and we hit the physically hardest section of the course after the tricky sand pit descent - a steep run-up followed by a short climb, followed by 2 uphill barriers. Katerina slowly pulls away from me starting on the run-up.
Back on the pavement, Katerina has a few seconds on me and I am slowly losing ground. At the top of the hill, Barb Howe comes flying by. I just barely latch onto her wheel. I follow her for the whole 2nd lap until the same run-up barrier section where she puts a few bike lengths on me. We can still see Katerina maybe 15 sec. ahead. After the barriers is the one time the whole race where I miss getting into my pedals and fumble a bit on the downhill turn between the barriers and the pavement and lose some valuable momentum while Barb is drilling it ahead of me. (I am getting a lot better at clipping in, but I am not yet perfect!). Again I can't close the gap on the pavement. At this point I am pretty maxed out and I look back and there is nobody behind me. SInce Katerina and Barb are not factors in the series, I know if I can hold 3rd, I can take back the lead. I start thinking about riding within my limit and holding onto what I have.
For most of the 3rd lap, my gap to Barb was pretty constant - about 10 sec. or so. Katerina had disappeared into the distance. I could hear the announcer saying Kerry was in 4th and I knew where he was calling out riders, and based on where I was when he called out Kerry, I knew I had a pretty good gap on her. On the 4th lap, I maybe faded a bit and I heard John say my gap to Barb was up to 20 sec. but it seemed I was about the same distance ahead of Kerry. On the last lap, I saw Kerry behind me for the first time, in the last switch back section, but I knew that the finish was close and as long as I stayed upright, I had enough of a cushion to hold her off.
In the end, Katerina won by about 40 sec. over Barb who was 15 sec. ahead of me and Kerry was 4th 20 sec. behind me. Sarah Maile was 5th and Gina Hall was 6th. This means I am now back in the series lead 5 points ahead of Sarah. Kerry moved up to 3rd, tied with Kathleen Hannon. I heard afterwards that Katerina had endoed in the sand pit descent. In Cross, even the best riders crash! I also heard that Devon Haskell crashed in the first right turn at the start. She did not finish the race - hopefully she is OK!
The Story from Cyclocross Magazine:
http://cxmagazine.com/katerina-nash-chris-jones-take-golden-gate-cyclocross-basp-4-2009
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