Charm City director's cut (with pictures)

If you're only here for the pictures, go to my picasa page. But c'mon, humor me...

Baltimore—specifically Druid Hill park—puts on some pretty good bike races. BikeJam back in May was probably the site of my favorite crit this season (though RFK certainly gave it a run for its money).

The Charm City Cross course was pretty standard for the cross courses I saw in the Mid Atlantic last fall/winter—rolling grassy bits, some off camber, and creative use of a Home Depot gift card in the lumber department. Being that this is going to be my second season racing, I thought I'd give it a shot at racing both the C and B categories.

My plan for the C race was to stick with the main group as long as I could, then pick people off after a few minutes of recovery. That went more or less as anticipated, but I failed to take into account the inevitability that 1) my start line “sprint” would put me in the back of the race right off the bat and 2) the main field would splinter in front of me without my knowledge. So one minor crash and a few minor mechanicals later, I finished 60th of 103ish finishers.

For the B race, I had a totally different strategy: 1) don't die and 2) finish, in that order. I accomplished the first, which is really all you can ask for in amateur bike racing. I lost the field almost immediately, even as I could feel my intensity hit peaks its never seen before in a cross race (except for maybe once). I had the same mechanical issues in the second race as in the Cs, because I don't learn lessons, but this time they were nearly crippling at a rate of 2 or 3 dropped chains per lap. I should qualify that; on the first lap, I dropped my chain twice, on the second three times, and another three times on what would become my final lap. DNF on my first B cyclocross race. Dammit.

Some other observations I've chosen not to weave into the above narrative...

* Crank Bros' Egg Beater pedals call themselves “self-cleaning.” This seems to be the case with dust and is probably the case with mud, but when you introduce sand into the fold, we can safely call Egg Beaters “self-seizing.” I spent the entirety of my last lap riding ON my left pedal, not IN my left pedal. It's all in the proposition. Or the preposition, whatever. I spent fully 1/3 of the race trying to wiggle one or both cleats into its pedal. No surprise: I discovered between races that the “beater” portion of the egg beaters was almost completely immobile. No wonder I couldn't wedge my cleats in.

If any of the brothers Crank are reading this, how can I fix this and prevent it from happening in the future? Note that I do enjoy racing on the sand.

* I hope, which is not a method, that the B racers outclassed me so in Baltimore because there were Cat 2s in the mix. I'm looking forward to racing with just the MABRA 3/4 guys in the coming weeks/months.

* I need to tune my single ring setup. The purpose of going with one ring in the front is to keep the chain on the drivetrain, not to have it constantly fall off. I mean for fuck's sake.

* I don't think I'll be a competitive bicycle racist, at least not at the level that I want to be and that I know I can be, until summer/fall 2010. It's just too damn hard (meow) to juggle a full time job (meow meow) with being a full time student (meow), and still find the time to balance maintaining at least one personal relationship (meow) with a bike racing habit. That was me whining.

Ok, now go check out the pictures on my picasa page, courtesy my small hipster friend and her big fancy camera. Listening to Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' "Home." I just stumbled across this one, and I dig it.