For those of you who don't know, cyclocross is the art of racing around short technical loops with a mix of dirt, grass, and road terrain. Added to the mix are obstacles that require riders to dismount, run with their bike, and remount at high speed. In other words, it is absolute mayhem. For a long time I have considered giving it a go but I didn't actually have the guts to show up until last weekend at Primalpalooza. I spent the whole week before-hand practicing dismounting, running with the bike, remounting, and riding through tight grass corners. But in the end I was foolish to think that any amount of practice would prepare me the tornado of chaos that is cyclocross racing.
Forty-five seconds after the start of the first lap someone slammed into me, knocking me on the ground. If your interested in a good laugh, another racer got it on camera (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feWTQ2F0xMw). Look closely at the right side of the screen at 47 seconds. 0.5 or 0.25 speed is recommended. By the time I was back up and riding I was in last place. To make things worse, I crashed again five minutes later in a gravely corner. And on top of that, both my teammates got caught up with mechanical problems. Things were't looking good but after the first lap I started feeling better. I started passing people and was able to take corners more quickly than before. I was finally able to enjoy the course. By the end of three laps my teammate Zach caught up to me and I was able to follow his wheel to the end of the fourth lap and to the end of the race. At first, 35th place may sound pretty terrible but I was happy with it for my first go at cyclocross.
Overall, I had a blast trying something new. If you're feeling a little bored with road riding then I would for sure give cyclocross a try. Just go in with reasonable expectations and don't be surprised if you crash once... or twice.
Jackson Hootman
