Steel City Endurance Racing

Stacie jumps the barrier

Month of Mud Race Series: Grove City

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Grove City Community Park, Grove City, PA

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and Team SCE turned out for the Grove City Cyclocross Race! Stacie, Suzanne, Rachel, Ben, and Darin, and Dustin raced, while Barb, EJ, and the Bennetts traveled up to ring the cowbells on the sidelines!

Here are a couple of race reports from Stacie and Coach!!!

Stacie “Bulldog” Truszkowski’s Race Report

So for my second go at this Cyclocross racing thing I had a different bike then my first go at it. I had Patty’s bike…First race I had Carol’s bike. This was a longer and slightly more technical course for me. Especially since the barries are a bit higher then what I’m used to in cross practice. Rachel and I got to Grove City a little later then we’d both hoped. We didn’t get to ride the course before the first race started. So we had to get ourselves and our bikes ready so that when the race was over we could ride the course. We started on the road and quickly hit the first set of barriers. They were farther apart then in cross practice so I had to put the bike down and run with it to the second barrier.

Can I just say how great it was to have the team there cheering us on?! Once we got pastthis point it was off to the woods. First up hill was good, and I tried to hit it with some speed to be able to control my down hill. Then came the next will that was a little steeper, but I was okay going up it every time. The log that we came to right after the up hill made me nervous in warm up, but the team from Freddie Fu was there to egg me on as to not get off the bike and go over it from the right side, which on the last lap would lead me to my first crash of the race – thanks to JF from WV. It really was a very fun race for me. The best part of it was to have teammates around supporting and cheering for me! It makes it really hard not to have a good time! I couldn’t do this without all of them! So for my second cross race on a second cross bike I came it what else….2nd! And I LOVED every minute of it!

Suzanne in pink for breast cancer awareness month

And Coach Suzanne’s Race Report!!!

I also had a great time. Barb and I carpooled up and saw the end of the first race. I had gotten ready in time to warmup but not pre-ride the course. When the race started, the prologue was 2 laps around the road circuit, and by the time we got to the first barriers I was in a mess of mountain bikes. I tried to run past them on the barriers and hit the first section of trail. At this point, Stacie and Rachel were just ahead of me and I was in the midst of some women and juniors, looking forward to trying to gain some space on people in the wooded trail section. but on my way down the first downhill I heard a horrid noise from my bike and thought I’d broken a spoke.

I stopped the bike and saw that my chain had come off the front and quickly tried to use my foot to shift the chain back up on to the chainring without losing much time as juniors started passing me. The chain wouldn’t budge and I set the bike back down and got down close to see that the chain had jumped off the rear cassette as well, and was stuck on the underside of the chainring next to the spokes.

This took a bit of fussing and on the 3rd try I got the thing unstuck, back on the rear cog and finally back on the front chainring. By this time, every single person in the race had passed me. Bummer.

Several thougths went through my head at this time. One of which was to quit the race, ride back on the road an watch. But with so many of my teammates around, I didn’t want to let them down, and besides that…I hadn’t been going to cross practice to drop out of my first race. So I decided to chase!

It took the rest of that lap to warmup as I had done an inadequate warmup prior to the race…lesson learned. The second lap, I spotted the last junior just in front of me and felt both guilt and glee as I finally passed her in the beginnign of the second field section just past the second set of barriers. I complimented her on her excellent barrier technique as I put my head down and pretended not to be tired! The next woman up was visible in front of me, but with the zig-zag through the baseball fields of the field section she was much further away than I had hoped.

I continued to push myself, and even though I knew I had little hope of catching anyone else, I actually managed to pass 2 more men, a few unicycles and finally with 50 yards to go on the grass, passed the woman I’d been chasing for 2 1/2 laps. As I passed her I knew I coudn’t let up and continued to ride as hard as I could through to the finish line with her close behind me.

I finished in 5th place. Considering the mechanical I had, I’m pleased with how I did and technically speaking it was my best cross race yet as far as dismounts, bike hoisting and remounting (got a cheer from the cheering section for my remount)! So thanks cross practice and thanks team! I had a blast!