Northeast Bicycle Club

Women's Open Molly Stark Cyclocross Challenge - Cris Rothfuss 9-22-07

The Molly Stark Cyclocross Challenge is a new, well-run, fun race. The course was challenging, with hardly any place to rest, and featured three dismounts (one barrier on a run-up; one traditional set of barriers; and one set of barriers with maybe 25 yards in between). The beginning of the course went like this: a short opening dirt track stretch; a 180 degree corner on loose dirt; two more 180�s on grass; a gradual, but leg-grinding grass hill; toward the top of the hill, a steeper grade with a left-hand off-camber turn, followed 2 pedal strokes later by a single barrier (a very difficult dismount); a tad more climbing; and a sketchy, loose gravel descent. I mention all of this in detail because this series of obstacles drove home the point that getting a good start in a cross race is critical. I jumped off the line first and took the hole shot, which allowed me to choose my line through these technical sections. The approach to the hill barrier was especially difficult and pinched the field off at the apex of the off-camber turn. I couldn�t see what was happening behind me, but would put money on the fact that it was a big cluster mess that immediately put some riders out of contention.

After leading through all of that, I focused on keeping the hammer down, powering on the stretches and sprinting out of each corner and remount. By the end of lap 1, I had a 10-12 second gap on Kate Northcott (last week�s winner), with 3rd place a comfortable margin back. And so it went. All the way to the finish. I�d like to report that my first cyclocross win was easy, but it wasn�t. I discovered that, for me at least, it�s pretty stressful to lead a race for that long! It took quite a bit of mental gymnastics to not fall into negative thinking along the lines of �I�ve been leading for this long, it would be awful to screw it up now.� To get out of that mindset, I tried to focus on doing things better each lap (remount more smoothly, improve my lines through certain corners, etc). I also imagined someone like Rebecca Wellons or Anna Milkowski up ahead, who I needed to catch. That helped because I found it oddly unsettling to do all the pace setting, as opposed to following or chasing someone. Being in front is very quiet�.sort of (but not exactly) like a reverse Doppler Effect, where all the noise is behind you. Anyway, it was a unique perspective that I hope to enjoy again and get more used to.

Oh, one odd little note about the race. On the line, the officials instructed us that �cursing� was not allowed. I can�t recall having heard that instruction before. So, when I swore out loud after barely saving a corner that I had approached too quickly, I thought �great, I�m finally winning a race and now I�m going to be DQ�d for cursing. Sh*t!�