In The Crosshairs

2. What was the best/worst part of the course?

LINDSAY BAYER (1st Place Women Cat3/4): The best part was the sand pit, because I thought I was going to wipe out every time. The worst part would probably have to be the steep, rickety flight of steps. I love my bike, but I’ve never had the desire to take it climbing.

STEVE FIFE (2nd Place Men Cat 3/4): My favorite parts of the course were the sand pit, stairs, off camber turns, and fast barrier section. Least favorite part of the course was the start. We needed more room to wind up the sprint and would have benefited from the use of the whole road (minus the parked pick up truck).

JAY MORALI (3rd Place Men Cat 4): Best – sand pit was fun!  Worst – the chance of smashing into the brick wall at bottom of hill!

NOAH BELL (1st Place Junior 10-14): Best part was the sand pit. Worst was the stairway to heaven.

KENNETH MORRIS (4th Place Men Cat 4): I loved the “litter box.” I hated the downhill into the brick wall.

CJ CONGROVE (5th Place Men Cat 4): It was pretty epic all around.  I come from a mountain biking background and usually enjoy the more technical cross courses, so the Urban Cross course was perfect for me.  Lots of tight sections and quick up and downs with cambered and off cambered turns, and no long road sections for the physically fit people to make that much time on me.

JAKE THOMPSON (2nd Place Junior 10-14; 4th Place Junior U16): I think the best part of the course was the part where the hill drops you into the wall and if you didn’t hit it you go to the sand pit.

JULIE KULIECZA: Best part had to be all the technical turns, the worst part: the downhill into a brick wall.

GUNNAR SHOGREN: None of it was awful at all, though it certainly seemed a bit “off” on the first pre-ride. Racing it was a hoot though. Worst would be the starting stretch/run-up to the big set of steps. It was bumpy, narrow and oh-so-close to all that concrete and debris. Fun to go through there on subsequent laps. Litter box was a bit unnecessary, wasn’t a natural part of the strange landscape, and only got sand on the drivetrain, wasn’t difficult at all.

Best part was racing in a construction zone! With all the fencing, broken pavement, and other fun stuff. The two sets of steps were pretty cool as they were so fast. Took some focus.

3. Describe your winning (or losing) move.

GUNNAR SHOGREN: Master’s Race-Get the hole-shot, put out enough effort to stay in front of the rest but not kill myself so I could do decent in the Elite race. Randy [Root] kept me pretty honest.

Elite Race-Greg [Wittwer] got the hole-shot and didn’t look back. Even if I heard he was “worried” about me. I really didn’t have any extra energy in that race. Would have been nice to though…

STEVE FIFE: The winning move came on the last lap. I was leading Andrew Troy and Jonathan Nisbet into the last lap. I wanted to be first through all of the sections because I felt that it was going to be hard to make a move from behind on such a technical course, and I didn’t want to get caught out if one of them went down. Turns out, I went down as I led into the long stair run up. My foot slipped as I planted it on the first step, and Troy was able to get a gap, while Nisbet was trailing after dropping his chain. Troy opened a gap of about 10 seconds, as I tried to close it down. He washed out on the steep turn onto pavement before the sand pit, and I thought I might be able to close it down. Troy quickly remounted, and finished ahead of me by six seconds as I ran out of room to close the gap. He rode very strong in the last part of the lap, so he totally deserved the win. My only wish was that it could have come down to a three-way battle to the line. I live for those moments in a cross race.

JAY MORALI: I had a crazy day…I really rode terribly when it came to technique…I ran into numerous barriers, dropped my chain once because of it, took bad lines and crashed once…However, I felt really strong and worked hard to get back into contention…it just goes to show you can do well with good fitness but you must master the technique to win!

JULIE KULIECZA: Coming in second to Betsy Shogren ain’t so bad, but my losing move had to have been taking the technical turns much slower.

LINDSAY BAYER: I was hanging onto the leader when we went up a short, steep hill. She ran it and I rode it, but I was distracted, lost momentum, and fell over. That cost me about five seconds. But the winning move would probably be catching up and passing to win.

CJ CONGROVE: I burned myself out pretty good on the first lap trying to get the prime, unfortunately I was second across the line at the first lap.  Dropped back to about 7th or 8th on the second lap.  Then I had a pretty spectacular upside-down crash in the sandpit but didn’t lose too much time, lotta sand in my mouth though which wasn’t awesome.  It was actually the sandpit that got me into 5th place on the last lap though, the guy in front of me dismounted and ran it and I rode through it and got a bit of a gap on him going into the final stretch and was able to hold it to the line.

KENNETH MORRIS: Getting up from a crash in third to finish fourth.

NOAH BELL: I never gave up and didn’t let the guy behind me catch up.

JAKE THOMPSON: The thing that got me onto the podium this week was that I could go up the big hills and other people couldn’t.

4. Pre-race ritual, warm-up, food, etc.?

NOAH BELL: Eat breakfast, ride the course a few times, eat lunch after race.

STEVE FIFE: I always like to arrive at a cross course before the first races of the day to pre-ride and scope out all of the obstacles and barriers. Then, I relax, eat a Clif Bar, and stay hydrated. Warm up includes 20-30 minutes on the trainer, with a few 30 second sprints to get the legs turning over. 2 GUs before the start, and then line up and go.

JAY MORALI: Peanut Butter sandwich…ride the course!!!

JULIE KULIECZA: 1 hour before 3 laps on open course, get on trainer 25 min easy, 5 min t, 3 min rest, 3 min LT, 3 min rest, 1 min VO2 max, and 2-3 sprints, Try not to ride the course right before your race!! You could get a flat and have to scramble for wheels/ pit bike right before you go off.  I saw it happen on Sunday.

Pre race food/ritual: trying not to barf up the gels I eat before the race… they are so effing gross…

LINDSAY BAYER: I do a half-assed warm up around the race venue, eat a Hammer Gel, and perform a ritual animal sacrifice in my car. Works every time.

JAKE THOMPSON: I generally don’t shower the day before the race, I don’t know why, I just don’t.  I also don’t wear deodorant the day of the race.  For food I eat large amounts of food, preferably pasta, the night before and don’t eat much the day of the race.

GUNNAR SHOGREN: Eat breakfast about 2-2.5 hours before hand. Whatever; fried egg sandwich, oatmeal, Nutty Nuggets Raisins & Yogurt, or a donut. Try and get a lap around the course in street clothes. Get all suited up and spend at least 15 minutes on the trainer half- hour before the race, have half a banana 15 minutes before start time, waddle to the line somewhat on time.

KENNETH MORRIS: One lap warm-up at half speed.  A good early breakfast.

CJ CONGROVE: Eat a bagel, poop, do a warm up lap.

7. Are you racing next week? What will you do differently, what will you try to repeat?

CJ CONGROVE: Yep, Tech Cross here I come.  5th is my best finish yet, so I’m going to try to repeat more than I change.  Not crashing would probably help.  Maybe not rage so hard on the first lap.

NOAH BELL: Yes. Make my turns more shaper. Ride strong the whole time.

STEVE FIFE: No racing next week. The MABRA Cross Series concludes the next two following weekends. The only victory will be finishing out the series with some more good results.

JAY MORALI: Two weeks. Obviously work on my technique!

JULIE KULIECZA: Yes. Faster through corners, less brakes, stay focused and ride my own race.

LINDSAY BAYER: No, THANK GOD. I have my first weekend off since late September. The following weekend I’ll be racing again and will probably just try to do a better warm up and maybe not get lost in the maze of streets around the race venue.

GUNNAR SHOGREN: Actually, and this is a rare case during this season, we are NOT racing next weekend. Too far and we just don’t want to travel that much this year.

KENNETH MORRIS: In two weeks at Haymarket.  I will try to handle my bike better.

JAKE THOMPSON: I’m not racing this week (next race Squadra Coppi Tacchino). 

10. Got a training/racing/life/stock tip you would like to share?

KENNETH MORRIS: I have several injuries from a car accident in 1999.  I was told I would never run again.  After dozens of 5K’s, 10K’s, and marathons I say you are only held back by your desire or lack thereof.

LINDSAY BAYER: Ride each race so that at the end, you don’t look back and have any regrets about not putting in 110% effort. Learn to enjoy suffering.

JULIE KULIECZA: Eat cake and drink booze when you feel like it (not recommended while on the job, but I won’t judge you).  Unless it is your job to race week in and week out you should not deny yourself such delicious things.

GUNNAR SHOGREN: Hopefully, you really enjoy riding and racing your bike. If you don’t, then why? Some folks “retire” and walk away from it all. I just don’t like to travel as much that’s all.

STEVE FIFE: Train harder than you race, and the racing will seem easier. Most importantly, have fun.

JAY MORALI: Be safe out there on the road.

NOAH BELL: not really.

JAKE THOMPSON: I’m all for random training sessions, though they don’t happen often for me.

11. Other than race, what do you do?

JULIE KULIECZA: huh?

STEVE FIFE: Hang out with friends and family.

LINDSAY BAYER: Well, I train, I buy bicycle parts, I read about biking, I plan my racing career, I look at bikes…you get the point. I do have a job that is not bike related, but I like to pretend that doesn’t exist.

JAY MORALI: Sales Manager and father.

JAKE THOMPSON: I do homework, eat and mow the lawn.

KENNETH MORRIS: I work for a local telephone company and ride with my friends from my bike club, Winchester Wheelmen.

GUNNAR SHOGREN: Train. Ride bikes. Computer Plumber. Work on our bikes.

CJ CONGROVE: Race motorcycles, ride mountain bikes, shoot videos, surf, work.

NOAH BELL: PLAY BASKETBALL!

13. Give a shout out to somebody.

NOAH BELL: Caleb Merriam who I’m looking out for in the MABRA championship.

STEVE FIFE: Shout out to all of the promoters who put on these events. Without them, these questions are pointless.

JAY MORALI: Thanks to the Promoter and refs and anyone else who contributed to a great day!

JULIE KULIECZA: Shout outs to the entire ALAN North America Cycling team, for being super supportive and a tight group of people to race with, especially Stu (xoxo).

LINDSAY BAYER: Hi Mom.

KENNETH MORRIS: Shout out to the Winchester Wheelmen Race Team!!!

CJ CONGROVE: All race organizers.

JAKE THOMPSON: My teammate, Nick Battan. 

GUNNAR SHOGREN: Hi Betsy.  Hi MoG & FoG.  (Mother of Gunnar…)