Those of you from the area know it well. Granogue and Wiss. Two of the most storied cross races on the Right Coast. Those that were there this year know how much of a suffer-fest they were.
Granogue:
Up at 5:00. Standing in the mud and rain parking cars from 6:30-9:00. Raced at noon. It was still raining and hovering around a balmy forty degrees. Hazy, hot, and humid as we westtown Wrestlers might say. Marc and Tom gave me a 3rd row call up because I stood in the rain all morning. Trashed another dérailleur. Let this be a lesson to all those wanting to race cross: buy two bikes. It will save you money in repairs.
The rain made the course a suffer-fest, much like Granogue MTB this past spring. The area is especially ripe for muddy races due to the thin layer of soil overlaying a bedrock with very low porosity and permeability. The mica schist which underlies the area (most likely of the Glenarm Wissahickon Formation) is a high grade metamorphic rock most likely from the Lower Paleozoic Era. It formed during the Acadian Orogen and underlies much of the lower part of the Delaware River Basin, including the type locality, the Wissahickon Creek area of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. The mica schist produces splendidly shiny specimens due to the high concentration of mica (a sheet silicate mineral with one plane of cleavage). The sheen you see in hand sample is due to light reflecting off the single cleavage plane of the micas. This mica schist is most easily visible at the base of the tower (see first picture). Good enough Tom?
Tom's off camber switchbacks of death
What is missing from this dérailleur?
Wissahickon:
Got to sleep in. Showed up to watch one of my high school
teachers do his first cross race at 9:00AM. He had fun, but suffered much on his mountain bike. I raced at noon again. Got a bit caught up in the pile up at the start. Came out of it clean, but I never recovered and ended up finishing 65th or something. More accurately I won my first sprint ever... for 65th place. Only in 'cross is sprinting for 65th place so cool. I was able to race thanks to C3-Athletes Serving Athletes team director Chris Auer who lent me a dérailleur that I butchered a pulley off of. It worked fine in the stand, but once I got on the pedals, I found that the whole cage was bent. My shifting was crap the entire race, but I survived. I'm still excited that I won a sprint. I had tried to gap the guy in front of me when I jumped him in the off camber drop off right hander after the barriers, and when I hit the road I thought I had enough of a gap that I wouldn't have to sprint super hard. I had just shifted into my big ring when I saw a wheel inching up on my right side. I jumped as hard as I could and won 65th place. I assume the guy I beat was a roadie because he was quite unhappy looking at the finish.
Leading a pack early in the race
Run up action
This is what it looks like when I win a sprint
Wes had a great race today, finishing 8th
Congrats to Sam the Hammer, who killed it and won both Cat. 2/3/4 races this weekend
Picture by Dennis Smith.
