12 Rojas Raul DCMTB Fueled by WholeFoods Market
By Raul
A couple of weekends ago, I participated in my first race this year. Rockburn Reloaded in Elkridge, MD was the second XC race I have done so far. Cranky Monkey at Wakefield was my first one last year. With little experience, it is hard for me to compare this race to others but I can say that I really enjoyed this race and I would do it again next year. The course was not too technical and rather fast.
I raced as a Cat2, 19-39, formerly the Sport category. The field was pretty big, over 50 people, I think. Since I don’t really know any of the other racers, I could not tell before the race who was fast and who wasn’t. I knew during the CX season last year that if I was close to John Rogers, I was doing well. During this race, I only recognized Mike Birner who is a solid Elite Master CX racer. I was expecting that he was going to be in the top 10 or better. My goal before the race was also to be in the top 10 but I was not sure whether it was a good idea to try to stay close to him. I was a little worried that I would run out of gas late in the race. I couldn’t decide whether to give as much as I could at the beginning or take a more conservative approach and just ride my own pace.
I really did not have too much time to think about my strategy because a couple of minutes after I got to the start line in a good position on the second line, the judge said “Go!” I wasn’t prepared for the start, mentally or physically. My bike felt that it was not in the right gear and who knows what else. All I know is that probably half of the field passed me during the start-sprint. So if I had a plan to stay close to Mike Birner or the top 10, that plan was immediately scrapped. Once I reacted and got going, my new goal was to pass as many people as I could to get to some good position. I knew that about 20 people were ahead of me at the start so, if I could pass about 10 of them, I would have a good race.
That basically summarized my race. I rode as hard as I could and passed people along the way. At some point, I was passed by the winner of the 40+ Cat2 and the Single Speed Cat winner as well. Near the end of the second 5-mile loop, I saw Mike Birner and, for the remainder of the race (we did three 5+ mile loops), I chased him but never really got to him. I finished 12th in the end. I could not beat a couple of guys at the last sprint, by then because my legs were cooked. The top 8 guys were totally racing a different race. They were really fast (to my standards at least) and I never got to see any of them.
Overall, this event felt more like a cyclocross than an mtb race. It was very fast with short climbs and not too technical. There weren’t really any down hills or flats on which to recover. I was pedaling hard the whole time. I felt after the race that a top 10 finish in this Cat2 race for me is within reach, it depends of course, on who shows up that day.
Excuse my Spanglish!
Raul “la maquina tica”