Hardcore Goes to Worlds
The Cyclocross World Championships for Masters took place in Louisville Kentucky January 12th - 15th and Hardcore had 2 representatives: Andre Sutton in the 40-44 and me, Mark Rumsey in the 45-49. The course was in Eva Bandman Park in Louisville which is noteworthy since it is a cyclocross-splecific park. We pre-rode the course on the Tuesday in shorts, the weather similar to one of our nicer Fall days. The next day however, the teperature dropped and it started raining a lot. Because of the large turnout the organizers had qualifying heats to seed us for the final. Our heats were on Thursday and the course was so muddy they shortened the race from 3 to 2 laps. Conditions were biblical with deep mud, massive puddles and because the temperature was plunging, it started snowing. In the dry lap times were expected to be 8 or 9 minutes, it took me 28 minutes to do 2 laps in the rain and I ended up 7th. That night it went below zero and all of the mud on the course froze solid making for an insanely rutted, icey mess for the heats on Friday.
By Saturday it was still frozen and the morning finals were fast because of the frozen ground but sketchy for the same reason. If riders got caught in the endless frozen ruts they were often high-sided onto the ground or off the course; there was course tape everywhere. My race started at 1pm and the temperature had crept above zero; enough that the icery ruts were turning into muddy icey ruts. It was the hairyest conditions I've ever raced and the mud built up on my bike so bad it easily doubled in weight by the end. I hit a rut on the highest speed section and got into a pretty good tank slapper crash that sent me off the course but with the ice everyone was having crashes big and small. Early on I slid and snagged some fencing snapping off my left hand brake lever so had only a rear brake for the rest of the race. Lessons learned; carbon levers maybe are too fragile for 'cross, bring 2 bikes next year...and dedicated mud tires. Despite all that I enjoyed the course but my legs and lungs didn't show up; I started 13th on the grid and ended up 28th. Some Kentucky cold virus had gotten a hold of me and the horsepower just wasn't there.
For Andre's race the conditions were getting progressively soupier but still mostly icey mud. Andre looked strong despite a good crash. He battled all race and ended up 18th in what was the most competitive category of the whole championships.
Mark at 2012 Cross Worlds
2012 Masters Cyclocross Worlds Course
Andre at Masters Worlds
Mark Racing in Heat 1 Masters Worlds
