KissCross Cyclocross (Manhattan Park)

Adventure and excitement continue to flow from the tandem. It continues to provide an excellent return on pleasure. Sunday was no different. The day entailed numerous firsts. First, Eric and I rode the tandem together which was exciting since he has never been on a tandem. Second, we decided to mount cross tires on it and race it at the Manhattan Park KissCross race. At this point, if you've been following my cross racing experiences, you might already know that I have a hard time with the mounting/dismounting aspect. Even with all the problems and anxiety the thought created, it seemed necessary to at least try. So last minute, Saturday night, we decided we would race the tandem if the weather held out. Sunday morning arrived and I headed out in the garage to swap the tires and pedals.

We finished packing and changed into our team kits and race mindset. We traveled to Manhattan Park early to get Eric some time on the tandem. His total tandem time before the actual race was about 30 minutes during the pre-race warm up. That 30 minutes started rough, but ended fine. One item at issue was starting from a dead stop. His mounting and starting is less than typical from what I am used to with Kristen. I have developed a routine from riding it so much with Kristen, and for some reason the starts from a dead stop were a little quirky at first with Eric. However, because of his ridiculous coordination, he quickly picked up on it and we were off on a practice lap. First obstacle of the course came upon us – an approximate 75 foot sand trap. First attempt through we decided brute force would work. Much to our surprise that was improper technique because the long wheelbase and extra weight resulted in getting crossed up in the sand. Legs burning and sand flying ended at a screeching halt half-way through the trap. We decided on the second attempt we would just dismount and run the tandem through the trap. We mirrored this technique during the race.

The next obstacle was a whole slew of turns. A few times Eric stopped pedaling because he didn't trust I could get the tandem slowed down in time to make the turns. Just for background, the cranksets are directly connected to each other by a chain that runs on the left side of the tandem. A halt by Eric (the stoker) causes a knee-jerk stop for me (the captain) – no pun intended. After a few "pronouncements" about who was captain, things were straightened out from there and he only “knee-jerked” one other time during the race.

After a few turns through a baseball diamond, we arrived at the second obstacle -- a shear vertical wall of sod. The first attempt resulted in a novice captain's error of underestimating the gradient. Half way up the hill we ran out of manpower, even after I asked Eric if he was pedaling. He reassured me he was so we attempted it a second time. This time we dropped it down to the granny gear in the front and attempted the attack. Halfway up the hill our legs were still spinning but we quickly lost momentum. The cause was lack of traction. Because of our inability to give up, much like the drunken sailor that sits at the old tavern overlooking Urquhart Bay claiming the existence of an oversized reptile in Loch Ness, on the third and fourth attempt more speed was carried through the shallow portion of the hill. Without hesitation the sod unearthed as we created ten feet long burnout ruts. So we ran it up the hill. We constructed a strategy at the top of the hill. We concluded the follwing: dismount at the base of the hill, charge it by foot, and remount at the top.

One perk of a hill is that there has to be a downhill that follows. We coasted down the backside of the hill, powered through a soggy spot, and arrived at the “infamous” barricades. I personally catergorize the barricades in a pejorative light because if you have been following my posts, I'm just horrible at them. After each race thus far, I am at least bruised and bleeding because of the barricades. They even punished my bike last race by smearing the left of the downtube with white paint. Luckily my Oryx frame is far more resilient than my skin. Irregardless, it went fairly smoothly in light of all of the firsts. Eric of course was a natural. By the time I was on and yelled “rider on,” the response from the backseat was lets go. Throughout the entire race, I had to use so much concentration to remount the front of the tandem I never did see how he got on. I bet it was amazing. But I specifically remember one time after remounting at the top of the hill I thought I left him. I had mounted so fast and started flying down the hill I yelled “ rider on,” expecting no response but he replied. I have no idea how that kid does it, but he probably should have been a gymnast or like profession. Maybe he wears the blue shirt with the red “S” underneath his jersey . . . . next weekend I'll have to check his room for the red cape now that I think about. I did tell him after the race I think he should ride in the front because I definitely slow us down. For example, I am actually clumsy enough where if I'm at a restaurants with a small table I will clear all condiments off the table. If I don't, they will be on me or the floor.

Nevertheless, the excitement doesn't end there. We then got to sail down this long singletrack downhill through the trees at a speed I would guess around 18mph. Probably by the end of the race we may have been doing it at 23mph or higher. Then again maybe we were only going 4mph, but it sure seemed fast. Eric said he was applying his brakes (good thing only I have brake levers). After the long downhill, there was a road section we could just rip. Then a right turn placed us staring at the base of a longer hill we could just power up. We stomped it up this hill so fast every lap that there were impressive remarks by the crowd drowned out by Eric's and I's banter back and forth about pedaling harder. As an example of the power the two of us were putting out, we created quite the debacle on the last lap when I told Eric to power up. Again this was a novice captain error; we ended up applying to much power and crinkled the largest sprocket on our rear cassette forcing us to shift into a harder gear.

Although chronologically discombobulating my report, I'm detouring back to the start of the race. By the time the race actually started, out of nowhere two other tandems had showed up. It's like a sick tandem sense. Everybody who had a tandem subconsciously knew it was a tandem day. The competition was great because we were a little concerned about holding our own with the single riders. The start left us stuck in traffic, allowing the competition to quickly speed away on the outside right of the track. Its a lot harder to call a pass knowing we were going to be coming through with an extra 4 feet. Eventually we caught the white tandem team (great couple) at the top of the dismount/remount hill. They ended up tripping up and falling down the hill, leaving Bryan Kraus and Jeff Jacobi to be caught on the Burley. When I looked ahead they were already clearing the barricades while we were still coasting down the hill. The course flew by and at the power hill we exploded, thus catching and blasting pass them towards the sand trap. Our triumph lead soon vanished as they resounded with a speedy attack through the sand trap. We finally passed them back in the grassy section and kept pulling away as we finished the race. The final result was a first out of the tandems, third out of all of the riders, two bruised knees (one apiece), a bent 34 tooth sprocket, a slightly mud splattered Santana tandem, two empty RedBull Powershots, and the two biggest dam smiles you could ever see. She has that affect on people.

After that adrenaline rush, we took the pedals off the tandem and screwed them back into Eric's Iceman slayer (read his prior post). I dismantled the wheels and stowed the tandem in the back of the truck. I pulled the water bottles and suited up on my Oryx for the B's race. By the time we got everything switched over, riders were already lined up at the gates. The horn blow broke the silence of the air as a reminder that the race was starting in a couple minutes. I pedaled over to the start hoping to find Eric. I don't remember why I was not by him already, but for some reason I had lost him … maybe last minute restroom stop.

Soon enough the race was counted down and we were off. The traffic was horrible, resulting in a lot of passing. The first 30 riders flew by, but the lap traffic continued to be a problem up the shear wall, through the barricades, ripping the downhill, and pedaling the road. It was not until the road section and the big hill that the gaps started forming. Realizing my gearing was too tall to make the hill, I had to run up it every lap. After six laps, I never caught the first group of guys. I spent two laps getting through traffic and with just four laps to go there was not enough time. This race was still an excellent first for me. First, I had no mechanical problems with my bike. I only dropped it once. I only cut myself one time, conveniently enough it's right above the tandem bruise, and I am starting to feel more like a gazelle in the barricades. This was the first time I was passing people in the dismount/remount sections, especially the barricades. The recent addition of running to my training regime coupled with a three-legged half-dead gazelle like superman remount technique was impressive. The total experience was awesome and I might have Eric up for the projected 2011 Leadville 100 appearance with a mountain bike tandem.

There are pictures online too.

Running up the wall of sod

Trying to breath

Descending the first part of the long downhill

Eric hammering it

Eric descending the first part of the downhill