Cyclocross Reality Check

 In the Practice of Groundedness, the first principle is to Accept Where You Are to Get Where You Want to Go. This weekend was one of those times where my expectations met headlong with reality and it wasn't pleasant. 

I was really looking forward to facing a strong field - the local guys in the Pacific Northwest are some of the strongest riders in the nation. I was fortunate to be on the front row thanks to my 3rd place a couple of weeks ago. As the clock ticked down, I wasn't feeling too nervous, which was unusual. Sometimes my legs are shaking, I'm so nervous! Perhaps I wasn't focused enough, but when we started, I couldn't get my right foot clipped in cleanly and botched the start. Heading into the first corner, I found myself probably in 12th - 15th spot. Over the first set of 3 mini-barriers we went, I decided to dismount instead of riding over them. That meant I needed to run the next couple of off-camber corners before I could get back on the bike, only for me to hit the deck 10 seconds later on an innocuous right hander with some loose earth. I now found myself almost last in a ~40-man field and only a minute or so into the race. Up the first run-up I went, stumbling to dismount cleanly and then remount and get clipped in. Throughout the race I struggled to get my left foot clipped in as it got clogged up with dirt. 

I managed to haul some positions back, but in the end I finished well back in 12th in a race littered with mistakes and it really hammered my confidence. I think I only had 1 solid lap without too many mistakes. You can have all the watts in the world, but if you don't have the basic skills at this level to start well, corner, dismount, and get clipped in consistently, you're never going to be up there fighting for the podium spots. 

Next week is a chance to make amends but I need to take seriously the development of the basic cyclocross skills needed to be competitive at this level. In 2019, during my first season, I still made these mistakes but was often strong enough to compensate. In category 1/2, that isn't a luxury I have. Everyone is strong, they have decades of experience, and their technical skills are much superior to mine. That's what I need to accept - that if I want to be good at this discipline, I need to focus on this discipline. It's not enough to just do general bike training, thinking that the technical stuff will take care of itself.