| ||||||||
|
(March 22, 2014) I know this is very, very behind, but I figured I should still do it. My cyclocross season was plagued by a hip/groin injury, which I am still having some minor problems with, which I took 5 weeks off for around Thanksgiving, the most critical training time. Then, at the very beginning of January, that injury seemed to have gone away for the most part, but I had a scare just one week before Nationals at the Altitude Adjustment 'Cross prep race with an awkward crash on my knee. It turned out not to be significant, but I was glad that I could at least compete at Nationals. During the three weeks leading up to Nationals, I seemed to be coming back into form rapidly after my time off and was having some awesome workouts. I was very confident in my ability and fitness, in the mostly dry weather which we were having. However, I was really hoping for some snow to create some mud, and looking back, I do not really know why, because as soon as the snow came, I wished that it hadn't come. Anyways, I was hoping that it would mostly dry up in time for my race at Nationals. Nationals came, and even on race day, I was not sure how my knee would hold up because I didn't test it very rigorously in the preceeding week. I got a normal warm-up in, and was telling myself to be excited, not nervous, based on a study which my mom had shown me a week or two earlier about the effects of excitement vs. anxiety on performance. I got to the start and I was quite cold, along with just about everybody else, because of the strong wind. I started pretty well, moving up into the top 5 quickly. A little bobble by a competitor next to me pushed me off of my line a little bit and I fell back a couple of places going into the sand. I saw Gage Hecht, the multi-time and defending National Champion just ahead, and jumped on his wheel, feeling confident, but little did I know that he was riding a flat tire. Throughout the course of the first lap, I settled in to a little group battling for top 5 consisting of my teammate, Eric Brunner, and Evan Clouse, a friend from Utah who came to Colorado to race most weekends during the season. We always battled in the local races and that day it was much the same. However, at the second time through the pit, I attempted to take a pit to change tires for more traction, but a communication error led to my bike not being ready, and I fell off of my little group. Just behind me were two more of my teammates, Cassidy Bailey and Jack Tanner, and I allowed them to catch me and we all rode together on the second lap, pushing each other and not really seeing anybody else. On the third and final lap, the three of us were still together, and I was forced to stay on the front down the very windy start/finish stretch. This got me pretty tired, but nonetheless I battled on. Then, a couple of minutes later, we came to the infamous off-camber corner "Pete's Plunge" named after the course designer and my coach, Pete Webber, even though I think Michael Robson should get the credit. A sudden gust of wind, right as we rounded the corner onto the unsheltered side sent me tumbling down the hill, bending my hoods in, and disorienting me slightly. For the rest of the third lap, I was struggling to catch back up to my two teammates, but it was a gap which I was unable to close, and I ended up 11th. At the start of the season, my goal was to go top 3 at Nationals, and ultimately to win. With my hip injury, I realized this was not probable, and after tweaking my MCL, I was glad to just be able to compete. 11th wasn't the result that I was looking for, but it also isn't too bad. I have a lot of motivation to prove myself next year now, and I am going to be more prepared than ever before. Be ready Austin. But for now, it is time to burn some rubber on the road. |
I am actively looking for sponsors. Contact me if you want me to test your products. |
||||||
| © 2016 - Cade Bickmore - All rights reserved | ||||||||
