Muddy Cyclocross

You never know what the weather will be for a cyclocross race. Temperatures range from tropical to frigid, and the weather gods bring wind, rain, and sometimes even snow. No matter what comes, the cyclocross race will go on!

This past weekend was a muddy one. Rain poured down as I pulled into the parking lot and the first races were just beginning. By the time my race rolled around at the end of the day, the course was a mixture of various muddy terrain: slick mud, sticky mud, soupy mud, chunky mud... lots of mud.

My race got off to a good start... for about the first 45 seconds... then we hit the mud. The course is clearly outlined in yellow tape to show you the way to go through the muddy mess. I was following nicely along between the yellow tape until the path went sideways along a hill and took a sudden turn up the hill around a tree. As I came along the hill, my bike began S-L-O-W-L-Y sliding down the hill (did i mention there was slick mud??). Now, I knew this was not a good thing and the turn was coming soon... so I hit the brakes. The brakes were a bit muddy at this point and did not give me quite the response that I was hoping for. So... the turn arrived and I was still going straight ahead and into the yellow tape (that nicely outlines the course). This is when the nice yellow tape ATTACKS me!! I had put my foot down over this yellow tape barrier and when I tried to step back over, I got all wrapped in yellow tape somehow (oh dear!). I remained calm and am able to get my foot untangled from the course, but when I grabbed my bike, I saw that the handle bars were also tangled in yellow tape (oh dear!). Again, I remained calm and carefully untangled the handlebars. Then I was free and I needed to gun it because the leader was getting away (oh dear!). So I started running up the hill with my bike through the sloppy mud and then I hit resistance (hmm?) I looked back and saw that the yellow course tape was attached to my seat post (ahhhh!!!). I kept running in hopes that the yellow tape would break, but the resistance grew stronger and finally I had to stop and unwrap the seat post. At last - I was free!!

The rest of the course proved to be equally muddy and slick, but I managed not to get attacked by any more yellow tape and got a W in the end. Even with Tape Attacks, Muddy 'Cross is a ton of fun!