Self-Flagellation

We’re heading into the first of two consecutive weekends without cyclocross races in the Wisconsin Cycling Association series. The WCA doesn’t schedule against the UCI races in our part of the world. Jingle Cross kicks off tomorrow and a lot of Wisconsin racers will be there. By car, Jingle Cross is only 3 hours from Madison and 4 hours from Milwaukee. An even bigger contingent of Wisconsin racers will be at the Trek Cup in Waterloo next weekend.

My cyclocross season began last Sunday in Milwaukee, but I still have ambitions in the Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series. This Saturday I will compete in the 3-hour category of the WEMS race at Silver Lake Park in Kenosha County. Next Saturday I will practice at Greenbush in preparation for the WEMS Championships there on October 7. I will be in Waterloo on Sunday, September 24, to watch the UCI World Cup cyclocross races. I’m still a fan, after all, even if the amateur races at Jingle Cross and the Trek Cup don’t tempt me to participate.

But I really don’t want to go 20 days between my own cyclocross races, so this Sunday I will be in Rantoul IL for Patriot CX in the Heart of Illinois series. And I’m pretty sure I will enter both the open Cat 3 race (10:05 a.m.) and the Masters 40+ race (11:55 a.m.) for a total of 90 minutes of competition. With a high temperature near 90° and almost no shade on the course, Patriot CX should be brutal. I’m counting on that. I expect to go into Sunday with a little fatigue from Saturday’s WEMS race and to come out of it totally whipped. Then, with proper recovery and 2 good weeks of training to close out September, I should be stronger when the WCA season resumes.