I raced my first cyclocross race, and it turns out, the first cyclocross race held in Adelaide . The race was hosted by the Port Adelaide Cycling Club (PACC), and held in the Adelaide park lands just south of the CBD.

The early morning weather was cool and rainy, though my ride into the city was mostly dry. The weather was sunny and cool by race time, and the track was dry to slightly damp. I entered the ‘A grade’ with the elite roadies and such (I fall into the ‘and such’ category). The ‘A grade’ race was short at around 40-45 minutes. The lower ‘B grade’ only went for 25 minutes, and that seemed quite short.

There were 25 racing in the ‘A grade’, and I started near the back. The race was fun, and felt much like the ‘dirt crits‘ that the AMTBC used to run in the summer. The Gunnar performed well, and the only change I’d consider making is either lowing the tyre pressures (currently 65/75psi F/R), or perhaps switching to something wider and taller than the 32/30mm Speedmax combo I’m using.

Anyway, I held out and was lapped by the top four finishers a couple hundred meters from the finish. I finished 14th out of 25, total time 43:32, and missed being on the lead lap by 14 seconds. Overall, I’m very happy with my result. The full results are posted on the PACC CX blog.

More photos and video:

• Eternity Cycling
• Smudge Monkees
• Sentimental Photos
• Videos – Open, Kids, Grade B, Grade A

Another Video… I believe there may have been more cameras than bicycles at the race.

adelaide cyclocross. from Sam Roberts on Vimeo.

The hard drive crash delayed a couple of updates I was going to post.  So, without further delay, a boring and potentially nauseating video.  I don’t suggest watching this if you suffer from motion sickness, the camera bounces around quite a bit, and with the video sped up 800% it is pretty rough.

This is the Crafers Bikeway, which runs from Adelaide to Crafers via the Princes Highway.  While the video isn’t all that interesting, or all that steady, it does give an idea of what the route is like.  The Crafers Bikeway is about 10km long, and from Adelaide to Crafers is almost entirely uphill.  This ride was in the afternoon in 35-38°C weather and took about 35-40 minutes to climb and about 15 minutes to descend.

In other news, I’ve decided to make the Gunnar slightly more presentable since it now stays pretty clean and doesn’t see much off-road use.  The paint is in decent shape, but does have some noticeable scratches and chips.  The decals have the most noticeable damage where large portions of the black on silver decal is missing.  I have a set of replacement decals for the frame, but I’m going to save these for some point in the future when I get the frame repainted.  In the meantime, I cut new decals from black vinyl electrical tape.  Many of the letters were touched up, and the second “N” in “GUNNAR” was completely replaced.  Not bad, huh?

Since moving to South Australia, the Gunnar has been used exclusively on the road.  However, the Gunnar has always been set up primarily for trail use.  The small frame and low handlebars are great on the trail, but can be quite tiring and painful on longer road rides, especially on the descents.

Prior to Amy’s Ride I made some changes to better suit the Gunnar to road use.  Having read many, many opinions on road frame sizing and having gone over the geometry and dimensions of my 52cm Gunnar numerous times, I was almost ready to replace the frame.  However, after looking at more appropriately-sized frames, it was clear that a slightly longer and taller stem with my existing frame might be an option.

The new stem is a 120mm 17° Cinelli Via with a 26mm clamp.  It is forged aluminum, cheap, functional and the right size.  It isn’t as nice looking as the Salsa Cromoto, but unlike the Salsa, it was available and not part of a recall.  The new stem moved the bars slightly forward and significantly higher, achieving an effect similar to a larger frame with a taller head tube.  The only drawback taking this route is slightly goofy look that results from the combination of a 25mm spacer and a 17° stem.

Along with the new stem came new bar tape as the brake cables were too short to accommodate the new stem, and the old tape was too worn to reuse.  I would have preferred to replace the old Salsa Goma tape with the same, but, like the Cromoto stem, it was no longer available.  The thinnest most Goma-like tape I found was SRAM Superlight.  The SRAM tape seems slightly thicker than the Salsa tape, but it is less dense.  The texture is not as nice as the Salsa tape either, but it is better than cork.  Wrapping the bars is a little tricky as the Superlight tape does not stretch, but the kinks worked themselves out after one ride.

Finally, I have new tires.  The 28mm Hutchinson Top Speed tires were worn, but in decent shape except for some rips and cuts from road debris.  They were replaced with a pair of Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick 25mm tires.  I was a little apprehensive about going to a narrower, lower volume tire, but so far I’ve been happy with them.  The 25mm wide Vittorias fit on the 22.5mm wide Salsa Delgado Cross rims without a problem, and have a nice cross section when mounted.

The combination of stem and bar tape worked well on the 100km Amy’s Ride.  The taller bars were easier on my neck, descending was much less painful, and I actually looked forward to the next downhill.  The SRAM bar tape was okay, but I preferred the Goma tape.  While I do like the thin, “non-bulky” feel of the Superlight tape, I would prefer something with a similar thickness, but a little more solid/dense.  On the other hand, the new tires worked very well.  They were comfortable, cornered well, and were surprisingly quiet.  The combination of these tires and an almost silent XT rear hub is a nice combination, though it is easy to startle slower riders when overtaking.