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.

Last weekend I helped build some new singletrack for the AMTBC Cromer 6hr Enduro, and yesterday I raced it in the solo singlespeed class on the rigid Kona 29er.  The course was well-suited for a singlespeed, though only five of the 85+ entries were in the singlespeed class.  I used a 32×20 gear, while most of the others I talked to were on taller gears.  Most of the track would have been faster with taller gearing, and I think I could have gone with a 34×20 or a 32×18/19 without too much difficulty.  On the other hand, I was quite happy with the 32×20 gearing towards the end of the race.

I was much more careful with fluids, gels and food, and as a result, my lap times were much more consistent than on the Foxy 1000.  As far as the bike went, it had no mechanical issues; no flats, no dropped chains, nothing.  The Ignitor 29×2.1″ tyres were very grippy, predictable, fast, and I’m still very happy with them.  Also, I’m beginning to see some of the benefits of hydraulic brakes.  Even after six hours, braking with the Elixir CR Carbon brakes was easy and I had none of the fatigue that the old Paul’s rim brakes, and to a lesser extent the BB7s caused.

The rigid fork was great for the first four laps/3.4 hours–  the last three laps/2.9 hours were less than comfortable.  Most of the discomfort was in my fingers and arms, and it made some of the choppy/rocky sections in the last few laps a little difficult.  On the other hand, my wrists were fine.  Could this be due to the super-cork wrist-saving Ergon grips?

In the end, I completed seven ~13.5km laps, for a total of around 94.5km in 6:13:46.  I did manage a top-five finish, but as I previously mentioned, there were only five in my class.  Even so, I’m very happy with my lap times, and will be racing in more enduros this autumn/winter.

My lap times:

Complete results: Cromer Race 1, April 3

After about a year-and-a-half of consideration, I finally picked up a pair or two of Maxxis Ignitors.  I’ve ridden a fair number other tyres (note that while some of these tyres were purchased in the U.S. as ‘tires’, I’m writing this in Australia, so they’re now ‘tyres’), but I haven’t been that happy with any of them.

Of the tyres I’ve recently ridden, the Larsen TTs were fast on hard pack but way to unpredictable in loose corners and mud.  The Hutchinson Toros were nice on the front, but too slow on the back.  The WTB Prowler 29 SLs were predictable but slow and heavy, the sidewalls proved a little weak, too. Finally, the Crossmark came the closest, but they still gave up too much in the mud and didn’t seem to offer much over the Larson TTs.

While in the U.S. (or the ‘States, as it were) I rode Eric’s Turner Burner with 26×2.1″ Ignitors in what I’d call moderately-slippery mud as well as dry-ish hardpack.  I was so impressed with the Ignitors that I  finally decided to buy some.  I got a pair of Ignitor 120 tpi ‘Exception Series’ 26×2.1″ tyres for the Eriksen and a pair of Ignitor 29×2.1″ 60 tpi tyres for the Kona.

The 26×2.1″ Ignitor Exception measures in at a predictably-puny 1.785″ mounted without tubes on Mavic 819 rims.  The missing 0.215″ of tyre width certainly explains some of the 260g (a little over a half pound) weight savings over the old Crossmark/Toro combo.  Aside from the sizing discrepancy, the 26″ Ignitors mounted easily and inflated with some Stan’s sealant without too much coercion.

The 29×2.1″ Ignitor measures in at a shockingly-accurate 2.039″ mounted with tubes on Fulcrum Red Metal XL 29er rims.  Even with an honest tyre size, the 29″ Ignitors saved 200g (a little under a half pound) over the old and notoriously-heavy 2.1″ WTB Prowler 29 SL tyres.

In the process of swapping the tyres on the Kona, I also removed a link form the chain (the Kona is a SS with sliding Paragon-like dropouts) and shortened the wheelbase by more or less 1″, assuming the PC1 chain didn’t already stretch too much.

I took the Kona out to Fox Creek (home of the Foxy 1000) and had a unplanned riding buddy for the entire one-and-a-half-hour ride.  He kept cutting the switch-backs so I couldn’t always keep up, but I did pass him on the downhills.

Overall, the changes were transformative. I don’t know if the shorter chain stay/wheelbase or the Ignitors made the difference, but either way I’m very happy.  I’ve yet to take the Eriksen out on the dirt with the new tyres, but I think I’ll be pleasantly surprised when I do.

Update:  I swapped the 26×2.1″ Ignitor Exception tyres for a pair of 26×2.35″ Ignitor ‘Maxxpro’ tyres.  I don’t know what ‘Maxxpro’ means, but I’m guessing something along the lines of ‘heavy’.  Anyway, the Ignitor 2.1s, which were actually ~1.8″ wide, were just too small, and these Ignitor 2.35s measure in with a nice 1.97″.  Aside from the increased size and weight, these new ‘Maxxpro’ Ignitors seem to have much thicker sidewalls, and as a result sealed up much more quickly and required about half the Stan’s sealant that the smaller Exceptions took.  Here’s a comparison of the key specifications:

Ignitor 2.1 Exception (left) & Ignitor 2.35 Maxxpro (right)

Ignitor 2.35 Maxxpro (left) & Ignitor 2.1 Exception (right)