Kettle 'Cross

The cyclocross season started with a different format on Sunday. For the first time in Alberta, an endurance cyclocross race took place; the Kettle Cross Enduro. The course was a 37 km loop in Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area. While most racers would do the Full Kettle, a two lap, 74 km race, I decided to do the Half Kettle. I did a lap of the course with four ERTC teammates about a month prior to the race and 37 km of bumps seemed like it would be enough for me. There was also a 15 km Tea Cup option.

The race began with all of the about 170 riders starting together with a one kilometre neutral start. I seeded myself towards the back of the starting pack and a few riders moved past me during the neutral start. I had made a tactical error before the race by taking my bathroom break too early before the start. When it came time to stage for the start, it was too late to go again. At about 10.5 km into the race, I was relieved to see, and use, an outhouse.

I knew the race was going to be, for me, about two hours of tough riding. I could tell I wasn’t into the race mentally right from the start as I was content to either sit behind slower riders or not try and push a little to stay with some slightly faster riders. I should have used the beginning to get a little ahead of pace instead of trying to save something for the end.

From my pre-ride, I knew that the bumpiness of the course would take its toll on my body. My triceps and shoulders became sore towards the end of the race but it was my back that was a major problem. Even though the entire course has a variation in elevation of just 45 m, my GPS recorded 200 m of climbing. I wouldn’t say there were any flat sections. I was always climbing or descending. With no flat sections and the constant bumps, I just couldn’t relax my back and was quite sore from about 10 km on. This meant I was constantly trying to stretch and relax on all the downhills so I didn’t carry speed into the next little climb and I also couldn’t attack the climbs too well.

I didn’t have any issues with the course itself. At my slow speed, I wasn’t surprised by any of the few tight corners and I bunny-hopped two of the bigger ruts across the course. I did have one rider crash nearly right in front of me when her front wheel slipped out.

According to my GPS, I covered 36.4 km in 2:01:51 though my official time was 2:09:07. I spent a few minutes in the outhouse and I had four or five minutes at the side of the course lending out my tire levels to someone else who had a flat. I noticed quite a few mechanicals, including a few who had some long walks to either the start or somewhere that they could get a ride to the start. I averaged just 17.9 km/h and had an average heartrate of 167 bpm with a maximum of 181 bpm. I expected my heartrate to be lower as I really felt I could have pushed harder over the last half of the race if my back wasn’t bothering me so much. I also was on my own and, when you don’t have people around to race, it’s easy to lose mental focus and start to coast.