One Down?

I started this season with two goals: First, to get a license and upgrade to semi-pro and second, well—there is a second goal.

I’ve grown tired of explaining to the uninitiated what my race category is.  I race as a pro in the Intermountain Cup, but nobody’s writing me checks, paying my entry fees or giving me bikes to ride.  So I don’t really meet the definition of a pro in most people’s mind.  And that’s OK, but it’d be nice to just say I’m a semi-pro and be able to leave it at that. 

The first step to upgrading to semi-pro status is to obtain a license from USA Cycling.  Turns out I actually did have a license from 1999 when I was doing races around Anchorage as part of the Arctic Bicycle Club.  All I had to do was pay the registration fee and my license was current.  That was the easy part.

The next step is to get some credibility.  Apparently they don’t let just anyone upgrade to semi-pro.  You’ve got to do well in some national-level races in the Expert category.  I’d heard that consistent top five finishes is what it takes.  I reasoned that one first place finish should be enough to convince them.  That seemed simple enough considering that I have been racing as a ‘pro’ for almost a year.  It was like I was being forced to be a sandbagger. 

So last weekend I boxed up my bike hopped on a plane to Phoenix for the NOVA Nationals Stage Race.  Vince picked me up at the airport and we drove McDowell Mountain Park just in time for the first stage—a Super D. 


I haven’t done one before, but my understanding of a Super-D is that it’s mostly a downhill course with a bit of climbing and flat sections thrown in for good measure.  The whole thing should only take a few minutes to ride, but the Super-D course at McDowell Mountain was different.  It was more of a time trial.  It was nearly flat, just a bit of climbing and very smooth. It was smooth enough that I would consider taking Mags on a tandem bike ride down it. 

Not having done a Super-D before, I decided my strategy should be to see how many racers I could pass.  Racers started in 15 second intervals and I caught four of them.  Apparently that was a good strategy because I won the stage. 

The following day brought the second stage—Short Track.  I have never done a short track race either, but I have some cyclocross experience, which paid off in this course.  Each lap took about 3 minutes to complete.  We started out en masse and I knew how important it was to be first to get to the singletrack. 

I wasn’t first into the singletrack, but in the front group.  Then, on the second lap, on the one climb of the course a racer in front of me slipped and I had to dismount to avoid him. In a repeat of my cyclocross mishaps from last season, my chain fell of in the melee.  Six of seven riders passed me before I could get it back on.  That might have fueled my anger a bit because I spent the rest of the 20 minute (plus three laps) race reeling riders in.  I used my cyclocross skills to get off and carry my bike up the steep hill whenever somebody was right in front of me.  I reeled them all in but one, and I’m sure I could have caught him in a longer race.  I was second, but still first in the overall stage race standings.   

Stage three was the cross country race.  This is the race I needed to win for my automatic upgrade.  Thirty miles amidst the saguaros on a fast, mostly smooth course.  I was feeling confident. 


I led for most of the first lap, pulling three riders behind me.   Too long, I should have made somebody else take a pull earlier.  Then some kid--they let the 20 year old experts start before us--slipped up on literally the only technical climb of the entire course right in front of me.  It happened exactly like the day before in the short track.  I almost fell over, and jabbed my calf with my pedal.  It never cramped but I could feel it starting to twinge immediately.  By the end of the day I could hardly walk.  Four days later I still have difficulty walking.  Oh, and I broke a spoke in my back wheel somewhere in the first lap.  My wheel wobbled the rest of the way. 

By the second lap I was struggling to stick with the group of four.  By lap three I was feeling better but had dropped off the group and was getting boxed in by a bunch of lappers.  I finished fourth. 

It’s not the win that I was expecting, maybe I pushed myself too hard in the first two stages, but finishing fourth was enough to win the stage race.  I hope that counts for something in my pursuit of an upgrade.  Otherwise all I got out of that race was a generic medal and a swollen calf muscle.

Click here for race photos.