Karen Hogan in action

Karen Hogan in action at the USA Cycling National Cyclocross Championships. Here is the report from Karen Hogan.

The racing was intense and satisfying in many ways, and disappointing and tough to swallow in others. Bend was snowy and cold with changing course conditions by the ½ hour. Ben raced first and in typical fashion had a lousy start but rode beautifully and moved himself up gradually to end up a little better than mid-pack (15^th out of 34). He races in a funny age group – 13-15 years. He is 12 (it is just the way cyclocross age-grouping works). He lined up with a lot of kids that looked similar to himself, but also many that looked like man-children, being 1 ½ feet taller, sprouts of hair on their chins and bulging muscles. The top 10, at least, benefitted from this extra human growth, having more power and watts to push them around the course. Ben has some good power himself for his age and his technical skills are superior, so he was able to ride a smooth race throughout. He was the first Colorado boy, having beat a handful of boys that have challenged him all year here. He was pleased. He’ll get to race in that age group for a couple of years so he’ll have a better chance in the future.

I was next. The course was shaping up nicely, yielding a thin layer of mud on top of the frozen earth below (temp peaked just above freezing at that moment). This was significant because the course up to that point was so slippery it was downright dangerous. A little thaw gave us a bit of friction. Not to bore you with too many details, but my race was a heartbreaker. Early issues with traffic (They started several age groups in a staggered start, just 10 seconds between. We were 2^nd up, with a group of 30, but there was a group of 40 just ahead of us. I caught the tail end of that group early, right when we transitioned from pavement to singletrack – all of the lead gals in my group did, so it was comparable for all of us but then I had some additional misfortune…), chain came off in a crazed moment with about 20 other women trying to get up a super steep, short hill. It took me some time to get it back on and I lost all contact with my age group’s race leaders and I let a whole lot of traffic go by that I needed to get through, again. For the next lap and a half, I was just in awe of all the women around me. I have never raced in such a big group (110 on the course). It was cool in a way, but frustrating also because I knew I had some business to attend to and maneuvering around a lot of other riders is a challenge, especially in tricky conditions. I chased and chased and eventually caught #6 through #1 (Mike was yelling at me every time I went by so I knew where I was in the group and how much time I had to make up). Made contact with #1 on a big hill toward the end of the last lap. Some fairly aggressive riding on her part (another story) and we rounded onto the last bit of pavement with my front wheel side by side with her back wheel. I was over-geared, I remember. Mike said I got pinched off by #1 into a lapped rider – that I don’t remember. All I know is she got her front wheel over the line 1/100^th of a second before mine. Photo finish. She’s a National Champ. I’m not. Ah well, that’s racing and competing. I am just glad that I am still able to do this stuff, truly.

Mike raced next. His group contained about 100+ guys. The men are fast and oh so competitive, no matter the age group. Mike started to put together a nice race and was in 5^th going into the 3^rd lap. Then crazy things started to happen… His race started at 3:30 in the afternoon. The benefits of that little bit of mud that I had began to wane as the sun went down. Mid way through his race the course started to ice up. Guys were going down everywhere. Mike was no exception. He crashed, actually a few times, but one in particular really hurt him. His knee, hip and elbow took the brunt and his bike was almost unridable. He got himself to the pit for a bike change and was able to get on a new bike for a lap while we were madly fixing his good bike. He was able to gain his composure and grab his first bike back again a lap later. By then he had slipped to about 25^th. In the end, he ended up 16^th, which for him was disappointing. However, we are grateful to have no broken bones.

And there you have it – probably in more detail than you needed or wanted!