My second season racing cyclocross, and my first go-around as a Cat 2. In the NCCX series, the Cat 2 racers are bunched in with the pros and Cat 1’s- so I expected this to be a big jump up from Cat 3 last year. I wasn’t disappointed!
It’s both fun and intimidating lining up at the start with racers like Jon Hamblen and Mark Hekman. It’s also been humbling to go from regular podium finishes to mid-pack, even though I’m riding faster (in a longer race) than last season. The jump from 45 minutes to an hour of all-out racing would have been hard enough!
I decided to race my Superfly this season instead of my CX bike for several reasons. First, I am very used to the Superfly and trained and raced on it all season, while the CX bike has languised in the garage all year. Second, with a carbon Switchblade rigid fork and 1.75″ Bontrager XDX tires, the Superfly weighs in at around 19 lbs, so the weight of the bike isn’t a real disadvantage. I’m running a 12-27 road cassette for more CX-appropriate gearing as well.
So far- no DNF races, and not even close to DFL, either. I’ve been consistently in 20-25th place out of 45 or so starters each race. That includes pros and Cat 1 racers as well, so I’m very pleased so far. The only real drawback has been shouldering the bike, but only 1 race has had a section where it would have helped.
So- enjoying the experience of racing with the “big boys”- and it’s really cool to hear the announcer pointing out the “29er Crew racer coming though the start/finish line- only guy on a 29er”!
