David Singlespeed Unrau

I’ve put in a page consolidating info on gearing and tire choices for previous races – since lots of people ask about this!

Here is my belated report on the 2007 Iron Cross V that we raced this last Sunday. You can check out Chris’s, Mari & Dave’s and my TN team reports for background! As you can see, everybody who was down did well, and we rocked the team category. I expect that the singlespeed category will look a little different next year, as our domination of the category scored us the team win this year! Here is what the course looked like:

Even from the satellite imagery, you can see how scenic the course is. Here are the stats from my race:

100km, 2000m of climbing, 72 kph maximum speed. I was riding my True North Cycles custom cyclocross bike with 39:20 gearing and Michelin Jet tires at 65 PSI. The gearing was perfect, those tires are very fast on the gravel, and the pressure was high enough to avoid pinch flats on the high-speed, rough gravel descents. The race started at 9:00. The sun was just coming up over the hills and it was quite chilly – there was a good layer of frost on the grass at dawn. The weather was very similar to last year, not a cloud in the sky. Remembering how much it warmed up last year, I started wearing shorts, jersey, knee and arm warmers but no jacket or vest. It was cold on the start line, but perfect when we got going. I had two bottles of e-load on the bike, hammer gel and a couple of Cliff bars. Earlier, I’d sent two more bottles off to Check Point 3 with the support crew. I was planning to stay with Dave Dermont for as long as possible, and that proved difficult. He moved through the start crowds on the IC Lite course pretty quickly and set a fast pace down the initial gravel walking path. Adam was with us for a while, but dropped off when he couldn’t match Dave’s pace crossing the sandy beach. I stayed with Dave up the next section of rolling paved climbs, but by the time we turned off onto the first section of gravel forest road, it was clear that my average heart rate was too high to hold for the duration of the race. I said good-bye to Dave and brought the pace down a notch. There were lots of geared riders around to work with, but Dave steadily moved ahead and out of sight.

Next was some rolling paved roads leading to the King/Queen-of-the-Mountain climbs and CP1. I dropped my arm warmers here as it was warming up nicely. Now some more gravel road before a sharp left into the technical Lippencote trail that descends down to more paved sections. I had no problems with the technical descents, passing many riders that were forced to dismount and proceed on foot. Most of them caught up on the next section, however, which was downhill paved roads. I was spun out and never caught a good draft off of a geared rider, so focused on recovery and eating. This was followed by climbing gravel road leading to the power line ‘run-up’ – a massive scramble up a steep rock slope that never seemed to end. The views from the top were impressive! Now more gravel forest road, followed by high speed gravel descents into some more paved roads and then CP3. I stopped briefly to pick up fresh bottles of e-load and got back on the bike quickly as I could see one of the riders up the road was obviously on a single speed bike. The rider (who I now know is Fxdwhl) was pushing a bigger gear and was forced off the bike on the climbs out of CP3. I caught and passed him on the climbs – noticing that he was riding a fixed gear. I don’t know how he kept it together on those gravel descents! Knowing he was right behind me steeled my resolve and I pushed through the entire climbs and came over the last real peak in the course (at around 75-80km) feeling strong. Most of the rest of the course was straight forward single track with lots of hidden rocks to look out for and only two sections that I had to run up. I was definitely in a lot better shape at this stage than during the race last year, and the final sections went by quickly. Finally some paved rollers back into the start finish area, one last lap through Saturday’s IC Lite CX course and over the finish line barricades. 4:41, 2nd place behind Dave D, True North Cycles 1st in the Memphis Blues Team Cup. What more can I say!

I raced in the ZM Octoberfest Challenge cyclocross race last Sunday. The race was fun, and as Alan Hawley was taking care of the timing, there were none of the timing issues of last year, and the results include lap times, which is neat to look at. I was riding my True North Cycles custom cyclocross bike set up singlespeed, with 39:17 gearing. The course was flatter than last week, so I upp’ed the gear a little and all was good. For the first couple of laps, I was riding with a Michelin Mud 2 on the front and a Michelin Jet on the rear at 55 psi front and back. This combo worked super, as the grass was wet, but over a hard surface. A couple of laps in though, I slid on my shoes dismounting before the stairs and slammed the front tire into the steps. This resulted in a slow pinch flat and I rode the rest of the lap slowly loosing pressure. I didn’t have any spare wheels out, but luckily Peter Mogg (Hub Bicycle Shop) was standing around the pit area and I stole his front wheel for the rest of the race. Thanks Pete!!!! He was running a Maxxis Raze, but I think the Mud 2 was a better choice for me – I could rail into the corners significantly faster. After that minor debocle, I spent the rest of the race over the redline trying to catch the 14 riders that had passed my while I was changing my flat. I reeled in 12 of them, ending up 11th out of 34. I’d like to have seen where I’d have been without the flat, but even with, it was a great race.

I raced the Willow Beach cyclocross race yesterday on my custom True North Cycles steel cross bike with only one gear, and I had a blast. I didn’t race this venue last year, but it was supposed to be much improved this year. The course was a little soft in some sections, but with the dry weather we have been having, no mud. I raced on a 39:19 gear, and had no idea how the race was going to go before I started. I haven’t raced cross in 4-5 years, plus I did a fast paced 140km training ride on Saturday to prepare for the upcoming Iron Cross race in Pennsylvania. I was dropped off the start by everybody, but I’m used to that from racing singlespeed MTB against geared riders. I worked my way up the field, the gear seemed to match the coruse and my fitness well, and my mounts and running went well. By the end of the race I was 7 out of 30 or so in the Master’s 2 men.