My name is Tate Litchfield, currently im studying at BYU-Idaho. I love to ride road bikes, cats, and skateboard. My life is good and im happy...this is my story
Cyclocross season seems to be
passing faster than I ever imagined already the season is almost halfway over
and I feel like I’m just now getting used to the pain that occurs from a 60-minute
race through mud, sand, and grass. Over the last few weeks I have been racing
2-3 times per week, and it’s starting to show. My body aches in ways that it
never did while I was racing on the road, my bike is constantly needing
overhauling, and I couldn’t be happier. In an effort to keep cross weird
someone at my last race was doing spaghetti hand-ups and if you didn’t take
them, you got shower on the next lap with a handful of oil less pasta. It was
also our Halloween race weekend; people came dress and raced in everything from
Lance Armstrong, ninjas, to star wars characters. Ty and Mark came out on
Saturday dressed as Santa Clauses, it was awesome they had the megaphone
blasting and the heckling never ceased. Nothing makes me want to ride hard that
having a few Santa’s run along side of you telling you that you aren’t even
trying and that the girls go faster than you do!
This is how I reward myself for finishing!
I have experienced some great success over the
last few weekends. Most recently was last weekend October 27 and 28, our local
race series held Halloween Cross weekend at Big Cottonwood Sports complex in
Murray Utah. The course was just less than 2 miles long and each lap had 2
sandpit crossings, a muddy run-up, and 2-4 barriers. Since the course was in a
park it meant that the course was extremely wide and great for passing. Since
I’m sitting in 5th place in the overall series standing for points I
got a great call-up on the front row. The gun went off and I had a textbook
perfect start, got my pedal immediately and somehow managed to get the hole
shot. I was able to maintain my momentum throughout the entire race until the
last lap, a group of 3 racers were gaining on me quickly so I was forced to
take some risks in the corners. I had less than a mile to the finish line and
about a 9 second lead on the chasers when all of a sudden my luck race out and
went down on an off camber turn because of some wet leaves. My falls wasn’t
painful and my bike was fine but due to the slant of the course I wasn’t able
to get unclipped and lost my lead. When I finally did get pedaling again I
sprinted like a madman and managed to pass one guy and finish 3rd.
Getting the crowd pumped up!
On Sunday we returned for day two of racing, although it was warmer than the day before my muscles were aching and my body didn’t feel like racing. Reluctantly I geared up and rode to the start/finish line. My start wasn’t as good Sunday and it was Saturday but I still managed to finish our first lap in 4th place. As we were approaching the sand pit a teammate of mine came of next to me and told me he was going to get me as close to the front as possible before he bonked. His surges were relentless and timed perfectly. When he finally threw in the towel I was sitting in 2nd place and had only one racer on my wheel. The leader had about a 20 second lead on us, so I convinced the guy on my wheel to work with me to close the gap. We took turns pulling for about 25 minutes then my friend and teammate who was watching the race Tim told me that it was time to leave him and do the rest of the work by myself because he was cooked and just sitting on my wheel. I launched a 30 second attack and that was all it took to drop him. I spend the remaining 2 laps riding myself to the point of exhaustion. I never did catch the leader but managed to close the gap to 10 seconds. I finished 2nd for the 3rd time this season, for some reason that top step seem to be just out of my reach. Ill keep training and practicing so that I stop making stupid mistakes that end up costing me the race. Having said that tonight I’m racing Clammy Cross which is a night race down in the Provo area, hopefully my legs have recovered and my body feels like going
This week I raced 2 races, the first race I did was race #3
of a 5 race series in Provo Utah. As I was warming up I knew that today wasn’t
my day and that the course didn’t suit my style/skill of racing very well. The
race started and I immediately realized that we were playing for keeps as I got
cut off and shoved into a tree. The course was full of switchbacks and hard
U-turns (no exactly what a roadie wants to see). Within 2 laps the leaders
broke away from the rest of the field. When I saw leaders I mean the 3 full
time professional cross racers, the state champ, and the national champ. Once
they were out of sight I tried and tried again to get into the groove of this
course but failed…miserably. While passing through the start finish line I
tried to ride on my pedal to long before unclipping to jump over a few
barriers. All I’m going to say is that I learned my lesson it is better to have
to take an extra step or two rather than coast and hit the barrier. When I hit
the grass I realized that not only had I destroyed my gap on the 4 guys that
were chasing me, but that I had done this in front of all of the spectators and
my family. I jumped to my feet, took a bow, laughed it off and started to pedal
for my life once again. This experience taught me that even when we have made a
mess of our lead in life that we need not hesitate to get back on our bikes,
because laying on the floor will only set you back longer. I was able to finish
the race and managed to take 10th place overall, I was able to hold
off 2 guys from passing me but due to a bell lap cramp I knew my chances of
finishing higher were over.
On Saturday I race Moose Cross in Victor Idaho, this was the
first cross race that I had ever competed in and it also marked my one-year
anniversary of racing CX. In the past year I have managed to stand on the
podium over a dozen times which is an accomplishment in itself. However this
race has always appealed to me because it is one of the closest races to where
I go to school and I’m good friends with most of the event organizers. Going
into the race I knew I was a marked man because 3 of my opponents were buddies
of mine from the road season. This year I managed to win all of the races in
Idaho Falls against these guys and knew that they were planning on giving me a
run for my money! As soon as the gun went off the chaos began, although I
didn’t have to “take a bow” this course was full of its own demons like a 20+
foot run-up with steps in it that were 2-3 feet in height, lose dry berms, and a
set of 3 barriers in a row. My bike is light but after racing this course for
60 minutes every time I had to carry my bike I felt like my arms were going to
fall off. On the last lap I was able to catch 2 racers that were in front of
me, and somehow ride myself into 8th place overall. But the stat
that I’m most proud of is that I rode the fast lap time of the entire day 4:30
flat and it was on my last lap (the next close lap time was 4:43). This week
has taught me many things about life and racing such as the fact the tire
pressure really does matter, and that you are never actually warmed up for a
race. I know that I have a ton of room for improvement and feel like this will
come with experience. After all I have only been racing for a year!
Here are a
few photos from the P-town race in Provo and Moose Cross in Victor, Idaho
Enjoy and
please remember to let me live them down!
In our family we have a phrase that we use to describe those
people that are obviously better than the rest of us common people, we call
them “the beautiful people”. Today I was thinking about the idea that someone
can become better than someone else because of his or her clothes, or heritage.
While I was thinking about how backwards this notion is, I realized that the
only think that separates myself from being a so-called “beautiful person” is
my own opinion. I take pride in the fact that I’m not star material and that I
probably never will be. While reflecting on this idea I remembered a song from
the band Pulp entitled “Common People”. I found the lyrics and official music
video to be extremely funny; the girl in the song is obviously an uptown girl
who thought it would be an adventure to test out the lifestyles of the lower
class.
When I think of “beautiful people” the palace of Versailles
in France comes to mind. While we were visiting the palace grounds we stopped
by a “small” house that Marie Antoinette had built so that she could live like
a common person and escape the fame and stardom that she must of experienced
while living at the main palace. Marie called this small cottage “Hameau de la
Reine” which translates to The Queens Hamlet. This cottage was very different
from the type of life that she must have lived while within the walls of
Versailles. When the Queen sought refuge at her peasant life she did everything
in her power to make the experience more realistic. She would dress in “common
people” clothes and preformed many daily tasks that most would considered unfit
for a person of royalty especially the Queen. She would clean along side her
servants, and even helped milk cows and collect fresh eggs. Unfortunately the
people in the surrounding village didn’t think to highly of Marie’s second life,
and in the end she was executed for lavish lifestyle and total disregard for
all people.
