Slow Recovery

This house is packed with germs. Someone has been ill... seriously ill... with the flu for 14 days in this house. I finally emerged through the clouds yesterday at around 3 pm. Thought I was alright on Monday but only on Tuesday did I realize that I was just "better" and not "healthy" on Monday.

Ali is out right now fighting round two against this thing and the kids seem to be ok.

Hopefully this scourge lifts and we can get back to important stuff, like driving 2+ hours to some frozen cyclocross venue, racing for 45 minutes, then coming home having wasted the entire day.

Love it.

Snot Happening

The 5 pm deadline for Northampton came and went and I did not sign up. I think that the lack of a day of registration option was a sign that I should rest this weekend.

Northampton is such a great event and I hate to miss it but I am completely wiped out. 

Looks like I'll be racing Plymouth to make up for it!

NoGo for Noho?

File this under the grass isn't always greener. Gaining Verge points has been a goal of mine for the past few years, and thanks to a slight modification in the rules (points down to 25th and not just 15th) I've got some. When I didn't have points I would register the moment that a race opened up to be sure I was as high up the starting grid as possible. Now that I have points and my starting position is secure, I've been slacking on signing up for races. That includes Northampton, which closes for registration today at 5 pm.

Now I'm sick, and wondering whether or not I should even bother signing up. My kids have had the SWINE FLU for a week and I've had some coughing but today it all came to a head. Stuffed nose, general aches, sore throat, heavy cough, and a pounding headache. Ali is sick too, we are watching Iron Eagle on TV (we both knew the name of the movie and that Louis Gossett Jr. was in it without seeing him) and sipping tea. 

If I didn't have points, I would have been signed up already. I would simply HTFU and go. No I have an out. What to do...

On the way in to work yesterday I figured out what to get Gewilli for Christmas/Chanukah...

Putney West Hill Shop Cyclocross: 11.1.09

I briefly considered racing back to back fields at this past weekend's 19th annual West Hill Shop cross race, but one glimpse over the edge of the monster run up and the knowledge that we'd would have to go up that thing 7 or 8 times in one race was enough, doing it 16 times over two races would be plain old dumb.

Visiting from Portland Oregon for the week was Zanconato teammate Terry Keele, a guy Mike and I had stayed with two years ago for the USGP race at the Portland International Raceway. Terry's a solid dude and had flatted out of Canton the day before so he was really looking forward to seeing Vermont and the legendary Putney course. He'd never been to Boston until this trip either so he was really blazing new ground. Boston, Canton and Putney VT in one weekend! Holy Cr@p! Keep the aspirin close!  

I bobbled the daylight savings time change, first waking in a panic and rushing out the door "late" to the car pool only to discover that I was actually 45 minutes early. Could have used that extra sleep and less stress. We loaded up the crossvagen (can I just say once again that this effin car is amazing! We fit four people, four bikes, two spare sets of wheels, four big bags - including Mike's which is the size of a hockey equipment bag but heavier - of gear, a cooler, a grill, propane, a few bike tools, cupcakes, and a box of pizza) and hit the road at 7am. Here's the vagen on the way home, loaded up and performing admirably once again. Oh yeah, we got 29 mpg the whole trip. this car has 235,000+ miles on it . I will be seriously depressed when this car dies.

We arrived in VT plenty early to register (no free hats this year) and pre-ride the course. It had rained pretty hard overnight, and Putney usually doesn't need any help being slick, but somehow it wasn't bad... tacky even despite the rain. The conditions were perfect really and it was going to be a great race where fitness and finesse would be equally important to success.I'm lacking in a sufficient amount of either but thought I may be able to put something together for a half an hour and see what was what. I've lost places on the top twisty section of this course in the past so I was focused on taking smart lines there rather than going super hard. Putney is usually a pretty tactical race too: the run up right before the finish and the lengthy field sections make pack position super important.

I lined up second row (the first row was 20 guys wide) behind Matt Domnarski who warned that his new shoes may keep him from getting into his pedals clean. At the whistle I went up the left side and never saw him again. The legs felt great and going into the barriers I was 3rd or 4th wheel. Todd Bowen got the whole shot and started to ride away as Erich Gutbier and a Maietta rider I didn't know represented the front of the chase group. Onto the field for the first time Rob Hult and Jeff Molongoski joined us as the Maietta rider fell back. Bowen stretched his lead and the four of us began to open up a big gap back to 6th place. I lead towards the hill at the end of lap one when Hult and Gutbier came around to assumed the pointy part of the chase. 

Through lap two I was 4th riding with Molongoski in 5th and out onto the field we were just a few seconds behind Gutbier, Hult and Bowen who were all together. The gap to 6th was up to 15 seconds at least, and it appeared even then that the top 5 was all but set.  

Generally I don't lap people, but I was shocked when I lapped the last 55+ guy before the end of my lap 2. That would be before they even finished a single lap! I actually caught two guys before the end of lap 2. They had started 2 minutes behind us but it has to suck to not even finish a lap before you are getting passed.  

Molongoski is in a different league than me, but working with him was allowing me to ride away from the field so I made the investment in the effort and stayed with him as long as I could. Here I am leading Jeff into the hill at the end of lap two.

Since Jeff had led most of lap two I took over on lap three and confessed that I'd be glad to help but that I was probably slowing him down. He took the help, most likely (and correctly) figuring that I was no great threat and would be done soon enough. 

Ahead Hult had dropped the other two and Jeff and I were dangling back about 10 seconds from Gutbier and Bowen. Here's a shot from the field on lap three...

... and another from the tunnel on lap 4. 

It looks like we were sharing the work but I assure you that only lasted for three laps. I went into full wheelsuck mode from lap 4 on because it was working great. I dug deep a few times on lap 4 and 5 just to stay with Jeff and was able to do so, increasing our lead over 6th to a minute at least.  When your in someone's draft and you are at the limit to match even their gentle accelerations, your number is almost up. Shortly after the photo below we were on the corn field for the 5th time, and the firm but slow packed mud was taking it's toll as much if not more than Jeff's steadily increasing pace. 

There was a slight incline out in the field that we went up for the 5th time and I knew it would be the last lap I'd be this close to Jeff in that spot. I told Jeff he'd be alone soon and as we came through with three to go I fell off his wheel and started to slow. 

Here's the gap he opened in about 2 minutes of racing after I came unhitched. Soon enough he had caught Bowen who had crashed but he still ended up 4th.  

The rest of my race wasn't very interesting, I was so far ahead of 6th I rode smart to avod crashing and the gap came back down to about 30 seconds at the end. I had sat up for the last lap and a half, enjoying the course and starting my cool down a bit early.

The team had a strong showing, with 7 racers on the day. I had 5th, Karen Potter took 2nd in the elite women's race, and Kenny Ambach had 4th in the killer Bs.  

*all photos except the ones with the car in them from uber-promoter Alan Atwood

Downeast Cyclocross Day 2: 10.25.06

I'm behind here.. I raced Putney today but have yet to post about day 2 in Maine. This will be quick, let's try bullet points:

-Staying close to the venue is way better than driving home. Thanks again John & Sara Meerse

-The sun was out and it was a beautiful fall day

-The mud was still the story of the race

-Running the course in the opposite direction on the second day of racing is weak

-I started well, but the thickness of the mud was demoralizing

-JONNY BOLD! and I got into it a bit on the first descent when he took exception to some light banter I was having with Jon Bernhard about Jon's choice of lines through the woods

-As far as I'm concerned, you don't get to podium every race and tell the pigs like me at the back of the race what to do

-I rode the first up hill while others ran and lost lots of places, demoralizing me further

-A bobble on the off camber near the pit and that was it... I was mentally done with this course

-The slogging continued for another 40 minutes

-I nearly got lapped

-I finished 17th

No pictures for this one, I need to speak to my official photographer.

Putney report soon.

Downeast Cyclocross Day 1: 10.24.06

I promised myself that I wouldn't write this race report until I cleaned my skinsuit from last weekend's races in New Gloucester, ME. Hosing mud off your suit and out of your socks and shoes week in and week out is getting pretty old, so I finally got to cleaning it all off last night. The suit was nearly stiff enough to stand on it's own and the socks made an incredible recovery for the 4th week in a row. Got to love Defeet! 

It was with heavy heart that I traveled up to Maine with teammates JAMenard and MZank, Saturday: it was cold (41 degrees) and rainy and pretty damn windy too. I don't mind racing in the mud nearly as much as I mind trying to get dressed while stuffed in the back seat with a stack of bags and spare wheels, warm up without initiating hypothermia, stay warm after the race while waiting 30 minutes in the rain to hose off your bike, and get undressed in that same little back seat but now while soaked, muddy and without dry clothes. The start of a cold muddy race isn't the most fun, but after the first 30 seconds you're soaked and filthy anyway so it gets better pretty quickly.

The races were held at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, ME which is some sort of former state run home for some disabled portion of the population... it used to have the word "imbecilic" in the title but I can't recall the rest. The place is beautiful and looks brand new, and in addition to the massive brick buildings that make up the main campus they controlled acres of land that stretched over the rolling countryside. There were no dilapidated buildings and not a single fence post in need of paint: the place was pristine. 

The course circled the impeccably well maintained dairy farm that was truly pristine but still housed cows and their poop. The glimmering white buildings and green metal roofs did not allay my fears of contracting e-coli as a steady stream of brown water made it's way past the barns and onto the course. A good portion of the race wound through the cow pasture as well, and the earlier races had churned the top 5 inches of the soil/poop combo into a thick stew of intestinal distress. 

(It's 6 days post two races and I haven't gotten sick so maybe the stuff is harmless)

The top half of the course ran back and forth across the pasture and then disappeared into the woods for a bit before remerging on the field for a long power section. The last half of the course dropped into the woods down a long descent that was holding up surprisingly well before climbing again up a soupy grey clay covered hill that ended on a gravel path and finally a trip through one of the hay barns. 

They had some great Maine potatoes and chili in there... had one before and after the race.

Around another barn and an off camber, over a set of barriers and through a few more turns before the finish.

I made the mistake of pre-riding the course to see just how bad it was and to decide on which tires to use. My feet got soaked and didn't recover until... yesterday I think. The rain really started to pick up at the start and while the field was noticeably smaller than the previous 6 Verge events, almost all of the guys the usually finish ahead of me were there. Anything can happen on a wet/muddy/cold day though, and if you are ready to just go out and have some fun it can be a good time. 

The course was heavy. The little bit of pavement and gravel roads were the only place you weren't slogging along. Most of the course was thick mud from tape to tape and where there was grass it was so heavy and rutted it would throw you this way and that. I rode the first lap trying to find a dry way around and it was a bad strategy. The guys ahead of me were doing the same thing though, so I was in my usual 16th-ish position for the first third of the race. Up the clay hill on lap one and Jon Bruno is soft pedaling, waving us around."I'm going to the f*&@ing car... this is stupid" he said, and part of me agreed. It was getting colder and windier and the rain was still pouring down. 

At the start of lap two I decided I'd finish the race, I was already 25% done and figured that the war of attrition was get me a few more spots at least. Sure enough half way through lap 2 Kurt Perham was sitting up, headed to a nice warm car and I was up to 14th. 

I was going to be racing Todd Burns that day, I'd lead through the barn and barriers, he'd take off in the pasture, I'd bring him back before the woods and he'd drop me again in the woods. I had given up trying to stay dry, and drove the bike through the wettest parts of the course. These turned out to be the fastest parts because the mud was much more pliable there. 

Having found the quick way around the course I tried only to use those when I was behind Burns, not in front of him, I didn't want him to know how I was managing to catch him before the woods. Peter Sullivan was lurking back there too, but I didn't think he was close enough to play a factor... I'd later find out that this was wrong thinking. On both lap 2 and 3 down the tricky downhill on the back side of the course Burns would open up a huge gap - I thought I was brave but that dude was absolutely fearless (he later admitted that he was scared $hitless going down that hill too).  But while he could open a huge gap on the down hill I seemed to have a better line up the next hill towards the barn and we'd be back together at the line. 

Here's Todd just behind me going into the barn. Smart photags were hiding their expensive equipment from the rain inside the hay barn.

Through the barn on lap three I struggled to catch back up to Todd, and was thinking that if he did that again on the final lap I was not going to be able to stay with him. While I was worrying about the next lap, Todd decided to take off right there, before the barriers and the bell. He got a huge gap in the pasture and heading out on the field. I picked a pretty good line though and slowly pulled him back, ultimately catching him in the first woods section when he decided to ride a short hill while I ran. Knowing that downhill was coming I wanted him behind me, so I charged through and took the lead, riding as wide as I could to get to the downhill section first. It worked, and Todd was fading as I sprinted up the gravel road towards the barn for one last time. 

Looking back I could see Todd had been passed by Sullivan, and he was charging hard. I was shoveling coal as fast as I could but he was still coming and I just held him off at the line by maybe 10 bike lengths. 

I spent the next 25 minutes shivering naked in the car trying to warm up... my hands to numb to get my soaking wet shoes off my equally numb feet. 

I spent that night at John Meere's house in Portland where I met his lovely wife Sara and we ate a fantastic Jambalaya. I love host housing. Thanks John!

This isn't me, but give you another look at the course.  

Providence Cyclocross Festival Day 2: 10.11.09

In 38 years I've not heard the word Valhalla as many times as I did over a two day span in Providence this weekend. 

RoJo's park was temporarily re-titled the "Valhalla of Cyclocross" by race promoter and announcer Richard Fries. I can understand his excitement, the park is perfect and he put on an event he should be super proud of, but... 

Valhalla is actually a Norse term referring to a grand hall of the dead. It is a cool sounding word though, we should keep using it... especially if it will help bring an early season World Cup or Superprestige race to the states. 

The second day of the Providence Cyclocross Festival included some interesting and welcome changes from my perspective, and with the advantage of day one reconnaissance we located out base camp at the west end of the course in a beautiful sunny spot right by the water. The race went right by our tent 4 times per lap and we were just a few feet from our cars. Perfect.

I felt better than on Saturday, though I was expecting for the fatigue to hit me some time mid-morning but it never came. I warmed up confident and happy to be racing, probably knowing that I'd have 13 race-free days after this to catch up on some rest.

The course Sunday was once again another masterpiece by Tom Stevens. Most people liked the second day's course better, and it seemed to flow a bit better to me. The start and first few turns through the off-camber were basically the same, though rather than turning left at the pit it went straight back to the pavement behind the start area and up a steep ridable hill, around a few trees and back down to tricky chicane, out to the pavement and then past the pit. There were a few new turns before the unchanged barriers, slowing the approach and adding a tricky left hand off camber turn as well. The three turns after the barriers were unchanged, but rather than climbing out to the pavement, the course headed up the hill towards the road and took two hard rights to drop into the half pipe like section from the day before. I was thrilled to see those cement stairs and the paved section afterwards left out. After the swoopy up and down sections, the same power climb towards the water was in play, as was the entire section near the backside of the pit and the gravel path. Getting onto the pavement for a third time was shorter on day two, with a steep climb back up to the trees, a long sweeping right hander into some super-high speed barriers, and then a rooty descent and off camber back towards the finish.

The track was dry and fast, with some well worn dirt paths around the place as well as some new and less tacky grass turns.

Once again I was first call up to the third row and got some heckling from the planet bike dorks... well, the two planet bike dorks that weren't already staged... I don't recall Curtis heckling me. The filed was 75 riders strong and at the whistle I was following Keith Gauvin when he got hung up in the rider ahead of him. I shouted some "encouragement" and we drove hard up the left side until the barriers creeped in a retarded our progress. The Sunday course featured a few new and relatively tight 180s just into the field, and as the group arrived a rider to my right went down and a turn later Mike Rowell overcooked a corner and put me in the tape, apologizing as he did it.

The transitions onto the pavement behind the Start area were pretty sketchy, especially with a the field thundering down the narrow path and temporary fencing lining both sides of the course. Everyone came through clean though, and after a half a lap I settled in with the usual Gauvin/Starrett duo.  Damien Colfer and Erich Gutbier were just ahead.

The ride with Keith and Alan was pretty typical... I was at the back and would loose a few bike lengths here and there only to bury myself to catch back up. I need to learn how to be smoother or how to ride at the front of these little groups so I'm not always sprinting to catch up, because after two laps, once again, I fell off the pace. Half way through lap three I could see that Mike Rowell, Jon Bernhard, and Jon Foley coming up while the other group kept pulling away. Colfer had fallen back behind us all by this point. 

At three to go (half way) they caught me and again I went straight to the back of the group like an idiot. Not that I could have done anything about it. I assumed I'd be gone from this group soon enough, but for some reason it seemed a bit easier and past the pit on lap three it was clear that we were making up ground on the group that had just dropped me. Foley was leading in the turns and Rowell was powering on the straights. We caught Gutbier, Gauvin and Starrett just before the end of lap 4, right around when this was taken...

This is the only photo from my race... consequences of allowing a 7 yr old to handle the camera duties

At two to go Foley gave Rowell a big push and we rode straight through the group we had just caught... I was as surprised as anyone to be back up there. Someone earlier said that we were around 22nd, so I thought that this group was fighting for the last few Verge points. 

We were clean through the barriers but shortly afterwards I rolled up on Rowell and had to touch the brakes. Gauvin rolled up on me and crashed as a result, slowing Gutbier and Starrett in the process. I felt bad but there's nothing I could have done about it, accordion effect can be a bitch. Foley and Rowell kept trading turns and I hung on as long as possible. The legs felt good but I couldn't seem to match the speed consistently. On the final lap those two decided to take the race a bit more seriously than me and off they went, taking Staffo and Bernhard with them. I was gapped in the barriers and knew that trying to get back on would mean riding dangerously and I didn't want to crash out me or anyone else. In the end, I fell 1/2 a lap of energy short of being able to stay involved but knew that my spot was safe with the others relatively far behind so I packed it in and rode in easy to the line.

I ended up 19th, which was a nice surprise. Two top 20s is a good weekend in my book. Top 15 next? 

This is the other picture taken from my race. Charlie has been describing everything he thinks is cool as "Valhalla."