Another timely race report. Let's keep this one brief and only marginally factual.
Charlie and I made the trip to Lancaster for MRC's new race venue at the Bolton Fairgrounds. Mind you that the Bolton fairgrounds are not in Bolton, they are in next door Lancaster. Perhaps the Lancaster Fair is in Bolton.
The best part of the whole day was being able to ride the entire big boy course with my kid. He did great, worked the corners and uphills like a champ. Rolled up to the fly-over and asked me to cary his tank of a bike to the top. Then he rolled that mo fo like it was his JOB. Still looking for pictures of that, so if you got 'em, send him along. We did two or three laps of the course together, with multiple repeats up and over the flyover.
Charlie and I made the trip to Lancaster for MRC's new race venue at the Bolton Fairgrounds. Mind you that the Bolton fairgrounds are not in Bolton, they are in next door Lancaster. Perhaps the Lancaster Fair is in Bolton.
The best part of the whole day was being able to ride the entire big boy course with my kid. He did great, worked the corners and uphills like a champ. Rolled up to the fly-over and asked me to cary his tank of a bike to the top. Then he rolled that mo fo like it was his JOB. Still looking for pictures of that, so if you got 'em, send him along. We did two or three laps of the course together, with multiple repeats up and over the flyover.
photo credit: Roger Cadman My kid is the best. I'm constantly underestimating what he can do because of his vision, but he makes me look like a chump. He never lets it bother him or slow him down. I'd trade my good eyesight for his in a second, just so he could see the world as most people do. I constantly wonder how different he would be....Aww damn... there I go again with the quasi-self pity cr@p. He doesn't think those sorts of thoughts at all about his vision or anything else that may not be perfect in life, and for that, he's my hero.
My race was predictible. Literally. Staging by cr.com points had me 4th on the grid behind Mike Rowell, Ryan LaRoque and Peter Sullivan. Guess how we finished?
The details aren't particularly interesting. Rowell and LaRoque were off the front from the gun, Sullivan came past me at 1.5 laps and I knew he was going to make the junction on the very windy S/F striaght with his freakish roadie power. I dumped everything I had to stay on his wheel for that part, knowing he would tow my a$$ up to the front but more importantly away from the guy following me. It worked. I hung with the three of them for a half a lap, blew sky high, then time trialed the remaining 25 minutes of the race, using just enough energy to stay ahead of the 5th place guy and sprinting everyonce in a while just so that he could see I still had some fight left in me.
Loosing 60 seconds over the course of 4 laps to the three leaders was a bit surprising, but no way I was staying with them, so my 4th place down by 60 seconds hurt a hell of a lot less than 4th place down by 5 would have.
Two days after that Zank, Ronnie Steers and I went to VT to meet Jerry to ride Kingdom Trails. If you've never been, you should go. But find a place to stay. 7.5 hrs in the car is a long, long time. The trails are fantastic, super flowy stuff with lots of descending and not as much climbing. That's not possible of course but it felt that way. Plenty of people have written detailed reviews of the trails, no need for me to rehash. The best part of the day was listening to Ronnie behind me say "I can't stop smiling!"
Last weekend team Zanconato (content forthcoming) universally decided to skip the Maine VERGE weekend to ride the trails here in Sutton. It sounds like the guys at Maine improved the race after last year's miserable event, but a weekend off of racing and on for fun was just what we needed. Two days and about 24 miles of sweet singletrack, three fantastic meals, and the company of a dozen good freinds made for lots of smiles and good memories. We'll do that again for sure.
Next up is Canton, where I can choose between getting bloused or giving JONNY BOLD and extra 15 minutes than normal to catch me.
Ciao.
2 comments:
Nice post. Charlie is a great kid for sure. My little brother had similar vision issues plus a massively sleepy eye that meant he was super cross-eyed, until he got coke bottle glasses at a few years old.
You should race tomorrow. You can beat her no problem :)
i dont drop the coin to let Noah race most weekends, and the cheap ones all start to early, but we always get a bunch of laps in on the course. I struggle with letting him race and do badly and get like me, all headcasey and negative, vs letting him do what he wants. Timing and money tend to win. He raced more when he was younger, at 9-10 its sort of tweener ville for bike racers.
I even head case over letting him do laps on the course between races since real racers are out there warming up, but I over stress and over hover and its totally fine and he loves it so SO WHAT. He has only almost been flattened once.
Let it go (talking to myself here as usual) and follow his lead, I guess, if I have a point to make.
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