leg godt

Quad Cross

2011-12-01T18:38:00.001-08:00

Life's been out of control lately, way more stuff coming at me than I have time to process. Things like sleep, quality time with my wife, and this blog are paying the price. It's 9:35 on Thursday night and I'm dedicating the next EIGHT WHOLE MINUTES to updating this thing.

By updating, I mean writing a race report on an event that happened 3 months ago.

Waaay back in September I drove out to... I forget where now... but it was some sort of Rod & Gun club (#TWSS) to race the first race of the year in the single speed category at Quad Cross. The last time I raced Quad Cross I was about to get beat down by Lynne Bessette but was spared that fate when I twisted my ankle wickid haad and had to go to hospital for medicine.

This year, Quad Cross was a true jungle cross course with lots of fresh cut sucky woods sections and a severely undersized field. Hey, racing is racing so why not have fun.

I have this habit of checking my skewers and valve caps on the line. Usually the official calls "one minute" loud enough for me to know how much time I have to walk through my little OCD routine, but on this day they were speaking softly or I just had manure for brains and I never heard it. So I'm standing there bent over my bike when I did hear the whistle and woosh... we (they) were off!!!

Not many races start with a flying right-hand side remount, but this one did for me. I was pumped up with adrenaline and quickly got through traffic and off towards the front. The course was very short... 5 minute laps short... and eventually took the lead half way through lap two. I felt great and started to pull away from everyone... except Chandler. He wasn't making up ground, but at that point he was the only dude that was keeping pace. By lap three it was clear he was making up time and he blew by me half way through lap 4.

It was DAMAGE CONTROL time, I backed off for a lap or two and waited for the good sensations to return so I could make a run back to the leader. Looking at my watch after 5 or 6 laps I figured we had three to go as we had only been racing for 20 minutes. WRONG! I came through the finish line and they were ringing the bell for final lap. Crazy I tell you.

I chased, gained nothing, and finished second.

Boo hoo.

Time's up - I'm going to bed.

24hogg

2011-08-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

I like my rides to be simple, confined events with a definitive start and end. Hard or easy, short or long, hilly or flat. Mostly that is unimportant to me. What is important is that there is a clear start and a clear finish. I'm pretty good at putting the rest together as long as I know when the gun is going to go off and where the finish line is.

Yeah that's not the best way to approach a 24 hour race. There is a clear start to the racing, but the preparation is as much a part of the event as pedaling the bike is. And the end? well, what is the end? You basically do a cyclocross race every three hours, and only until the last few hours are you clued in to when you may finally be done. Even then, teammates may not feel well or another team may be gaining on you so you got to dig deep and get ready to lay it down again. So the end and beginning aren't so neatly defined.

People are surprised to learn about all of the strategy behind road racing, especially the grand tours, and there is lots of strategy around the 24 hour event. When to eat, when to sleep, should you take two laps, does someone need to go out for one last lap at the end or is the team right behind us going to bail on that last lap as well... all of these things cost some mental collateral. Pedaling the bike maybe the easiest part. Well not really.

This race starts on Thursday really, when you have to be sure to get a good night's rest. Then into Friday, you're stressed about clothing, rain gear, your camp set up, food for before during and after the event, and maybe trying to figure out when to make the drive. I was racing on a 5 person co-ed team with Mike Z, Nick M., Leah PB. & Chip B. I only knew of Leah a little and had never met Nick, so I wasn't sure how this was going to go down. Would they be fast? Well prepared? Would anyone get sick? Lots of unknowns, so I tried to focus on getting my stuff as tight as possible.

Mike Z & I caravaned up to Great Glen Saturday morning and arrived 90 minutes before the race. We skipped the rider's meeting and got the intel from teammates and our sister team of Colin R, Greg W, Kevin S & Mike W. These guys had done this before and knew all the secrets, like setting up your tent prior to your first lap.

Being a seasoned "triathlete" I was elected to take the first lap which began with a short run around a pond to stretch the field out. This run hurt bad, shot my heart rate through the roof, and I never recovered for the entire first lap.

About that first lap.... I didn't get a pre-ride in, and that's probably for the best, because I would have faked a stomach bug or something and skipped out on the whole damn thing had I done so. The course started out going straight up hill for a mile: at first via a series of well intended switchbacks but eventually ended with a direct shot straight up the last 100 meters of the climb. It was like the trail builders got sick of cutting so much back and forth stuff and said screw it, let the bastards right straight up to the top. There was some sweet singletrack down from there and then several long section of fireroads, most of which were very fast. There was some fresh cut choppy singletrack mixed in here and there, and a leg breaking rocky climb about half way through each lap. The decent from this climb was awesome, not super technical but just bony enough to be fun and challenging. A final singletrack climb to a last drop and that was it: 8.3 mile laps with something like 1000 feet of climbing per.

No one ever suggested to me that a single speed bike would be a suboptimal equipment choice.

Half way through the first lap I was gassed and thought that there was no way I was going to do this even one more time, never mind 5 or 6. This was full on race pace and this course was hard. The singlespeed was badly overgeared for the climbs and worse yet undergeared for the flats.

My teammates were awesome: totally supportive of each other and out there to give it everything they had. Zank cranked out a great second lap and it was on. Chip rocked the downhill on the team's lap three, and Nick M, racing his third mtb race ever, rode strong after that. Leah PB was the only woman riding a rigid singlespeed (BALLER) and she crushed it too.

Surprisingly, my second lap felt better than my first. Yes I had slowed down some but the ratio of feeling good to going slower was not direct. I didn't go much slower but man I felt a whole lot better.

So this whole race, rest, wait, check the time of your teammates, eat, try and sleep, get ready to ride, then head out again routine went on for 24 hours. We skipped some turns, made adjustments to the rotation, and tried to figure out how to have as much fun as possible while riding a bike in the woods of NH at 2:30 am. It wasn't that hard really, because the RAD factor for this race was off the charts. It helps that I love riding at night I suppose, it was a lot of fun to be ripping through the woods after midnight on a perfectly clear night with just your light and the sound of your bike to keep you company.

The course at first bothered me. Not technical enough. But after a half dozen laps, you got to appreciate it for what it was, not what it wasn't. There were spots that challenged your mind and others that challenged your body. Will I make plans to go there to ride recreationally? Hell no, but in a race setting it was a great course. The fire road descent after that bony climb was worth the work to get there.

We finished strong as a team and quit on our last lap as the sky opened up. Had the team behind us simply sent someone out for a final lap we would have lost 6th place but they were smart like us and got started on the celebrations a bit early.

Thanks to Mike, Chip, Leah & Nick for a great time. You guys were a great team and rode like champions individually.

This one will be on the schedule again next year for sure.

Ideas Gone Bad

2011-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

What I lack in blogging discipline I more than make up for in ability to come up with some really bad ideas. Those two things are not related in any way and the comparison is meaningless, but I managed to acknowledge my tardiness with this blog and segue into the ride report you're about to read in one short sentence. killer.

So you have read before how I feel central mass has some of the best cycling around. Our roads are great and lightly traveled by cars and thanks mostly to team BUMS and their trail making skills, the mountain biking is top notch. Earlier this year it occurred to me that a massive loop connecting all of the local trails would be a fun challenge (turns out I was half right there) and that someday I should talk some people into trying it with me.

That someday was this past Saturday July 23rd. I got Colin, Ronnie, Pete, Greg & Karen to join me for what I predicted would be 48 miles of trails connected by 20 miles of road . Karen made it clear from the start she was not doing the whole ride but only the first half... the easy half mind you.

We rolled at 8:30 am and almost immediately got stuck in a heavy rain and thunderstorm. I think there it stopped and started 4 separate times in the first two hours, but it was better than the predicted heat. It was still a lot of fun through those first few sections which were mostly connected by dirt roads or trails rather than long sections of pavement. This was gonna be sweet.

Or not. About 2.5 hours into the ride, our group was starting to get strung out a bit, and there was a clear reduction in the amount of talking going on. I mentioned this with a chuckle and no one laughed back because it wasn't fun or funny, and this ride was heading that direction too.

We pushed on through 3 or 4 mechanicals (all Colin) and emerged from the Grafton Woods trails at about three hours in. Pete started to ask about the distance back to the house and Ronnie was having significant trouble keeping the grips on his new bars, which looked like something you'd see at the back of the head shop on Commercial St. in Provincetown if ya know what I mean. Colin asked what we all were thinking: "Is there some sort of rule that you can't run normal looking bars Ronnie?" HA!

We pulled into trek stop for any needed service and everyone is good so I assume all but Karen and Pete are continuing. When they peel off just up the road from there, sneaky Ronnie Steers follows them with a wave and a huge grin signifying that his day is done. Smart fellow that Ronnie Steers.

Lunch then three more trail systems where our primary motivation was to get to the damn reservoir at the end of the final section to take a swim. The rain was done for the day but it was getting hot and the horse flies were everywhere. These little effers have evolved to know that the back of your arms and the sides of your back are the perfect place to land and grab a chunk of flesh. I'm all sorts of chewed up back there.

So we survive the ride, swim in the reservoir and make it home at 6:30 pm, 10 hrs total and 7 hours of rolling time later. The ride as presented by Strava is below.

Now that this it's over, I have mixed feelings about how this all went down. Here they are in bullet form (copied from the wrap up email I sent the group):
-I'm glad I did it so that I don't have to wonder any longer if I can.
-Mtb riding is supposed to be fun. This ride stopped being fun (for me at least) at about the 3 hour mark. I wasn't tired as much as I was just tired of being on a bike. The trails we were on are enjoyable: I know this because I have ridden them many, many times and they are always interesting and challenging. After about three hours on Saturday, I just wanted to get it over with. That state of mind makes trails like these tedious and annoying.
-This ride destroyed me for a full 24 hours after we finished. I felt as though I had been on a 3 day tequila-fueled, sleep-deprived bender with mandatory mechanical bull rides every 15 minutes.
-During the course of the ride I consumed 2 full camelbacks of water, 2x20 oz vitamin waters, 2x20 oz poweraids, a cycling bottle full of Ensure, a (rather large) small buffalo chicken sub, some cheese fries... and still lost 4 lbs.
-The most epic part of my day may have been the chaffing.
-It was a huge relief to have everyone make it back with no apparent serious injury, though Colin's knee may not feel the same for some time.
-Unless there is a ground swell of enthusiasm for this I will not attempt this again. Just because these trails are all there so close together does not mean they should all be ridden in one day.

I will surely host long mtb rides (20-30 miles) from my place in the future: just hit a couple of these venues and then retreat back to the house for some food and a few beers. In other words, keep it real.

So in summary: this ride sucked.

Time Lapse

2011-06-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Bang. Seven months are gone and not one new blog post. My life is so frickin' interesting I don't have time to even write about it. Envy me.

<small talk>.... kids are good, Charlie's (finally) taken to hockey. phew. I was really starting to get worried there for a while. Not that I'd love him any less if he didn't play... Let's just leave it that I'm super-duper psyched that we have had the chance to skate together. If it all ended tomorrow, I would not be disappointed. He really does seem to like it, and he started up with it without my prodding. Maybe it'll stick.

Cory is amazingly smart and not just at school. She deals with words and situations like an adult. To grown up in many ways, and that can get her in hot water from time to time, and that's when you're reminded that she's just a kid, and a little one at that. She has more friends than @charliesheen has followers (twitter reference).

Somehow I managed to get talked into playing hockey again this winter... and it has been awesome. Ice is done but I'm filling in on an inline team. For 10 years off, it's not that bad. I can still keep up and even put a few in the net.

Races singlespeed-a-palooza in April. What a great race. I got 13th in the pro division on a bike that was built (not assembled) less than 24 hrs prior to the event. Another beauty from mike zanconato. The thing rides like a cross bike with a flat bar and suspension fork. It is very quick and you've really got to pay attention to it, this bike isn't for the nervous rider. Beginners need not apply.

Backlog Race Reports:

Sterling Day 1: misplaced my mojo... suffered like a dog but maybe it'll be back tomorrow?

Sterling Day 2: felt better but not fast, mojo is totally MIA but at least I wasn't about to die

NBX Day 1: Holy shit my mojo moved to Flo-rida for the winter. Passed by Brant Hornberger of all people! (just kidding Brant, I still love ya) but I did suck.

NBX: Day 2: Better again (the magic of day 2 cross race after a tall glass of chocolate milk), but not the best race ever. At least I beat Brant.

Ice Weasels Single Speed: Best party all year.

Single speed a palooza: The first lap was hard. Really hard. It was super fast from the gun (as fast as a single speed down hill start can be) and after a 2-3 mile prologue to stretch things out we climbed a peanut buttery mud hill for a mile. I was waaay over my head. Completely shelled. But the rest of the lap was sweet and flowy and I recovered a bit. I was dreading that hill for the second lap, but I must have reseted enough because I felt great and made up a bunch of spots on the climb. I can also handle my bike, which many others could not. Made up more spots on that second lap and finished 13th, losing 12th in a sprint at the line to some guy running a 34/18. I has a 32/19. He should be ashamed.

Next up: Domnarski farm mtb thingy. I hope it is dry, that course would be a bear wet.

Ciao

Shedd Park: 11.21.10

2010-11-23T18:42:00.000-08:00

It wasn't my idea to sign up for the P123 @ Shedd Park. My daughter was going to be singing at church that morning, precluding me from my usual master's field. The 3/4 was too early, so the only option was the main event. Gave me butterflies all week.

Sunday morning heading into church I was delighted to learn that cherub performance had been cancelled. Now I was going to get my nuts squashed to oblivion for no good reason. Hooray.

Nearly 50/50 split between scared/pissed, I did actually manage to get a good warm up in, getting to the racing part always helps. I think the key for me is to ride the course before the event I'm racing in starts for at least two laps, and get some hard race pace efforts in during that time. Then stay moving for the next hour, with perhaps a little effort if I didn't get one in on the course. I'm writing some of this stuff for the future me, who should do exactly what the current me has been doing this season... except for the tire thing. Get that sorted out earlier, ok future me? Great.

After Adam Myerson bowled through the field from the back row at the start the rest of us were left to sort it out before the first bottleneck, a 180 us a small bump and around a tree. I think I was the last guy not to put down a foot, as there was a great deal of swearing and crashing sound coming from right behind me. The field was already split into two groups at the front, the first 7 and the next 7, and I was tailgunning this second group.

The first ride up the main hill wasn't bad, neither was the speed out of it at the top. I know I breathe heavy but one of the B2C2 guys came up next to me and was panting like this:

soda's panting from normah on Vimeo.

I thought he was going to die.

The split stretched out approaching the descent, but no one was getting away there, everyone was just trying to stay upright. As we came across the field to go to the second half of lap one, the guys I was riding with started attacking each other relentlessly. This continued for the first four laps. One guy would take a flyer, blow sky high and would come back. Then the next would go, and the next, until the first guy was ready to go again. They'd sit up on the track and look around at each other, and invariably someone would take the bait. I surfed the back and burned surprisingly few matches to stay in touch.

Chandler Delinks was in the group, and I wondered if I'd have to read about myself in his blog if we stuck together long enough. He was gone from my group before the end of lap 2 or 3, so I guess not.

Synjen Marrocco got on the front for a long while, took some of the worst lines I've ever seen through the corners, and got dropped shortly after Chandler. That kid is strong but spent way too much energy getting back up to speed after each turn.

Greg Whitney clipped a pedal, almost got thrown from his bike, and lost touch after hanging out for a while too. Either he or Mike Wissell took a sketchy inside line through a turn on me at one point, but not enough to complain about beyond what I just wrote.

Cary Fridrich came through our group on lap three and made an attempt to get to the front group of 7 that was unsuccessful. He stayed 20 seconds away from then basically until the end of the race. Half way through lap 3 Toby Wells took off to join Cary, but never made it there. At the end of lap 4 there was some sitting up again on the track, and Sam Morse was the first to blink and he took off. He must have been getting antsy, because it seemed to me like this was all working out just fine with the youngsters kicking the shit out of eachother. Anyway, Wissell gave chase and I followed him.

When Wissell pulled off and no one else came through the remants of the group slowed a bit and I knew that the kids were tuckered out from all that bike racing. I jumped across to Sam and right up to Toby, bringing only Chris Hamlin from UVM with me. The four of us reformed a group and started to pull away as the others faded back.

With three to go Sam started to get gapped, and I let Hamlin and Wells do all of the work. Hamlin was strong in the corners, but Wells was so smooth and powerful... it was great to watch. *Man crush alert* He carried ridiculous amounts of speed through the fast turns, especially the downhill going towards the tennis courts. He was taking it very easy up the ride up though, and I thought for sure he was playing possum and would rip up that thing on the last lap.

Hamlin's bike creaks like a rusty old wrought iron gate. Like he lubes his chain with salt water and beach sand.

Half way through that 5th lap we were making ground on Cary when Hamlin sat up a bit. After a moment Toby said something about catching Cary and he went to the front, but the hesitation was enough to keep Cary away for good. Hamlin tried to go inside Toby in the woods before the track and I scolded him for it. Bad line, bad place to try to pass. Damn rambunctious kids and their helmet cam thingamajings.

Just before two to go with Sam pretty far back I got to the front for a second time and put in one long pull on the track to see how much of the gap to Cary I could close down. We gained a little, but he was moving pretty good and we realized we weren't going to catch him.

At the bell Hamlin was on front, and led us up the hill with a bit more speed. Toby didn't spring the attack I expected, and I was content to follow the two. Wells went to the front near the tennis courts and I didn't want to be third wheel, so I out broke Hamlin and got in between them. Wells attacked hard coming out of the forest of Lowellenburg and I matched, though we were careening through the woods so fast I didn't want to get to close for fear of slamming a rock.

The accelleration did drop Hamlin and we came to the last few turns together. Being in front, Wells had the better line coming out of the woods and could start his acceleration sooner. He got a gap and held it to the line to take 9th. I'm happy with the 10th place (paid $20) and the best results point wise yet @238. If we had driven we probably could have caught Cary, but then again he may have been saving something in the event that we got any closer.

Putney: 11.14.10

2010-11-17T02:49:00.000-08:00

What’s more exciting than craps, slots, table games, sharing needles, unprotected sex and hipster parties combined? Day-of Registration Roulette. Now that deeper VERGE points and staging by crossresults.com rankings is commonplace, there is very little to get excited for in the build up to a cyclocross race as there was in the past. So I put a little excitement back into the registration process by spinning the DORR wheel.

Racers... Do you have a few options for the DLR coming up this weekend? Have you got Masters, 3’s, 123’s fields available to you? Before deciding, be sure to check the payouts, registration fees, and most importantly… check that pre-reg list and find out who you will be racing… it’s mostly correct.

Promoters really can have fun with this... .Have you got a number in mind that you need to reach to break even? You should worry, because while the DORR almost always rewards you with ample Day-of registrants to push you over the top, one cold or rainy day could sink you faster than the Edmund Fitzgerald.

This past weekend at Putney I got caught staring into the sun that is the pre-reg list for Putney. Elites (2:30 pm, cost: $30, pays $500 seven spots deep, ROP had me around 4th) or Master’s 35+ (11:00 am, cost: $25, pays $135 five spots deep, ROP has me around 3rd)? I was sure that the DORR wheel would land on Jeff Molongoski and Eric Gutbier for the 35+ field, perhaps Toby Wells and Al Donahue for the Elites. Oh the pressure!

In the end, the decision was easy. I raced the 35s because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tailgate for 3+ hours afterwards. The fact that I had beaten the two guys that were predicted to finish ahead of me the weekend prior helped too.

So I hedged my bets and sure enough, Molongoski shows up. He’s 45+ now though, maybe he’s doing that group. In a word, no. Frantically scanning the parking lot for other DORRer’s I spot a guy in a spiffy Cannondale team kit. That’s none other than Johs Huseby! Sweet!

I started on the left side and at the whistle Johs comes through me bumping and grinding like a teenager on roofies and I settle in around 8th wheel. Johs and Jeff M. were doing all of the work up front, and the only difficult parts were catching back on after the log run and barriers during the first lap. I think the whole field came to the run together… it certainly sounded like it behind me.

First time up that hill and Johs schools us on how to run. He had 10 bikes by the top and we darted across the gap. These little efforts came easier to some than others, and I jumped across when I had to to stay on. Still, through three entire laps the lead group had whittled all the way down to… at least 10 guys. Including ***. That gives you an idea.

Sheldon Miller (the pre-race ROP favorite) mentioned that there was a lot of looking around going on (which was fine with me) just as Steve Roszko rolls up and animates things a little bit. Nothing really came of that, but I think it woke people up because we started to go just a bit faster and after the 4th lap the group was down to 6 with Johs, Jeff, Sheldon, myself, Stephan Marcoux and Dave Connery gapping the others.

Here's Stephan folloging my PRO line off the dirt and in the grass. photo courtesy of eyebob

During that lap Connery takes off, and someone says “pay no mind to him, he’s not a threat.” Ouch. Worse that he said that or that I’m repeating that here for everyone to see?
Sure enough Dave was back and finally someone other than Johs leads into the run, meaning there was no mad sprint at the top. Two to go.

Sheldon hit the gas at the top of the run and I was able to stick with him pretty well. I thought for sure that Johs or Jeff would try and come around me to get better positioned for the turns at the top part of the course, but they did not, and when Sheldon rode the log hill I followed. He punched it towards the parking lot and I gave chase, airing it out in spectacular fashion over the jumps behind the shop. We caught him after the downhill but he never slowed down. Looking back it was only Jeff and I that had made it. One of us should have gotten in front but we didn’t, and Miller never slowed down. He scampered up the run and attacked again, forcing us to chase. Same thing on the logs. He kept finding strength to go hard all around the course. We would catch, he would go.

After negotiating some lapped riders we were on his wheel with a half a lap to go but he got a small gap on the barriers and kept the heat on. Jeff was chasing but this time we weren’t making up ground, so Jeff sat up. I should have done the same and let Jeff lead me down the road to the run and then passed him just before but I didn’t… I wanted to try and make the bridge to Sheldon and didn’t want to get caught by anyone behind. I drove to the hill and Jeff came around at the base. He held me off at the top and took second by three bikes with Sheldon winning 10 lengths ahead.

So the ROP had me in 3rd but Marcoux was replaced with Molongoski. Huseby ended up 4th, which was a shock to me. I’m pleased that I earned my entry fee back and was able to race with Molongoski, who I haven’t been able to stay with for the past few years, including last year at this very race. It was all pretty easy too… like other races this season I’m working hard (well, for the second half of this one at least) but am not totally blown at the end.

Apres-ride Jim Airgood and his wife Gwen brought chili, cornbread, pulled pork, and ribe. I had all of it… and a few cups of Opa Opa Octoberfest as well. We fed the 3/4 field cookies and the elites beer. We were worried a bit about what the USAC official (who was standing right there during the feeds) would think of these shenanigans but he was very cool indeed. He was even cheering on racers that were taking the hand ups. Someone accidentally chucked a cup right at him, but he thought the whole thing was great and even told stories about it to the other officials. Questionable move right there.

As stated the best part of the day was getting to spend a few hours with Chip and Dave driving up to VT. Chip had his best race of the year and Dave took second over Keith Gauvin… a friend of mine from Master’s racing and…. another DORR entrant.

Damn that day of registration!!!

Friends

2010-11-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

I got it.

It’s about friends. Seeing the old ones, learning more about the new ones, and the potential of adding to your collection every weekend.

That’s it. I wouldn’t go to these races just to race. Wouldn’t be worth the time or expense. Once you’ve done a race and see the people, you want to hang out, experience what everyone else is, get familiar. So you train, glue tires, swap parts, join a team… though that hardly matters. You race hard, bump elbows, sit on, attack, and flop on the ground after the line. You have a beer, exchange some swag, bring some cupcakes and steal someone else’s.

Here’s the latest development…

I had the pleasure of driving up to the Putney West Hill Shop race with two first class NECX hombres, Chip B. and David W. From the outside, you’d never think to put those two together. Chip’s a 45+ mini-van driving stay-at-home dad with a couple of kids living in the suburban sprawl of Needham. Dave’searly 30's guy working "in the biz" and living in a house full of friends. Chip’s conversational and extroverted, Dave’s slightly more soft spoken and reserved. Chip sports a puffy, Dave’s all wool. Chip fights it out in the B master’s fields, Dave’s one of the best local elite racers around. Ok… there is some commonality there... Both Chip’s and Dave’s races feature a lot of carbon wheels, but for different reasons.

I’m really just getting to know these guys this year, though it’s been plain to me for a long while that they are both good people. I jumped at the opportunity to carpool to the race because of the stark differences in outward appearances and lifestyles between the three of us.

Getting to learn about Dave’s NJ upbringing and how he made it to Boston was great: an interesting story told by a guy with a heard of pure gold. Chip lived in Cali for years, and some of the stories he had about people he met and the way life was out there were fascinating.

So three guys with tremendously different backgrounds climb into a van… and the conversation came easily. We covered Noho, Putney, Gloucester. Racing in snow, cold, rain. NBX. PDX. PVD. Tom Stevens courses. Steel and aluminum. Tube construction, skinsuits, food, training, east coast vs. west coast, mint Newman O’s. Kids, soccer, reading. Injuries, work, parents. Training. Fitness. Goals and aspirations. Strategies, victims, results. Texting. The van was full of love for riding… and racing… with a common tie of cycling in general.

I’m never less than amazed about how many really good people I have exposure to every weekend. The one person that I encountered this season that I though to be less than friendly walked straight up to me one week later and formally introduced themselves, started asking about my race, shared their thoughts on a particular line that we were watching people try to ride, and was basically over the top nice.

Thanks to all my friends in NECX, even the ones I haven’t met yet.

CSI Northampton Day 2: 11.7.10

2010-11-12T13:21:00.001-08:00

SLURRPPP! That's the sound of me riding behind anyone and everyone this past weekend. I really do wish I had the power/ability/courage to get in front of a group and drive it for some reason other than to slow the pace down, but that just isn't what works for me. I know that riding from the back is harder out of the turns but gawd damned I love to hide as much as possible. I don't even think it is the draft really, because there has got to be a pretty minor advantage in sitting on, especially when you consider how hard it is to get back on a group after a corner. I think it is psycological. Sitting in gives me comfort. It lets me know that I'm able to hang out. When I'm on the front, I'm constantly thinking that I'm not going hard enough, and that the others are sure to come around me at any time.

Day 2 at CSI a plan was hatched to grab some food and drop me at the venue so the kids could go back to the pool for a final swim before checking out. Worked like a charm. Kids got to swim and I was there early enough to ride the course twice before really starting my warm up. At some point during the undressing-dressing process a little too much skin was exposed, though I was unaware of it at the time. Chip had to see it. Sorry pal. My folks were up to see the race as well, a great treat that I did not expect. It was kind of weird hearing my mother cheering for me using my college nickname.... ;)

Let's go racin'!!!

The left side worked so well at the start the previous day that naturally I lined up on the right. Same third row start but it was nice getting the call up. The herd seemed to be thundering a bit more ferociously on day two, everyone must have been all excited to be first to get to the button hook>run/ride up thing. The leaders were two turns ahead of me when they got there and I saw JONNY BOLD (that's two hyperlinks to JONNY's blog in two posts... I'm starting to act like GeWilli) was going to be first to the hill. Surely he would win the day now, because riding the hill clean was clearly the best way up it, right? Apparently JONNY didn't think so, or he wanted to keep it fair, or something... he unclipped and ran from the front of the race. No consequence to me, just thought it was odd.

By the time I got to the buttonhook the boys were running it, and as I stepped off my bike behind Ryan LaRoque his rear wheel kicked up and caught me in the groin. Not felled by searing abdominal pain (it was merely a flesh wound) I ran around the scrum and towards the hill proper. To my left someone fell on top of someone else, and I believe this shot was taken right at that precise moment.

ewww... boys touching boys! photo courtesy of doublehop

Up the hill we go and I'm in that high teen position again and feeling really great. Kevin Hines was hanging out with us, as were some of the bikeman.com dudes. The second day's course at Noho is great, as you get all of the rooty turns out of the way all at once. That root section is also a great place to rest and work on being as smooth and fast as possible. Before I know what's going on Hines is gone, and not just pulling away... like so far ahead that I can't spend the time or effort to look around for him... and he wasn't out of the race (yet) either.

I lost contact with the front of the race on the field on that first lap, though I'm not sure how or when. Actually, i'm sure it was because I suck. What was undeniable was that I was now IN THE WIND and wanted to GET OUT ASAP!

I was taking on water fast and LaRoque and Sheldon Miller were chugging up to me. I heard Zank tell me to keep the pressure on, and I did manage to stay in front of them half way through lap two. Wanted to make it seem like I wasn't imploding, which I thought I was. Coming into the fields for the second time I had found my happy place, surfing behind Sheldon and Ryan. The three of us moved along at a nice pace, and half way through lap 3 we caught and passed Bill Shattuck and added Aaron Millette to our party.

Laroque was running the barriers like a gazelle on the left side and he opened up a miserable gap each time through that part, causing us to sprint to catch back on. Miller rode the power sections well but was checking the brakes a bit to much for my liking in some of the turns that you really didn't need to slow at all. I encouraged him to let it flow. He later called me a back seat driver (only half-jokingly).

With two and a half laps to go we caught Pete Smith when he dumped his bike in the sand. He had been shed off of the group fighting for 10th but made us pay for ridig with him by laying down a serious pull through the start finish line. He never got out of the saddle but pulled away from me like he was sprinting. Sheldon and Ryan came around and I was fine with that... fill in the gap please! At the run up Pete was leading and like JONNY BOLD he unclipped and started to run, forcing us to do the same. He's a clever little devil.

Millette and Shattuck started to fall off our pace around that time, and Miller seemed to be really trying to get away. Out of the sand with one to go he got a big gap and his teammates were screaming at him to go go go! Pete and Ryan worked hard though and brought him back by the bell.

Somehow I ended up in front of the group around the turns near the pit. There were four of us fighting it out for 14th place, and coming into the buttonhook I thought about pretending to start a dismount then clipping back in quick and riding away. Just as I'm about to unclip LaRoque says "we're riding this right Matty?" and I lost all desire to be a prick to my freinds. We were a long way from the finish too, so I'm sure I would have done more harm than good in terms of pissing them off and loosing any sort of gap I could have possibly gotten anyway. We rode the hill (Pete ran and never lost any ground) and started the root section for the final time. Somewhere in there Sheldon lost contact and Pete was tailgunning. To the barriers I took the far left to steal Ryan's favorite spot, and while he did get past me, it was much easier to stay with him afterwards. Three of us hit the sand together and Pete got a bit hung up, loosing two or three bike lengths on the exit. Ryan led it from there to the line, taking 14th and opening up a huge gap over me in the sprint. I held of Pete for 15th, he had burned a lot of matches to get back on after the sand pit bobble but still almost got around me.

"in the draft" photo courtesy of Lynn Lameroux

Charlie did another kids race and it was a nailbiter, though I've got to tell him to look forward and chase that guy instead of worrying what is going on behind him. He was moving faster than the day before and going into the final turn he was second. He took first with a sweet inside line. The thrid place rider came over the top on everyone and took the win at the line.

CSI Northampton: 11.6.10

2010-11-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

Last year I missed Noho thanks to the H1N1 virus.... remember that little special friend? I know Kurt Perham does. With no avarian flu or rhinovirus lurking in our home 2010 would be different, and in more ways than one. We crossed a threshold as a family this weekend, actually paying for a room for just the four of us. No sleeping on the floor, no driving hours upon hours back and forth from home just to save a some money... we actually opened the wallet... err... bad choice of metaphors... opened the checkbook.... and made a weekend out of it.

It was worth every penny.

Rewind to last week. There were no rooms to be had in Northampton as late as Thursday. UMass Football, a lacrosse tourney, and "some bike race thing" (direct quote from hotel reservationist) meant that the best rooms were down in Springfield. Buahh... I got myself on a waiting list and crossed my fingers. At 1:20 pm on Friday, the call came... I was in at the Clarion, the hotel with the indoor pool. Sealed the reservation with the credit card. Daddy just hit one out of the park!

I went to a meeting at 2 pm Friday, returned to my desk at 3 pm, then got ready to leave at 5 pm. Hey... where's my wallet? I looked for an hour and finally left without it. Turns out my wallet pulled a Thelma & Louise and made a break for it. Must have got bored just driving around though because it went on a little shopping spree too, to the tune of $2300 in electronics from Best Buy, Target, Game Stop... all of my favorites!!! Of course, I wasn't buying any of this stuff so it wasn't so much fun for me. Hopefully the thief enjoys their time with the stuff, because Commerce Security is on the case. I'd rather have the FBI looking for me if I did something wrong. These guys mean business.

What is the first order of business when your wallet gets stolen the night before a weekend away at a race half way across the state? Print a permission to ride form of course! I've got no printer at home so Zank hooked me up with the official stuff. Zanks alot! Everything else can, and would have to, wait.

After two days of steady rain the course was damp in spots Saturday morning but drying out nicely. I pre-rode after the 8:30 race and again after the 9:30 and the difference was significant, but things were still to soggy to go with my beloved file treads. The Bikeman.com guys hooked me up with a bit of sealant for my moody rear Fango and I was off to the starting grid.

Being my first VERGE races of the year, I didn't have points and thus got no call up at staging. I was apparently the fastest guy without a VERGE point once again, as my number was the first one called by crossresults.com rankings after the VERGE point holders were placed. I had let Hopengarten play with that title long enough and I was glad to have it back, even if only for 45 miuntes. Ohh, the foreshadowing!!!

At the whistle I moved up the left hand side quite nicely, as the elongated starting chute afforded the opportunity to move up by braking late. Like those people who try to merge into a backed up off ramp by riding along side all of the suckers who played nice and stayed in queue. At the first hard left hander I had the inside line, and much like Gloucester Day 1 I drove past the post, then turned left and gained a ton of spots by using my body and bike as a gate around which "None shall pass!"

The trip through the top half of the course on the first lap was strange. Very easy going, there were just so many people and the lines were too tight to really try and move up. I took the opportunity to recover from the starting effort and think about where I would need to start spending energy. The turns down in the field were so flowy and fun, you could pedal them and really push the traction to the edge while making up time. That's where I started to really mash away on the pedals, and I was happy with my position in the field after having picked up a few spots towards the end of the top rooty section.

Things really got sorted out about half way through the second lap near the barriers. John Foley was about 5 seconds behind a group with Kurt Perham, Pete Smith, Ryan Rumsey, Al Starrett and Bill Shattuck, and I was about 5 seconds behind him. Through the sand I managed to catch John, and I rode his wheel through the end of the that lap and half way through the third. I told him that I'd take a turn at the front, and I led us around for about 3/4 of a lap at a much more manageable pace. John apparently had enough of my ridiculously slow pace and got to the front. He took the opportunity to remind me that this was a bike race and that we were supposed to be going fast. So sorry, my fault. My legs was howling in pain and I was breathing like an excited puppy. People around the course were telling us that we were fighting for 14th. This was great news. I thought that even getting 15th would be a big win for me... a few years ago top 20 in a VERGE race seemed like a pipe dream, and the only time I cracked the top 20 I was out of the points at the time. I started to think about the worst thing that could happen while following John... really I could blow up sky high and still get top 20. What did I have to do to avoid that? Suck wheel as much as possible. Don't crash. Don't flat. In other words, play it safe. I don't think that is a good way to contest a bike race, I'll have to ask JONNY BOLD next time I see him.

The rest I got while leading helped, so when John got back up there I was able to hang with him for two more laps, not willing to repeat the mistake of getting in front again. In retrospect, I believe we could have caught that group if I hadn't taken 7 minutes of racing off: if I had drilled it we could have bridged up to them. I really have to start thinking that the race is ahead of me to go and chase after and not behind me waiting to pounce. John would charge hard out of the corners, open a small gap, and I'd roll back up to him and sit in time and time again. That may be smart racing, but it isn't going to ever get really exceptional results.

For the last two laps the group ahead began to break apart, with Rumsey and Starrett drifting back towards us. By that time there wasn't enough race left to catch them though, and both John and I noticed that Brian Rutter, Ryan Laroque and Aaron Millette had formed a little chase group behind us. The gap to them wasn't growing and may have been shrinking. When I saw Rutter on the front I wasn't terrible worried, but with 1.5 to go Laroque took up the chase and I went into panic mode. This caused me to muff the second to last trip through the sand, and Foley got away by 6 bike lengths. I burned matches to catch back on in the windy field section, and enjoyed a draft back through the start/finish to the bell. The effort to catch back on cost me though, and John dropped me quickly up the run. He stacked it up after the off-camber descent which got me back on his wheel, but ever-cool and very strong he kept me behind him the rest of the way and easily beat me in the sprint, taking 14th while I rolled for 15th.

I've not got some legitimate, old school VERGE points. None of this top 25 get points... top 15 like back in the say (2008). I was very worried early on the season about my preparation for these races, granted I had some mechanical issues but even on the days when I didn't things weren't great. It seems as though it just took some time for the high-intensity stuff to come around, and I'm feeling pretty good during these races. I went as hard as I could, but I wasn't completely blown afterwards either. Didn't even consider doing the nordic flop to the ground. Maybe there is another gear down there, just waiting to be used. We'll have to see...

Charlie raced the kids race and finished 3rd, looking over his shoulder the entire time just like his dad. He was excited to race and made fast friends with the other kids that were out there to race as well.

yes, I made him wear the garmin.

We went to Spoleto's for some decent Italian food and then dropped into Raven books because Charlie wanted to check it out. I'm thrilled that this kid loves to read so much. We were working on a strictly cash basis so I bought him a $1 Hardy Boys mystery and an old copy of Alice in Wonderland for Cory. The kids loved the city, saying it wasn't too big like Boston nor too small like Sutton. We returned to the hotel and spent a relaxing two hours at the indoor pool before turning in.

Canton Cup: 10.30.10

2010-11-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Writing this race report is going to be the highlight of my day. Pretty exciting huh? Aspire to be a middle-aged (omg), middle class, middle manager with kids in ~~middle~~ elementary school... I dare ya! Everything about me is defined by mediocrity, so lets got to another average race report. I bet you'll give it a B.

Somehow I missed Canton last year. I recall that our friend Terry was in town that weekend as we all went up to Putney which was the day after. Canton is a good race with nice long laps and lots of pavement. Yay! It also has three sets of barriers, a log, a run up (see below) and lots of wind. Boo!

I slept like horse cr@p Thursday night, two nights before the race. Bad sign. The sleep you get two nights out from an athletic event is always the most important. Friday night was better but not great. My expectations were low for a good performance.

Wrangling a family into the car for these things should be it's own competition. Lunches, coats, gloves, snacks for the ride, toys, wheels, bikes, crayons, water, shoes, helmets... some one's got to keep track of it all. We always forget something.

Prior to the start I had this conversation with Peter Sullivan:

PS: Have you seen that log?
Me: yup
PS: Should I hop it?
Me: If you're asking, the answer is no.
PS: Are you going to hop it?
Me: yup, but I don't think you should if you're not sure.... (pause) Hey! You could try blasting right through it though, the right hand side looked rotted out a bit. You'll be fine!

We both got a lousy start, swarmed by the charging mass. I found myself behind a few dudes who could. not. race. bicycles. Thankfully they were so bad I got past rather quickly. It's hardest to pass someone who isn't good but thinks that they are. They may be alright, or not too bad, but in a strong-enough-to-be-dangerous kind of way. Anyway, these fellas at Canton sucked and must have known it because they didn't make it difficult to go around. Sucked is a relative expression here of course. I realize that I suck too. Just not as much as these guys did. When compared to me. They sucked.

Peter came around after a few turns and tried to get by an MRC rider who decided to defend his position. They almost killed each other as spokes and derailleurs came together to hang out. Peter had to slow to fix a dropped chain I think, and off we went.

In the field I couldn't help but notice a very low flying helicopter that seemed to be rather interested in our race. Had to be Domnarski. Any lower and the wash from the rotors would have blown up stuff. That aircraft has a super nice camera, and he took a sweet photo of the group right ahead of me.

For a lap I worked around the guys in the low teens and found myself around 10th. I got past Wade Summers and Doug Kennedy and set my sights on Mike Rowell, who was fading back to me. Somewhere during lap two I noticed the Peter Sullivan was no longer behind us. I caught Mike at the end of two laps and we got the two to go card. I was feeling just fine and was hoping to work with Mike to catch the group in that photo.

Half way through lap 3 I saw Peter on the side of the course right after the log. He can't recall what happened and no one saw it. So the official story is that he tried to hop the log, not smash through it like I had suggested.

Approaching the track I offered to take the lead from Mike and he agreed. We were pulling Pete Smith in quickly. Here's the run up... ... and here's us getting ready to connect with Pete.

Approaching the start finish I tell Mike "let's go! let's go!" just as the head official steps out onto the road, holds up two fingers and says "you got two more laps, not one... two." Ok then "alright Mike let's back it down a bit."

I laid it down a few turns later in the field and Mike and Pete rode away from me. Peter faded from Mike's wheel and I was about to catch him at the bell when I tripped over the barriers near the pit in front of the entire next race. Awesome! Cemented in my spot, I took the last lap off and rolled in 10th.

The kids made friends with a fellow master's kids, which is a promising development. I feel like they were on a first date and everything went well. Hoping that we'll just "bump" into them at Noho. The prospect of having something to do other than watch me ride my bike around in circles for an hour is equally appealing to them I'm sure.

GeWilli was giggling like a little school girl at the registration tent. Why? He had ~~cornered~~ found JONNY BOLD and was (undoubtedly) talking his ear off. GW showed me the pint glass that he had Jonny sign for him. Christ... Next time you should see if he'll sign your knee pads. Have some self respect man. Jonny... please... be careful with his heart!

MRC/cxracing.com: 10.17.10

2010-10-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

Providence Day 2: 10.10.10

2010-10-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

The hardest part of doing 5 races in 9 days is keeping up with the race reports.

Providence Day 2 saw a bit of course redesign from the grand master of course redesign, Tom Stevens. Now Tom may not be the most PR savvy race promoter going, but the old dog can design one hell of a circuit. No one does it better. That man has an extra chromosome or a special gene for laying out a cross course. I wonder what his parents did for a living... undoubetdly something that involved using a French Curve.

ahem... anyway, so we've established that Tom's a course design phenom, but the challenge of placing 3 lanes of course across a 30' wide section of curbing proved to be too much to overcome, and several accidents resulted. The worst of it was a gradual right hand bend that got narrower and narrower and then suddenly turned sharply to the right just where dirt turned to gravel and met an asphalt curbing. Iron crowd control fencing to the left ensured that any mistakes made there wouldn't just result in a crash, but in grade A carnage. Rider after rider over-cooked the turn, lost traction on the gravel, and collected the fencing while more people gathered to provide a human bucket brigade of concern. And in what has to be the irony or ironies, Tom Stevens himself lost it on that corner half way through his race, eating much fencing and pavement in the process. That's a pisser, eh?

Tom was alright and spotted later on running the show.

With newly provided valvue extenders installed, my anticipation was high at the start. Third of fourth row, who cares really, the right side opened up and I moved forward in the field. Off the pavement in about 20th place, the race was pretty strung out already. My dad was there, he works in retail and rarely gets weekends off but had made some arrangements to come to RoJo's to spectate. That was great. I mention him because he was giving me reliable placing and split imformation throughout. Thanks Pop!

Half way through lap 1 I was at the back of that front group that always opens up that first little gap on the rest of the field, and it was coming easy. Someone (not my dad) said "top 20" and I knew right then I wouldn't finish worse than that on this day.

The Sunday course featured a lot of "driving" and less "pedalling," or at least there was sufficient curvy sections where one could catch a bit of rest. Aside from the sketchy right hander of death, the course flowed for me really nicely, and the power sections were short and punchy, perfect for this ex-hockey player who prefers a 60/40 power to coasting ratio. 50/50 is good to.

While picking up a spot here and there I happened to ride up to John Foley, super smooth mtbiker guy yadda yadda you know the drill. Shamelessly, I latched onto John's wheel and followed it for three solid laps, only going to the front once before realizing that I was slowing us both down. He needed me far less than I did him. John took us up and past Peter Sullivan (who was clearly not feeling it) and pulled us away from Harry Stover and Brian Rutter.

The Foley express made contact with 45+ stud John Mosher at just under two to go. Foley apparently thought that "racing" meant "going hard" "all the time" while I felt "content" to "continue to suck wheel," even if that wheel was now Mosher's and not Foley's. So I watched Foley ride away from a comfy spot behind my new fiend Mosher for a lap or so, then decided that I should start taking $hit seriously and figure out how to beat the new John to the line.

Throughout the race Dad's saying "you're 15th... 14 is 5 seconds ahead" and at this point he yells "hey Myette, get your a$$ in gear and ride!!!" It was great to hear him moving all around the course to cheer me on.

Irony alert! The last time my dad watched me race was at the 2006 Cross Nationals... in Providence... where I came to the line with... John Mosher! ISYN.

On that day (which was only worth 291 cr.com points, it is still one of my all time best perfromances IMHO) Mosher got the better of me for 4th place, in a sprint that was over before it started. This was going through my mind as we began the final lap. Foley was out of touch for 13th and 16th was far back as well so I thought about a plan...

Problem is that I was pretty gassed, and thinking wasn't coming clearly. I passed Mosher on the long power section before realizing that I was now going to have to be in the wind through the final 3 longer draft friendly sections. aww crap. Ok... now the plan would be to keep him behind me until the final climb, but try and rest between now and there so I could drill it afterwards and see what happened.

So I rode defensively (read "like a complete course hoggin a-hole") through the final time past the pit and soft pedaled up to the base of the climb. I'll be dipped in dog $hit but it worked: Mosher stayed behind my squirrelly-ness and I was just a bit rested when we got to the climb. I didn't go nuts up the hill either, it would have been hard and risky for a rider to come past on that part, so there would be no harm in going slow still. At the top I got on the gas as fast as possible and railed the turns, flew up the steps and drilled it back to the start/finish straight. Mosher was 4 lenghts back, but looked pretty beat and I stayed on the power to finish 14th.

Yay! a good race with great competion and no tyre problems. Life is a chair of bowlies.

Fina-effin-ly got through a race with no mechanicals and feeling good.

Providence Day 1: 10.9.10

2010-10-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Playing catch up here...

After the embarrasment that was my mechanical situation at Night Weasels, I put in the sort of effort to get my gear ready that I should have 4 weeks ago. I taped and glued some previously loved file treads (I effin love file treads), shipped the tyres that I rolled at Sucker Brook to Tire Alert to get new base tape, and glued up a brand new pair of Fangos using copious amounts of glue.

I've got this tendancy to try and use things up before I replace them, not wanting to start in on the replacement item until I was sure that the old stuff was spent. This kept me on the fence for a two weeks about what to do with with those rolled tyres... I knew they needed base tape and didn't want to tap into the new ones just yet, but it was going to take time to get those back from Florida... Finally I just decided to move on to the new tubbies and hold the old ones as back up.

One problem with the file treads: the stumpy little valve barely stuck through the rim, too short to get a pump on. I needed valve extenders and actually stopped at the LBS on the way home from the Weasel to pick some up.

All pumped up (pun!) about rolling tubbies again I staged in the 3rd row based on my non-existant VERGE points in this non-VERGE race. Huh? (Side note - PVD is a great course but the poor PR job that they do will be it's downfall) At the gun, I notice that the rear wheel is soft with the first pedal stroke. Ya gotta be kiddin' me...

After two turns it was almost completely flat. I called for friend John Menard (over the course tape thing by now) to grab my wheel in the pit, and I continued past. In hindsight, I should have ducked in a half lap into the race, but that's how Night Weasels went down, and just wanted to race a bit. Brant actually said he was sorry that this kept happening to me. What a pal.

After 3/4 of a lap I pitted and got a quick change to get back into the action but this time I was DFL. Working back up through the field I caught G-Ride at the start of lap 3, pulled him along for 3 turns, then realized that he had stacked it up before we reached the beer garden. I caught Brant who had flatted as well, and saw Bill Shattuck and Keith Gauvin walking their bikes too. The course was unusually unkind this day.

I saw JT Ferraro and Wade Summers in the group ahead, but they were racing eachother and I was just time trialing. Translation: the gap was coming down until one to go, when the extra motivation to win the group kicks in and they began to pull away. I rolled in for 25th and another bad day - results wise.

There was a bouncy tent thing... the kids loved that.

Apres race I saw that the POS valve extender I got at Trek Stop had been knocked cock-eyed and let all the air out. Not sure if it happened as the pump was coming off it or it just got bumped, but the thing wasn't going to cut it. Fortunately Ge Willi had some proper extenders and he hooked me up for day 2.

Night Weasels: 10.6.10

2010-10-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

I recognized that getting throug Gloucester weekend on clincher tyres (cool way of writing tires.... look for colour coming up) was just dumb luck.

My luck would run out at Night Weasels.

This mid-week event is a sister race to the Ice Weasels, two races organized by internet inventor and defacto USAC rankings coordinator Colin. Being on a weeknight (and perhaps more importantly being a Weasels event) guaranteed a "younger" crowd and pulling into the parking lot confirmed those suspicions. Lots of small cars and body art, not to many grey hairs.

The challenge of evening races in October of course is the availablity of light, but Colin along with fellow race promoters Chip and Linnea (no linky... she's got to live with Reuter, that's enough second hand technology exposure) semi-correctly identified Ski Ward in Shrewsbury MA as an appropriate illuminated venue. True, Ski Ward does have lights for night skiing, but without the reflective qualities of a nice base of white snow, the modest lighting at Ski Ward struggled to reach all corners of the course. It wasn't picth black, but there were definately parts of the course that required more reliance on faith and feel than vision. This isn't a knock on the venue feeling your way around the course introduced an element of suprise and excitement that would have otherwise been absent.

Being a working dude I couldn't stay for the last race of the night and had to sandbag the 3 race. Start/number order was determined by crossresults.com points, so despite poor performances in two of the first three races of the year, the points I got from racing some of the best Master's in the country towards the end of last year earned me the top spot in the field. No pressure or anything.

At the whistle the photags along the starting straight are snapping photos, blinding us in the process. Through three turns I was 3rd or 4th, then the climbing started. Ski Ward is no great mountain, but riding up anything that has been deemed appropriate for anyone to ski down is a challenge for this flatlander. I slogged up the slope, losing a spot or two but watching many others struggle with me. My superior bike handling skills would allow me to make up these spots on the descent, right?

Yup... the slick corners and messy parcours were just the trick to get me back up to third wheel, and approaching the pit I was railing the corners, really leaning into the turns as my sweet tubulars were providing just enough give to keep me hooked up.

That's when I realized that I wasn't running tubulars... and that "give" was my rear wheel going flat a half lap into the race.

Into the pits and the disgust was high... palpable even. With no urgency I asked for a wheel and was told there was none. Sounded good to me. Then a happy Pedro's dude (I hate to say it... not sure why that is... but Pedro's has really stepped it up this year, if not in actual support activity but certainly in visibility) declared that he had a wheel for me. Great, semi-quick change and I'm back (literally) into the field.

I spent time behind teammate John Menard, then dispatched him into the tape. He wasn't thrilled with that move and apparently he wanted a kiss on the cheek first, maybe next time.... or just htfu. One of those two.

Just kidding John!

The rest of the race was spent clawing back through the field, I passed a ton of guys because there was a lot of lapped traffic. There was abrand new set of FMBs awaiting the 13th place finisher, and I figured I was close. The course got easier as it got darker, the sometime confusing dusk light let the venue's lanterns do their thing. The climbing got easier as well, the rain had stopped and the course firmed up a good bit. Most everyone was wearing the same kit by the end of the race: a red, yellow or blue on one side and a nice brown colour down the other (from crashing you see) however I managed to keep it upright the entire race.

I came in 14th and missed the tires by 6 seconds. Arghh!!!

Great scene there at Ski Ward. I wonder if the owner knew what it would be like to have 250 pbr drinking bike racers descend on his place.

Up next: Providence. Sneak peak: tire problems continue and finally a good day.

Gloucester Weekend: 10.2 & 10.3.10

2010-10-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

Two fer one here, as I am pathetically behind in race reports. Let's get right to it....

I'm so busy/indeisive these days that after rolling a tubular at SBC I arrived at Gloucester with 4 sets of tubular wheels and 8 tubular tires.... all sitting in my basement. Fortunately, tires issues did not factor into the racing Glouceseter weekend, but it would have been nice to just ride and not worry constantly about flatting the one set of clinchers that I brought with me.

Note to self: move "skake down the cross rig" up the calendar about 4 weeks for 2011.

Day 1: Got in a decent warmup and began to circle the course as they called us to staging. Starting position is so important that Gloucester adopted crossresults.com points to stage all non-UCI (read amateur) racers. It is clearly the most accurate ranking system on the planet, right guys? As I'm approaching the staging area, what I hear and what I see are not computing. My ears hear "second call to staging" but right in front of me I can see that there is already 6 rows full of racers. Wait for me! Wait for me!!!

Shit! cr.com points had me about 24th... 3rd row... and by the time I got there I was in the 7th row! While the rankings are super fair, they used to be just for fun. Now that big races are staging by them, it's effin stressful. I suck bad enough and don't need any help cementing my mediocrity.

So after suffering with cold sweats for 5 minutes the whistle goes and I make a JAILBREAK move up the left hand side and into the first right hander. A bit of bumping and some extra confidence and two turns later I'm right about up to where I was supposed to be. Sweet! It always works itself out you see.

Then the real racing starts, and I start getting passed left and right. I see Peter Sullivan, Sheldon Miller and Jon Bernard coming. Awesome! These are the guys I raced with or in front of last year! I'll just stick with them! Right! right? They rode through me like shit through a goose. I finally settled in with Aaron Millette and Don Snoop, both of whom are super smooth and really showed me some great lines around the technical Day 1 course. I didn't feel great until the last two laps, but still didn't have enough to shut down any gaps and rolled in 25th.

Day 2: Uphill start on day 2 and I was blocked from the gun. I couldn't move my legs for the life of me. Every pedal stroke hurt... not was hard, but actually hurt... for the first three laps. I lost 4 spots everytime through the start finish hill on those first three laps, there was no where to hide as the wind was right in our face. Finally with 2 to go the pain went away, but the damage was done. I got away from Brant Hornberger but couldn't bring back Kevin Buckley and finished 37th. The results are packed with guys I've never heard of before, all of whom seem to be riding up in the top 20. The effect of this influx of talent is that I'm getting pushed down in the placing.

It sucks getting old.

The tailgating was some of the best to date and Charlie did great in the kids race, racing up in the 9-10 field despite being 8 yrs old. I'm not one of those psycho loser parents who brags that his kid can wipe his fanny 2 days before the average kid can - well, sure I am - but my point with putting him in the older age group is that I kind of wanted him to feel that he could still have fun when there was no chance he could win... just like I do every race. Anyway, afterwards he told me that the best part of the race was the beginning, where all the kids were racing towards that first turn and they were bumping into eachother. Gotta love that.

Sucker Brook: 9.26.10

2010-10-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

Gloucester has already happened, and I will take a break from composing that masterpeice of a race report to post about my first race of the season at SBC.

I'm beginning to wonder if it ever rains in Auburn NH. SBC is always the dryest course on the schedule, and this year was no exception. Riding across that field and the formerly wooded jeep trail was like being in the front seat of a Conastoga Wagon hurtling across the plains and praries of the ol' West. Save the buffalo and the siloutte of two socks on the horizon, it was like being on the set of Dances with Wolves.

I had just finished glueing up some tubular tires the week before the race, and was nervously searching for Jerry before the start to see if he had some pedals I could buy. Mine were not doing such a good job of holding my feet in you see. With 5 minutes to spare I bought and installed some used Time ATACs and headed to the start, where 50+ master's racers were already staged. Yay!

There was a split between the 35s and 45s, so I was only 3rd row, but would have rather been further up. The first lap was uneventful, I tried not to race too hard, but damn if my heart rate wasn't pegged about 20 seconds into it. Backing off just 5% will shoot your a$$ straight out the back. You can throttle down maybe 2% and still maintain contact, but you have to be smooth and perfect in everyspot on the course if you're going to pull that off. At least that's how it is for me.

Beginning with lap two I joined my old pal Brant H and we once again tried to hook up the two man time trial. Matt Theodore caught us half way through that lap, and in actuality I thought that we hadn't been going hard enough.

I'm pretty sure that I have forgotten how to suffer. Not so much in the race: that is inevitable if you're going to be at all competetive.. but more in training. If you're not willing to really get into the hurt during training, the maximun race effort isn't going to be that great.

So after playing grab-a$$ for a lap Theodore joins us and promptly rides straight through. Brant and I know enough about racing to jump on that wheel and ride it as far as possible, and Matt dragged us up to Paul Curly, which was nice. We spent a half lap trading pulls with Paul when I rolled my rear tubular remounting on the off-camber section after the sand pit. Balls.

After flailing with that for a bit I got it back on and rode to the pit for the spare. I rejoined the circus about 13 spots behind where I had been (Curly ended up 9th) and fought out the rest of the race with Wayne Cunningham and some other guy that I ended up gapping in the sand on the last lap.

It was a good start to the season though I should have taken the DNF as my crossresults.com points are not totally effed.

Gloucester next. Preview: I definately have forgotten how to train for cyclocross.

Treasure Valley Rally: 8.29.10

2010-09-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

I bought a mtb license this year to force myself to race more. The plan to do 8 events slowly eroded down to three, and I really had to force myself to get to that third one: the Treasure Valley Rally in Rutland Ma.

This course was technical to put it mildly. It was basically two loops of a 9 mile rock garden with a killer one mile climb about 7 miles into the loop. Attendance was up from last year, so either the amnesia is contagious or people actually like riding on trails that the average Burger King eating American would have a hard time walking.

I'm a Veteran II according to EFTA, whatever that means. Pre-race Mr. Kenny had the neutral support thing covered and many of the cross regulars were there... McInnis, Borello, Hines, Reuter, Zank, Rowell, Millette and so on. One of the mtb'ers made a comment about this being the last race of the season and we all chucked... "this is the pre-season buddy!" someone said. Indeed.

At the whistle I settled in the back and began the death march. My HR was in th 170s in no time and we were just barely moving along. The course was relentless, tons of rocks, off camber, and tricky pick-your-way-through parts. Looking for flow? Look elsewhere.

I followed McInnis and Borrello half way through lap one, and when they pulled to the side to get some water I took the front. I didn't intend to get a gap... I had been well above threshold for over 30 minutes and I knew I couldn't hold that for much longer.... but after a short downhill I was alone.

That's really the story of mtb racing: riding alone with no clue where you were in the field. I caught up to K. Buckley towards the end of the lap, but he pulled away shortly after the S/F line. Just over an hour for the first lap... not too bad really.

Next up was Linnea, who before the race said "see you soon" to me, thinking I'd catch her eventually. She was right and when I saw I was gaining I yelled "I'm coming to get ya" and then couldn't close the final 10 meters for the next 15 minutes. I did get past eventually, but only on a spot that she bobbled and I was able to keep riding.

So back to chasking Buckley when I come upon a neighbor of mine who asks if he can use my pump. I drop it thinking that what could possibly happen in the next 3 miles, and if it did, he'd catch me and give the pump back. Great plan, right?

I caught Buckley on that same downhill I had gapped the guys on the first lap. He promptly endoed and I got past, setting my sights on Millette, who was just ahead at this point. Up the killer climb the second and final time and just as I start the descent the rear wheel goes flat. I start the change and wait for my pump. Buckley goes past. Still no neighbor. Linnea next. Then McInnins. Borrello. A bunch of other guys I had passed at the beginning of lap one. It occurs to me that I should at least start to walk.

15 minutes later I reach a clearing and there is my neighbor chatting to a volunteer, clearly out of the race. I was a bit miffed... you take a guys gear you should make the attempt to continue on in the event that they need it. Anyway, filled with air I was off to finish the final mile or so. Second lap was 1:17 or so.

Went for a quick dip in the lake with the kids after the race, which was great. I'm not sure that I'll be back for the 2011 edition, but it was a decent warm up for cross.

Hodges Village: 8.1.10

2010-08-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to squeeze in a rest week for about a month now. It didn't happen during the trip to Puerto Rico: I ate so much bad food I had to ride hard to work it off. Still managed to gain 4 lbs.

So last week worked out well for rest... circumstance had it so that I wasn't able to ride except for Wednesday, when I went hunting for dirt roads with Zank and Mark B. The only thing we found were flat tires... 4 of them... all courtesy of Mr. Z. I've never seen 4 flats in 17 miles of riding until now.

Sunday was my anniversary, 13 years of marital bliss. We celebrated Saturday night with dinner out. The chicken was over cooked, the restaurant was noisy and the ravioli was rubbery but it was awesome because we never go out. This was our first dinner out without the kids in exactly one year.

In discussing what we could do Sunday I casually threw out the bike race that was in the next town as an option, and after some consideration, I got the green light! She just up and told me to go. Sweet!!

Still a licensed Cat 3, I hurried over to catch the Cat 1 field, which they let me in w/o a problem. (What do we have the USCF for again?) I lined up second row with 15 other guys, none of whom I knew except Kurt Perham, a guy who regularly kicks my ass in cross. I had no warm up at all, and at the gun I'm DFL and gulping down dust by the mouthful. Perham is at the front, where I expected him to be.

Into the woods and a few guys were clearly not going to be able to keep this up, least of all me. I got by a few on the long, bumpy, dusty as hell climb and welcomed the sight of the first descent, but was not expecting the dried-up waterfall that we dropped down. Kurt... well... he's a powerful guy and all... but not the most technically strong dude on an mtb.... he was shuffling down the hill. We rode together for a little while but I had no problem dispatching him in anything that wasn't pure pedaling. I know what it's like to ride trails that you don't feel fast on so I can relate. It must have sucked!

Out to the first real clearing and within 30 seconds he's back with me, laying down some serious power on the flat out sections. We kinda-sorta traded pulls, me leading on the technical parts (and dropping him) and he leading on the flats (and dropping me). Team work!!

These mountain bike races are long... and this one was advertised to be 22 miles over 4 laps. The first lap was 6.5 miles. Do the math, that's a 26 mile race. Some may be pleased that they paid for a 22 mile races and got 4 miles for free, however I was not. It was a hot dusty death march and I wondered aloud what the hell I was doing.

There are other fields racing at the same time in this form of cycling, so I had no clue where I was in my category. A few guys were around for a lap or two and then fell back. Others came through. Some women mixed in. Still others on the side of the trails with mechanical problems. Really had no idea how my race was going other than that I was still close to Kurt.

At the start of the third lap, my garmin fell off my handlebars. I thought about going back, because while I wasn't sure where I was in the race I was positive I wasn't leading it and that even if I was there wasn't going to be enough prize money to cover my lost technology. I commiserated with my fellow racers and one guy said "I saw it fall off going down that hill." There was hope, and I decided to check next time around.

Throughout that third lap I was consumed with having lost the Garmin: imagining it crushed on the course, wondering which model I should replace it with, and sick about how much it was going to cost for something that was just in my possession 2 minutes ago!!!! Why hadn't I gone back for it? Didn't want to seem bothered by loosing a $300 watch? Pros would keep going (I think) so I hoped for the best and kept up the pace to get back to the hill asap.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that a good deal of my motivation at that point came from trying to keep up with and perhaps defeat Mr. Perham. He's really that much better than me, and though this clearly wasn't his forte I was hoping to get into his head with a win. HA! Coming through the Start/Finish for the last lap he declared that he was done and pulled off the course. Whaa? I was pretty smoked but had to keep going to check on the Garmin and finish the race. With no carrot to chase and a good 30 min since the Garmin dropped, I lost all motivation to live.. er.. race hard any more. I was blown and my mind was out completely out of it.

It took a while, but I managed to get to the hill and asked a few bystanders if they found a Garmin. "Yeah, they took it to registration" Effin yeah!!!! I was further told that it looked to be fine. Woot!!! This lifted my spirits, but not my pace. I was still noodling along, just running around the course and getting passed by just about everyone. Men, women, and children all had their way with me, but I encouraged each of them on because I thought I was still holding my place. This race... much like this report... had gone on long enough.

Nearing the last hill about 30 minutes into the last lap (only 3/4 of the way around... earlier laps were taking 30 minutes to complete in their entirety), I saw a guy who I had left on lap one. He was an NEBC rider who turned out to be a good guy and friend of the Rowells. I recognized this dude from earlier in the day and decided that I should try and hold him off. He was on me in no time flat, and past shortly thereafter. I tried to keep him in sight but couldn't, and only got back close to him on a flowy descent towards the end of the loop. The 30 minutes of non-racing was a pretty long break, so I flew down the hill and attacked on a short dirt road rise before the last section of trail. I got a gap and drilled it last-lap-of-a-cyclocross-race-style to hold him off for ...6th place? How the hell do you ride that slow for a full 25% of a race and manage to get 6th?

Later I discovered that one guy I let pass probably 10 minutes into that final lap was in my field, and he got 4th! So had I just managed to keep pace and stay in front of him I would have taken 3rd?! Maybe? Listen, I'm not saying that I could have stayed in front of him, I was DONE, but had I been able to, well, who knows. I guess things were going pretty well for those first three laps afterall.

It was fun, but I'm looking forward to cross season and races that are 1/3 as long as that one.

Snake Hill Loop by myette10 at Garmin Connect - Details

2010-07-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Snake Hill Loop by myette10 at Garmin Connect - Details

Lakehouse

2010-06-29T16:09:00.001-07:00

I'm struggling to find a reason not to get serious about this.

Purgatory Race Report

2010-06-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, at least I was right about one thing:

The bass boats were out in full effect.

Also - my diatribe about CMass having some great riding still holds.

But I was wrong where it counted. I totally mis-read how the racing would unfold... specifically how the hills would play into the effort required to stay in touch with the lead group. Based on at least one other race report, all of the races basically the same way mine did.
Not that I'm complaining mind you, the differnce between what I thought would happen and what did happen allowed me to stay with the lead group for the entire race, so I'm pleased with that.

Here's the report...

After what appeared to be a truly neutral start, we turned left onto Mendon Rd. to climb what I thought would be the hardest hill of the day. First ascent was pretty managable, but we had just started, so I wasn't getting too excited by the relatively easy pace. Plunging down Mendon Rd. I took the opportunity to get to the front and have some fun. I also wanted to go by the house at the front of the field, I knew the kids would get a kick out of that. I know that descent like the back of my hand, and while I may have drifted over the would-be yellow line in my search of the straightest and fastest way to the bottom, I always ride that hill like that, so I can't control it or be held responsible really. Can I? The road was also designated temporarily one way for the race, so I thought it was cool.

Maybe not.

My falcon-like descending skills got me a bit of a gap, 20 seconds or so, and 3 others were with me. They wanted to come through, but I waved them off as we turned onto Barnett so I could be at the front. I heard a few grunts and groans from my escape mates, but sorry. Did they really expect to go clear at 4 mi of a 52 mile race... because I sure didn't.

The kids loved seeing me come by first, so the effort was worth it, but I promptly went to the back of the group and began skipping turns, which generated additional groans and one snide "c'mon Matt, take your pull!" from racing pal Harry Stover. I got back in the line, but it was all for naught, we were swept up at the end of Whitins road just 3 miles along. No surprise there.

The gentle hill on Manchaug Rd, which I though would we would be riding at nuclear pace, was also tame, guys were rolling it like a group ride and I even moved up through the field a bit. We turned onto Lackey and things got very hot. The climbers attacked at the bottom while more power guys like me were best served setting a hard but sustainable pace. In the middle, the climbers slowed and I kept the effort up, limiting my losses. The top of the hill kicked again, and I got gapped when another rider couldn't hold the wheel in front of me. With one last effort I stayed close enough to get back on to the lead group through the start finish stretch, which was super fast.

We turned onto Mendon Rd. to start lap 2 and again rode that hill at an easy pace. It became clear at that moment what was happening andhow I had been so wrong about this course. There was no sense going hard anywhere but on Lackey Rd. because that was the only climb long enough to really cause permanent damage. The Mendon Rd. hill was followed by a 2 mile down hill, anyone popped off there could easily get back on. The Manchaug Rd. hill was too close to Lackey, so guys rode it easy because everyone was saving their legs for the big hill. This wasn't a climbers course - it was more like a classics course where non-climbers could justify a big effort on the hill to stay with the field then enjoy 9 miles of rest before doing it all over again.

Despite the fact that the race I was expecting was different than the race I was in, I still wasn't sure I could hang on for 5 laps. Going up Lackey once every 20 minutes to make it happen seemed possible. Lap two was uneventful, but I was surprised how timid the field was on the descent. Without pedalling I was able to slide right up to the front going down that hill every lap, passing guys who looked to be turning over a pretty big gear. It pays to be fat.*

Up the hill at the conclusion of lap two the attacks were ferocious. Good friend Mike Rowell marked Bill Yabrody and Jonny Bold of all people.... good for him. Mike is a pure bike racer and is not intimidated by anyone in any race, unlike me. The acceleration did create a split in the group, and my sag climbing technique (start the climb at the front hoping that as the good riders pass you you are still in the group over the top, albeit at the back) planted me firmly with... the chasers. The front bunch looked strong, consisted of all of the heads of state, and was starting to pull away a bit on Mendon Rd. I had been waiting for this to happen so that the rest of us could just race our own pace, but knowing I only had to bury myself on one hill per lap I wanted to get back up there and see how long I could hang on. I saw my pal and former/current cyclonauts team-mate Keith Gauvin in the chase group as well. I had committed to riding for him that day and when he rolled to the front to take up the chase I moved past, told him to get on my wheel, and took off down Mendon for the third time. We made it about 1/2 way across the 30 second gap before we hit the bottom, and I got on the gas to deliver him as close as possible at the turn onto Barnett. He came around and made the bridge while I sat up and waited for the field behind me. As soon as Keith integrated with the front group they slowed, and we were all together before turning onto Whitin. Can you say "wasted effort?" Between that and the first lap charge to my driveway I was riding way too hard too early.

The next lap and a half were again uneventful, the Lackey climb was hard but a steady effort at the bottom, some hard thrashing at the top, and a proper chase to get back on through the finish line had me in the final group of 25 or so guys at the bell. I did feel a bit of leg cramping coming on with one to go. Throughout the race there had been small efforts off the front but there was only one guy ahead by about 35 seconds at this point. I never see those things go, I think you have to be riding at the front of the field for that. I chatted with all around good guy Kevin Hines a bit and tried to ID the rider currently off the front. Seemed no one knew who it was.

Speaking of riding at the front, Mike Rowell was animating the entire race and never was further back than 5th or 6th wheel. On Whitins Rd. for the final time, with the field posturing a bit to see who was going to chase down the leader & I heard Mike say "f*&$ it, I'll go" and take off up the right side. I promptly jumped into the slipstream created by his effort and hid from the wind like a frightened child. Mike's a strong racer.

The final time on Manchaug saw a bit higher pace, but nothing killer, and by the top of that rise we were still all together. Turning onto Lackey for the final time I went just a bit harder but followed the same basic strategy: stay close, keep it steady when others slow down, then let it all out to get over the top. I was at the back of the lead group of 20 or so, and held their pace to the half way point on the hill. The second half acceleration came and I considered going with it but knew that I was risking a cramp as I felt that familiar twinge again. Looking back there wasn't many guys behind me and those that were there weren't that close. I decided to let the field roll away, keep a steady pace, and concede the time but try to maintain my spot. The field sprinted it out for 2nd about 25 seconds in front of me. I pulled hard to the line and a few guys caught and passed me, but Brian Haas was cool about it: he sat on while I busted to the line and let me roll through ahead of him.

Generous scoring had me finishing "st" (same time) as the group in 24th. I'll take the placing, but there was a huge gap ahead of me. Thanks JD!

Also - the same clowns who bring you crossresults.com have a road-results.com site that may actually have some cooler features. The race predictor there calculated that I would finish... 24th. Amazing.

After my race I rode three laps with Mr. Kenny in the SRAM volvo. Here are some shots:

Chris Bailey getting thrashed

This guy... I don't know what to say.

*sometimes. more specifically in this race, half the time.

Oh... and one more thing.

2010-06-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

This here blog is no high-frequency site like others out there but it was interesting to see how much traffic the prior post generated.

I've got one more PRO tip for anyone racing Purgatory tomorrow that happens across this post. It's a safety concern and I'd feel awful bad if someone got hurt if I didn't post these pictures.

I mentioned before that Barnett Rd. is flat for about one kilometer and then it descends before you hit what I called "Hill #1." That little descent is narrow, fast, and nearly totally blind. A Cat 4 field with 100 riders in it is not going to resist the urge to take up the entire road here.

Here's what it looks like.

Look again... notice the car lurking around the corner?

This is 10 meters further down the road and you are suddenly 20 meters from a car taking up about half of the road way.

This sexy little 1996 Corolla Wagon is my ride of choice, and since I was also taking photos I had to park it to show this section. It is therefore not moving, but still sneaks up on the unsuspecting rider. Now imagine it's race day (tomorrow) a instead of this little love machine a big pick up truck towing a bass boat is coming through this part just as your field gets there...

I'm just saying, please watch out.

Purgatory Road Race Recon: blog form

2010-06-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Why the Southern Worcester County recreational landscape is dominated by bass fishing and country music has escaped me for all of the 12 years that I have called this place home. I like skewering a slimy worm onto a hook and throwing it into the water in hopes of enticing an equally slimy fish to consume it so that I may hoist it clear of it's sub-marine home as much as the next guy, but the number of bass boats per capita in this area is bizarre. And country music. Isn't this the same state that legalized same-sex marriage, kept Ted Kennedy in office for a few generations and counts Amherst, Northampton and Cambridge amongst it's townships? Country music seems so... I don't know... red state? Is that wrong to say? I've been around the rest of our Commonwealth and am comforted by the fact that these interests don't seem as pervasive in other areas, but you never really know until you live somewhere I guess. The bass boats are on the water by 5:00 am and the locals don't play the music out doors so it doesn't affect me that much.

I blame Webster.

What this area should be best known for is some of the best cycling in New England. Maybe it is because everyone's too busy cleaning out their livewells to get on a damn bike and go for a ride, but as an avid cyclist living in the area I can assure you that this place has got it all if you fancy two wheel (non-motorized) endeavors. Let's break is down by category, starting with my favorite...

Cyclocross: New England is a hot bed for cyclocross, and if you were to plot all of the cross races in the area you'd be hard pressed to find a more central, convenient, and affordable place to live than Worcester County. Plus Mikey Zanconato builds the best cross bikes in the world right here. 'nuff said.

Road: The roads in this area are great: light traffic, not a lot of development or city centers, very few stop lights, beautiful forests and lakes, and generally courteous drivers. From here you can go north and west to do some climbing or head south and east to ride the flats. The RI shoreline is easily within reach from southern Worcester County.

Mountain: There are three trail systems in Sutton alone and a half dozen others within a 15 minute drive. One in my back yard. Team BUMS has built many of these and those guys know how to build trails. Don't believe me? Just ask Colin.

Triathlon: Honestly, this isn't really even cycling now, is it... so let's stop here. But if you must know, there are probably more serious triathletes in these parts than serious roadies. Now that is a cry for help!

I'm not the only one to recognize this area as the cycling mecca that it should be, the guys at Green Line Velo see the light as well, and are hosting a road race in Sutton this weekend as their way of celebrating that fact. The course map (below) shows a neutral start rolling south from our public school compound (we just approved a new $60 million dollar high school... how liberal is that?!) and dropping the riders off onto Mendon Rd where the real fun begins. I live on the course so the elevation chart starts about 4 miles into the loop. Racers will travel just under a kilometer before hitting the first hard hill on Mendon Rd, a short but steep incline that flattens out a bit half way up. This will be the hardest hill of the race in my opinion, but I'll get to that further down. Please, keep reading.

After cresting that hill, there is a bit of rolling terrain (two small ups) before the long 1.5 mile descent on Mendon Rd. Two years ago this road was nearly un-ridable, but more liberal capital project spending and a fresh coat of tar make this one of the best descents in the area, topping the popular but much busier Purgatory Chasm road running parallel and just to the north. Let 'er rip people... just watch out for the rogue car that may be heading up the hill. Course marshals are supposed to enforce the temporary one way traffic direction for Mendon Rd. on race day but the old Lincoln RI training crit was supposed to be marshaled as well, and we all know how that turned out.

At the bottom of the hill there is a bit of flat and then a right hand turn onto Barnett Rd, the street that I call home. There is always, always, ALWAYS, A!L!W!A!Y!S!!! sand on this turn so be careful. Always no matter what. Even when it gets swept. Just be careful here - please.
Barnett starts flat for a kilometer or so then drops before going up a short hill of moderate pitch. I've labeled this hill #1. With the rest that everyone will be enjoying on the descent, I don't foresee this hill as posing much of a problem, unless that rest inspires some nutbag to launch an attack, in which case this little hill will certainly hurt. It's over quickly though, and you'll be turning right again onto Whitins Rd. in no time.

Whitins Rd. is flat for just over a mile, then rises a tiny bit before descending and running out for another mile. Easy stuff here, especially in the pack.

You'll cross Putnam Hill Rd. (Zank's shop is in the mill building to the left before the intersection... drop in and say hi) and begin a long, shallow climb on Manchaug Rd, marked #2 on the map (green arrow shows start of climb, red the finish). This is one of those long, false flat climbs that will be made hard by the sheer speed of the field. It's not steep enough to cause a selection, so you'll try and hang on and will be quickly into the red. It gets steeper as it goes, which is always fun. The first of the three crowns.

Cresting the hill on Manchaug you'll descend along the Blanchard YMCA camp and along the rocky shores of Lake Manchaug, which will no doubt be loaded up with bass boats. They will stare so don't be afraid, that's just what they do. I'd say rest here, but it'll be over so quickly what's the point really.

The next turn will be right onto Lackey Rd. I avoid this road as much as possible. In fact, I'll be racing (riding) up it 5 times on Saturday which will probably double my total number of ascents of this hill, marked as #3 on the map. It's not that the hill is steep... it's that it isn't on my way to or from work and... ah - who's kidding who, I avoid it because it's steep. This is the finishing climb. It is most steep at the beginning, rising away from the lake quickly in the first 75 meters before settling down over the next 200 meters, though it never goes flat, that's for sure. It will level out again (but never go completely flat) for another 100 meters and then bend to the left, where it pitches up again for the final 250 meters at a grade about equal to the section right after the steepest part down towards the bottom. All distances are approximate of course. Once over the top there is a slight drop, then another gentle uphill to the finish of the lap (and later, the race).

Through the finish line you drop quickly down Putnam Hill and will take a high-speed right hand turn back on to Mendon where you'll come to that first hill I mentioned before: it is marked #4 on the map. This little guy looks tame but it comes at the end of the long Manchaug high speed hill, the steep Lackey Rd. climb, and an insufficient amount of rest from the Putnam Hill descent. The field will hit it at speed and it will smack everyone in the face. I've tried... many times... to power up this little hill, and I always blow up before I reach the top. Always! Unlike Lackey Rd, this one is on my way home and I've ridden it a lot, I think it is steeper and longer than it looks because you can't see the whole thing from one spot as it twists first left, then right and is heavily wooded. Enjoy.

So there you go... Come on out and play on the roads I get to ride each and every day. Good luck, be safe and try not to leave too jealous!

As for my race strategy, I'm expecting to go out the back somewhere during lap two or three, so the pressure is off and I can just roll home easily enough.

my daughter's father

2010-06-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago Cory got off the bus wearing a polka-dot skirt and matching pink shirt. This may not seem unusual, unless you knew for sure that she got on the bus that morning wearing a purple dress with white flowers on it. Kindergarten is an exciting place, but not somewhere you'd expect your 5 year old to come home from wearing someone else's clothes.

Halfway up the driveway and overcome with curiosity, the question had to be asked: "Cory, weren't you wearing a purple dress this morning?"

She answered matter of factly: "Yes I was. I had this (she tugs at the hem of her polka dot skirt) on underneath. The purple dress was my morning outfit, this was my afternoon outfit. I made sure I was wearing shoes that matched both. The purple dress is in my backpack."

Lord please help us... and send money.

some days you're the stick, others you're the ball

2010-06-01T07:12:00.001-07:00

I try not to get to excited about the early summer holidays... or any warm weather holidays for that matter... weather can be such a huge factor. It really doesn't affect the fall and winter holidays much, you're usually inside for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's anyway, but a rainy and/or cold Memorial or Labor day really is a downer.

This weekend was pretty nice, save some late night thunderstorms, and I got a lot donw around the house. I never just do house/yard work, there is always an alterior motive, and usually that motive is getting out on the bike. I don't know if Ali has figured this out yet so don't tell her.

Sunday I made plans to meet IronPerson Sara P. for a 20 mile mtn bike ride at the Domnarski Farm, home of next weekend's Root 66 mtb race. Sara decided last week to train for IMLP at the end of July (most people plan for this event at least a year in advance btw) so she needed to get 6 hours on the bike. We hatched a plan where I'd take her mountain bike out to Ware and she would ride her road bike to meet for a 7:30 am to start the course recon. Sara would drop the bike off "sometime Saturday" before or after she attended a wedding down on the Cape.

I went to bed Saturday night at 11:30 and the bike was still not dropped. I thought she was out, but should know better than to doubt her by now. When I woke up at 5:30 I couldn't believe that her effin' bike was out there in the driveway. Around that time she was leaving Worcester on the road to get to Ware working on probably 3 hours of sleep. Waaay tougher that I could ever hope to be.

If Domnarski's course was a cyclocross course, I'd have to label it Jungle Cross. The trails are only semi-maintained: there are plenty of sticks and small logs across the course and lots of branches that you have to duck under as you go along. There are 5 hard climbs, all of which are exponentially more difficult when it is wet (our first lap) than when it is dry (our second lap).

We tooled around the course for the first lap just to check it all out, and it was striking me as a very rough route with lots of places to slice a tire, rip off a derailleur or pinch flat. Following Matt D. around on his home course helped, he showed all the fast lines on the ups and downs, and our second lap started out a bit faster. Half way through we lost Sara when she missed a turn, so that more or less put an end to our riding though I ended up with 22 miles. Sara got back on the road bike and rode home. Here's her Garmin stats for the day. She's a monster.... in a good way.

Monday's memorial day plan was to take advantage of the good weather and ride point-to-point to my sister in law's in Tiverton RI. Rolling out the driveway I knew it was going to suck... I felt like complete garbage and the legs never came around. As bad as my legs were, my head was in a worse place. I was thinking about bailing out 7 miles in and this was a 60 mile ride. I tried to push things a bit to get the legs warmed up, but nothing helped. I've told Alison a million times to just push through when she wasn't feeling it so when I called 32 miles in declaring that "I'm fading fast" and asking "where are you" I didn't get the offer to pick me up that I wasn't going to ask for myself. I got nothing but encouragement back, like I always do for her. Great.

Anyone who has raced on the road knows that feeling that you have when you get spit out the back of a group and you are just waiting... no praying... for the field to come by and pick your sorry ass up. You're blown, you're legs can barely move, but you know that if you can just catch on to the field and sit in for a bit you'll feel 1000 times better. That's how I felt for the entire 3:20 minutes, and there was no field coming to bail me out. It was ugly.

I'm taking a few days off.

Quality over Quantity

2010-05-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

It may not look like much, but that right there is 32.5 miles of suffering on a mtn bike. By far the longest non-road ride of my life. This was supposed to be a 20 mile event but when Ms. Sara showed up wanting to do 5 hours I felt the need to help her out, even though most of the first half of the ride was junk (see below). She's directionally challenged and afraid of getting lost so I wanted to help her out. The ride was so long I was recalling earlier parts of it towards the end that seemed like they happened the week before.

If I don't see that bike again for a month I wouldn't be upset.

Why the "quality over quantity" title? This ride was long because we spent a good 90 minutes riding crappy go-nowhere, do-nothing jeep trails for no apparent reason than just to rack up the miles. Adding cr@ptastic logging roads on to some good quality trails doesn't enhance the ride: it detracts from it. I'd have rather done 15 miles of quality singletrack than wander around half lost in West Douglas just to get the ride to go longer. If you want to go out for 20+ miles without repeating trails in Central Mass you're going to have to invest in a road bike.

I'm cranky because my bum is sore.

Massasoit Lung Opener

2010-04-24T19:58:00.001-07:00

This was a tough week at work... my group is working on some new YTD reports and the pressure is on to get them right though we've never done them before. This was on my mindThursday night at 2 am and it kept me up until 5 or so. Normally not a big deal but every athlete knows that the most important night of sleep isn't the night before an event it's the one two nights before.

Yesterday things didn't get much better... but I did only work a half day - 12 hours. I got home and was giving strong consideration to skipping today's race altogether. But the wife encouraged me to go, recognizing that I needed an outlet after the strain of the workweek.

In the frenzy that was this week I forgot to renew my license which I wanted to do at work because I don't have a printer at home to print the permission to ride. Last night I drove to my folks to pick up the kids (they went with Gramma to the Pequot Indiam Museum) and asked to borrow her computer. No luck - they forgot to pay their bill and cable is out. They offered to loan the printer to me and I took it even though they couldn't find the "CD." For what? I asked "to install it" was the answer. Ha! Silly parents... you forget that we've got a Mac.. so it'll work.

After somehow failing to convince my father once again that the Apple product is superior we left and I decided to print the permission in the morning. Yeah - no power. I'm screwed! Just as my car pool buddy shows up the power is restored, I'm fully licensed and I've got the permission to race in hand. It'll be nice not having to scramble like this come cross season for a change.

So we get to the venue and reports roll in as follows:

"the course is fast."

"lots of roadies come here because it is so smooth."

"So-and-so just finished and averaged 10mpg... and he/she's not fast."

This was music to my ears. After a pathetic warm up I somehow missed the call ups and had to line up at the back of the sport 30-39 class... maybe 25 riders. My newly minted permission to race slip lists me as a Cat 3 on the mtn bike but this was a Cat 2 race. It was only my second mtn bike race ever so I figured I was in the right field and hoped that they didn't put me with the beginners. The 20-29s go off and two minutes later my field gets the whistle and we were racing. Leveraging (b-school talk) my cyclocross starting skills I moved up on the pavement starting straight and was 6th wheel into the woods. I was behind that tall MRC dude who rides that giant ANT cross bike. He's got a Seven mtn bike that is just as freakishly huge as the ANT.

Within 5 minutes I was in a group of 3 working on bringing back the leader that was 50 yards ahead, but one guy in our group kept screwing up... there wasn't a rock or root he didn't hit head on. We got to the first "climb" and the other 3 guys shift into the itty-bitty chain ring and spin up this hill at slower-than-walking pace. More like slower-than-walking-through-a-crowded-airplane-aise-during-food-service-pace. This is a race my friends! Come join me in the pain cave you silly spinners! Not sensing the desire to suffer in my fellow combatants, I found a line, attacked, put 10 seconds on them by the top of the hill and rode away.

That hill was 2 miles in and it was the last I saw of the 30-39 guys. Almost immediately I came up to the first of the 20-29 racers and worked through them gradually for the entire race. I put in a 36:14 second first lap (approx 7.5 miles) and continued to work through some of the 20-29 back markers into lap #2, though each one was a bit harder to pass as they were getting faster and faster as I got closer to the front of the field. I got past this strong bikebarn rider with 1/3 of a lap to go after chasing him for the middle half of the second lap. Passed him... want to guess?.... on a hill! And I can't climb!

I finished with a 36:45 second lap... much faster than I thought I would be and I had intentionally backed it down a bit. I had won the 30-39 race and had caught all but the top two of the 20-29 race.

I was hoping for a double podium because I need two new tires but I only got to pick from the prize table once. Nice brand new Bontrager 29.3 tire. My side walls are worn threadbare on that bike... so I may have to wait on upgrading until I win another one.

Thanks for reading

-Sandy Baggins

Finally!!!

2010-04-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

It took finding out about the forthcoming Acura TSX Wagon to get me out of blogging hibernation.

Acura plans to start selling this later this year in the United States. Yes, you read that right. The car you see above will be available for sale on the same continent where I live!

You have no idea how much time and energy I spend on this station wagon thing... I'm sure some of you do. Take my word for it, it's pretty sad. So even though this is a vehicle that I will not be able to afford maybe in a few years I can pick one up used.

People with money (or people with poor money management): please buy lots of these cars so there is a bigger pool of used ones to pick from in two years. Thank you!

Ice Weasels Cometh

2009-12-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

The Ice Weasels Cometh has quickly become New England's favorite farewell to the cyclocross season. It's a long kiss goodbye, an extra hug from your kids, and one for the road all wrapped up into one. It's as close as the serious New England cyclocross racer will come to the Portland cross experience where costumes, strange bikes and the party seem to be the focus more so than the racing. The competition is so good in New England most here don't want to make cyclocross into the quasi freak show it is in PDX, but it's fun every once in a while to take it all a bit less seriously.

That isn't to say that the racing at IWC isn't serious... it is... that's just that at ICW it's ok to take a beer feed even if you are in contention and snatching a cupcake in stride over the barriers will win you more cheers than any podium spot ever could.

Zanconato Racing was generously added as a co-promoter for the event by the likes of Colin, Kevin and Thom. Thanks guys, that helps us out a bit. As a result, we were all assigned volunteer tasks and comped entries into our respective races. Bonus!

100 riders registered for the 10 am Cat 4 race in 25ish degree weather... and 85+ of them showed. They put on a great show and broke up the crusty snow for the rest of us quite nicely. Thanks guys! The race was won by a guy riding a Surly Pugsley, a perfectly suited bike for the conditions.

Last year at IWC 1.0 I raced the elite field and missed the opportunity to party a bit... After the race everyone was packing up to go home you see. Determined not to repeat my mistake I swapped my entry in the elite field (2pm) for the single speed field at noon. The two kegs from harpoon were tapped at 10, but no way would it all be gone by the time my race ended at 12:45, right?

Wrong! More on that in a moment.

Having no single speed, I would have to zip tie the shifters on my bike to lock out my gears, but not before I took a few laps of the course to decide which gear to lock into. The approach was brilliant: while others had to race what they brought, I was able to take a lap in the 19, then another in the 17, and a third in the 21. Settling on the 19 the gears were locked and I was ready to race. My late number switch earned me the reverse call up... I was at the back of a pack of 50 riders when the whistle went off. Yahoo!!!

I spent the first half lap trying to work up to through the field, and the next full lap moving towards the top 10. Closing in on Kenny at the start of lap two, he went down in a muddy corner and I was vaulted into the top 7. This race paid top 5, so I set off in pursuit of the leaders.

This race was so much fun it is hard to explain. Having only one gear limited the damage that others could do to you, making the race more about bike handling and smooth pedaling. Gearing choice was a big factor as well, and I was pretty sure I had nailed it. Tall enough to get some speed on the straights but not too tall that I couldn't turn it over in the corners.

Once I made it to the top five and into the money I tried to take a feed. The handoff was captured by uber-photag Natasha McKittrick.

photo courtesy of pedal power photography via cxmagazine

With the donut gone, I came around next lap looking for a beer, but was told that both kegs were empty. Dayumm! My focus turned to catching ThomP who was unquestionally a better technical rider that me but appears a bit undergeared for the long straight sections. I nearly made contact with 1.5 laps to go when he flatted and put me into third where I finished.

That course was a blast. I had a great time for the first 6 or 7 laps trying to stay with Al Donahue, a strong elite racer who would normally drop me in an instant but was limited by the single gear. We drove hard into every corner, hoped for traction, accelerated when we got some, and tried to keep it upright when we didn't. Mike Rowell was long gone, he's a tank with lots of single speed experience, and won the race easily. He then won the 35+ race on the same bike, taking 3rd in the combined master's and elite fields.

It was a beautiful snowy and cold day... it was proof that racers can and will race when the conditions are far from perfect. Riders and spectators alike had a blast, we should do this again next year but stretch it into January.

NBX Day 2: 12.6.09

2009-12-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

Let’s pretend that NBX day two was snowy. That’s what we all wanted, wasn’t it? Saturday’s rain was supposed to turn to snow and where I live it did. The yard and trees were gorgeous Sunday morning but as I travelled south to Warwick, the snow cover faded to basically nothing at Goddard Park. Boo hoo.

It was windy though, and if it isn’t going to be snowy it may as well be nice and dry, right? Mostly it was with the exception of a straight at the top of the course that had a long section of rutted mud and a massive puddle. The switchbacks were all clean and dry, taking traction out of the equation and allowing me to give my worn out and used up Fangos one more shot at glory before retiring to the Shady Acres Tubular Villa where they would drive slow, dine early, and screw anything that moved like all the cool seniors do now-a-days.

Clothing selection was stressing me out pre race, but whatever I decided to use worked because I wasn’t too cold nor too hot. I made it for call ups this time (first spot, third row), and watched them all ride away on lap one again. The same cast of characters from the day before were around… J. Ferraro, B. Hornberger, S. Roszko, M. Magur, and D. Snoop. Reading back to earlier race reports from this year, the usual suspects were K. Gauvin, A. Starrett, J. Molongoski, and J. Bernhard… but I wasn’t ever really racing those guys… I was freeloading.

Half a lap into it J. Ferraro’s bike was making all sorts of noise and B. Hornberger slipped off the front. Zank was encouraging me to go chase but that wasn’t happening, it looked like the Brant from 2008 was back and perfectly capable of kicking my a$$. Roszko took over the chase duties almost immediately, Magur and Snoop seemed happy to just sit in (this seems to be a theme with them) and I was mostly second wheel with Ferraro back hanging on to our group as well.

We followed Roszko around for 2.5 laps, and could see that he was trying to keep us behind him without bringing us up to his teammate Brant. He did an admirable job of it, I tried to stick my nose in front in the twisty section at 15 minutes into the race and he immediately accelerated to discourage any change in the order of our group. This happened a few times before we all decided to just follow and wait. Our pace was higher than casual but not unbearable, there was really no one to try and ride up to at that point so I decided to sit in for the most part.

Brant was fading up ahead but still had a large lead and Steve was holding us all off effectively. I was focusing on what it was going to take to beat the group I was with, not so much on catching Brant, so it seemed that staying behind Roszko made sense as he would invariably be worn out from being at the front for so long.

With 2 to go Magur was gone and a half a lap later so was Snoop. It was clear that we were making good ground on Brant and still shedding people as well. Still, Roszko defended his position at the head of the group and we were content to follow. Turning onto the pavement at the bell I could see the D. Staffo was just ahead of Brant, and having stuck to Roszko’s wheel through that last turn I was in a good position to grab a quick breather and then roll through to the front and ramp up the pace. I commented to Steve that he is a good teammate as I took the lead over the line and down the parking lot to begin the final lap.

I realized then that I had a chance not just to beat the group that I had been riding with, but that I could possibly make up two additional spots as well. I attacked hard when the course turned back towards the wind. I made it half way to Brant and maintained first position from my group going into the sand where I knew I’d catch the guys ahead. Running up the hill I could sense that Roszko was going to try and get ahead of me again even as I ran right up to Brant and Staffo, so I used the Paul Curley wide bike carrying trick to keep him behind. At the top Ferraro was the rider on my wheel and we settled in behind the new leaders of the group, Staffo and Hornberger. Roszko crashed on the barriers but the rest of us were there and through the woods cleanly. Staffo attacked on the muddy straight at the top of the course, I grabbed the wheel and Ferraro crashed. Staffo and I pulled away getting to the beach with a dozen bike lengths on Hornberger.

I followed Staffo through the next 4 sweeping turns and attacked him on the last long straight adjacent to the finishing stretch, getting to a tight spot first and forcing him to check the brakes at a time when I was out of the saddle and sprinting. I kept on the gas past the pit and rolled in for 18^th.

That last effort to get ahead of Dan wasn’t super graceful and I’m pretty sure that my thrashing around may have contributed to him just wanting to finish the race without getting hurt, but I was glad to still have some pop left at the end like that as ugly as it was.

Post race we drank and ate for hours watching our friends race on the increasingly cold course.

Another Effin awesome year of cross racing in the books! I'm not taking ice weasels seriously. In fact, I'm not even going to race.

NBX Day 1: 12.5.09

2009-12-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

Unless you are some sort of sick twisted freak, racing your bicycle in the rain at 38* isn’t fun. Not fun or funny at all.

The feet and hands will be frozen and there isn’t anything you can do about it Aquaman. Even the best, most warmest, waterproofest gloves, socks and boots have a weakness: a gigantic hole into which you thrust your appendages. You see, exposed arms and legs act as a conduit for rain water to flow down into your fancy overpriced socks and boots, rendering their waterproof qualities useless. Normally a jacket’s sleeves or a pant’s legs direct this flow over the cuff of boots and gloves, but not during a bike race. You can try and mitigate the damage by keeping your core warm before the race so that you’re not as cold when you start, but that will not help once the race is underway and it really is just a matter of time.

Saturday morning the whole crew was heading to Warwick to watch their final race of the season, they would not be making the trip on Sunday. Trying to get four people out the door early enough to watch Mrs. Rebecca’s 9:30 am race was stressful and distracting, so much so that we left without a single raincoat, rubber boot or umbrella between us. No problem, it isn’t supposed to rain until 1 pm, right Pete?

The rain started about 5 miles into our trip at 9:15 am. That is much ealier than 1 pm, 5.75 hours earlier to be exact. This made me grumpy: being responsible for 4 people who are about to spend 5 hours standing in the rain sucks. Ali was very positive though, telling me that they would be fine, could sit in the car if they had to, and that I should just have some fun… after all, the season is almost over.

Turns out she was right, the rain wasn’t that bad in Wahwick and the tree cover and carousel building at the venue provided enough refuge that no one got soaked that wasn’t racing. Colin and Linnea were nice enough to let me use their trainer and warm up under their tent, and I didn’t get super dirty or wet while inspecting the course immediately before the race. Getting to the line warm, dry and comfortable is a big plus and it has been proven to increase watts by up to 400% (though individual results may vary).

My late inspection lap got me to the start after my call up, but people were kind of taking up their normal spots anyway so I just stuck my bike in an open lane on the 4^th row. An uncharacteristic lack of organization for a Verge event, where is Alan Atwood when you need him?

Sticking true to my new “wait 15 minutes before starting to race” philosophy, I settled in at the gun on the left, maybe 30 places deep. Had to push a few guys up the first hill, but a surprising number of people were able to ride it considering the amount of traffic. My first two laps were pretty boring, riding with B. Hornberger, S. Roszko, M. Magur, and D. Snoop. There was a long sweeping right hand turn in the field out by the parking lot that I could not figure out for the entire race (after my race I was watching the junior/cat 3 racers when I finally figured out that turn: stay far right the entire time. I learned this by watching a kid who couldn’t have been older than 15 rail that sucker), and on lap two I laid it down there and had to sprint to get back on my group. That pushed the “start” of “my race” back a bit, I needed to recover before going hard again.

On lap 3, I attacked the group on an incline heading into the woods to try and reach A. Millett and J. Meerse. It was about 20 minutes into the race but I felt good enough and the group had slowed some. I got about half way across before I noticed that I wasn’t gaining and the guys behind weren’t disappearing either. I lost momentum in that stupid right hander again and around that time J. Chabot yelled “c’mon Matt - 15 minutes!” but I was infact loosing ground to the chasers though I was trying harder. Hmmm……

With 1.5 to go I was caught by Magur and Snoop in the field (of course)… they had time trialed on the pavement to get close and then swooped in when I barfed all over that stupid right hand turn! Roszko had been dropped but he was coming back with friends this time: a bike barn and a CVC rider that I didn’t know.

On the pavement at the bell we were chasing hard and Meerse crashed ahead of us. I considered stopping to help but he popped up pretty quickly. I saw a look of confusion and worry on his wife’s face at the barriers so I yelled to her that he had crashed and gestured towards the parking lot. Magur took that opportunity to accelerate and I had to sprint to catch him before the pavement. I got to the front and led through the right hander for the final time, figuring it would be good to force him to go as slow as I had been going in that section. We were just about up to Millett when I lost it on the final 180 in the field… a turn that I had been riding cleanly all day. With the chain off, five riders went by, the last being Roszko, who I joined for the last 4 minutes of riding. Steve easily bested me in the sprint for 27^th leaving me disappointed in having fallen twice.

I did manage to stay relatively warm throughout, my hands and feet were cold but manageable. I was glad I wasn’t hurt in my crashes but my final placing shows that I can’t afford to take any soil samples out there. The only other results-impacting crash I’ve had this year was in VT, and I finished 28^th that day as well after a very similar slip-and-fall-and-drop-the-chain incident.

Thanksgiving, my uncle and Sterling day 2

2009-12-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

*Warning* this is long

I was pretty high after returning home from Saturday’s first day of racing in Sterling, for the first time in a long time without having to hit the crack pipe or the flesh hooks. While I do love me some rock and self mutilation, this was turning out to be a pretty good long weekend fueled only by turkey, the company of family and friends, and a Tom Stevens cyclocross course in good weather.

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite holiday, dating back to my formative years when my folks and I would travel up to Essex County to have dinner at my uncle’s house. He was a great cook and a bit awkward socially but he could tell the best jokes… it’s all in the delivery you see, and he had it knocked. You didn’t even know he was telling a joke until a grin crept onto his face as he hit you with the punch line. Those meals were his chance to experiment with the traditional Thanksgiving fare, pumpkin chiffon pie and oyster stuffing weren’t my favorites, but occasionally he’d knock one out of the park, like the garlic mashed potatoes. After dinner, my cousin and I would hoist a few of the first Sam Adams Lagers ever brewed on the rear deck before heading out to the back yard to toss a football back and forth. We’d sit around an open fire well into the cold fall evening and gossip about any relative unfortunate enough to have missed the feast. One year I stayed with this uncle for two weeks while training for my first real job out of college, a stay the ended on Thanksgiving weekend. Someone get me a freakin’ tissue over here!

I’ve since fallen out of favor with this uncle, which it too bad as he was most likely my closest relative outside of my parents… I have no brothers or sisters. It’s been years since we’ve spoken amicably, but clearly it still bothers me. Despite the current state of this relationship, those times spent with family at his home still are some of the best memories for me, and my expectations for Thanksgiving are always high as a result.

This year my wife and I hosted the holiday meal, and we had a nice mix of friends and family over for dinner. With some efficient preparation we were able to enjoy the company of our guests on Thanksgiving without being slaves to the kitchen and my first attempt at frying a turkey was a success. PRO tip: don’t get any part of your flesh anywhere near the turkey as you lower or raise it from the pot of scalding oil. It will melt your flesh. The meal was tops and everyone went home with plenty of leftovers. The thought of establishing a new annual tradition at our home was pleasing to me as I rubbed my full belly and watched my kids playing with their own cousins on this most enjoyable of holidays. Bring on Santa.

So on Saturday evening I was amped up for the following reasons. 1) I’d been off of work for 3 days with another to come 2) I had enjoyed a great Thanksgiving on par with those of my youth 3) the first race of the weekend had been a blast 4) I’d be racing again tomorrow on a killer course at a dry venue 25 minutes from home. This is the stuff man, this is the stuff.

The superstitious hockey player in me held an electric carving knife to my own throat and forced me to follow the same routine Sunday as I had the day before: 20 minute opener on the trainer before leaving home, breakfast of oatmeal with bananas, walnuts and raisins, and lots of water. I was a bit later to race than I wanted to be, but still there in time to pre-ride the course about an hour before having to line up. Same track start but only half way around before it turned 180 degrees. Through a set of hopable barriers (if you are JPows or Adam Snyder, not me silly) and a series of turns past the pit out to the lower lot aka gravelly high speed turns of death.

Something to note here for those of you that have not raced cross at the same venue but different courses on two consecutive days. It is really fun to see how a good designer changes the course from one day to the next, but do know that the course will be different. Don’t follow the lines from the previous day because some of them are not being used any longer, as I discovered when I nearly castrated myself on a half a telephone pole sticking out of the ground that we went in front of on day one but around on day two.

From the gravelly parking lot/nut eating pole section you climbed for the next 2 minutes: first along the hill that immediately preceded Saturday’s finish, then up a set of stairs, then on a gradual power sucking incline to the base of a muddy run up that was once of those almost-ridable-but-not-quite-thanks-to-the-extended-climbing-that-you-had-just-completed kind of run ups.

From there, it went half way down the hill from the day before and turned right to head into a short section of woods. Yeah, more climbing in there. Leaving the woods it wrapped around the horse jump and headed due east across the fields towards the school. A series of turns there wrapped around a generator, a few trees, and a playground before exiting to the pavement and turning left to pass the opposite side of the pit. The sweet turns from the day prior were back again and they led into an off camber above the track and a few more turns before the finish.

I lined up on the left again and at the gun settled in mid-pack. Sunday’s start felt faster than the day before. Not possible that I wasn’t a peak freshness… no way. The accelerations out of the tight turns were taking their toll early on. JC was ahead of me, that guy can stick it up there in the top 20 for a lap or two but then he slides deep into the field. I spent a lap riding conservatively, but found myself further back than I had hoped, behind helicopter Matt, WS, and JB who I’d rather be with or just in front of. BH was with me and must have had the same concerns about how far back we were, because he powered away out of the 180 at the beginning of the second lap to move into the top 20. JFerraro was ahead and speeding up as well and when SR came through shortly thereafter I jumped on and moved up near the barriers. In the turns after the pit I caught and passed a JC’s group, mostly by braking late and diving in on corners to gain spots rather than gassing it. The climb from that lower lot hurt badly, everyone recognized that was a place to put their competition in distress.

It seems that some racers enjoy being led to the slaughter in tricky sections, following the preferred line despite the large number of others trying to do the same thing. When everyone set up to go into the woods on the left coming off the upper hill on lap two I made up several spots by going far right. Gaining spots without spending effort? Brilliant! Near the turns by the school, I was with Helicopter Matt when he commented that it wasn’t fair because I hadn’t even started trying yet. Ever humble, I told him to pay attention because I’d be going soon and that I’d see him after the race. Aww, I don’t recall what I said, probably something like I’ll be going soon, stick with me if you can or something goofly like that. The fatigue at that point was high already, but I knew that there was another gear left in me to move up rather than just hang around where I was.

Four turns later the group had swollen to a long train of 8 or 9 guys being driven by SM and I was the caboose. He’s a machine in the power sections and I didn’t want to get G-A-P-P-E-D when we hit the track so I attacked near the pit and got up to 3^rd wheel. Smart move: when we hit the track SM laid it down and only myself and AW were able to latch on.

Up ahead MR and JF appeared to be slowing down and coming back to our group which had grown to include MT. We picked up MR and rode just behind JF near the end of lap 3, and though MR had been slowing, he seemed to find a comfortable pace for himself with us and he took his share of massive motorcycle-like pulls. SM fell off the pace and was replaced by SR who had ridden up to us solo and was looking strong. CR cheered for MR going by the pit while I was hiding like a hibernating muskrat in his wake. I gave her a look like “hey, what about me?” and she politely encouraged me as well. I know that she wanted him to crush my soul and ride over my grave on a bike made of my bones. That’s fine, she has to go home with him. I have no idea if muskrats hibernate or not.

Our 4^th trip up that hill after the stairs approaching the run up was incredibly slow; walking would likely have been faster. I think we laughed about it right then. Coming out of the woods, I’d been letting a little gap open up ahead of me (usually to MR or JF who were at the front most of the time) then I’d drill it to catch back on hoping to shed the others behind me. That didn’t work even a little bit… not once. I had railed the turns near the school on the first lap, but struggled there for the next three, and each time it cost me effort to get back on before the pavement. The small attacks continued until we saw two to go, but our group remained intact. I started thinking that I had to ride those turns more smoothly or I’d be in trouble. Everything else was working out fine but I was worried about those turns.

The spot ahead of our group was occupied by RL and he was riding well and looking comfortable from where I was. Later he assured me that he was on the edge the entire time, but he’s so strong he makes it looks easy. AW had fallen off the pace from the smaller accelerations and it was clear we were going to come to the finish all together. On lap 5 JF continued to be the instigator, he had been at the front or just ahead of us the entire time & he clearly wanted to get away again but was unable to shake us. He’d get 5-6 lengths, and then loose them a few turns later. I was over my head on the lengthy climbing section; I had to let some spots go to stay sub-nuclear. SR moved ahead but dropped a chain and lost our group going into the woods on lap 5. I recovered enough to get back on and finally nailed those turns around the playground, amazed at how much easier it was in there when you rode the correct arc through the turn. The draft I enjoyed was just the bit of rest I needed to get back on terms and set up for the last lap.

At the bell JF was driving us around the track then sat up to let someone else come through near the 180. He took off when no one did and we scrambled to get across. We followed him through the turns past the pit and into the lower lot area. I know MR well enough to know that he was going to attack on that long climb towards the stairs. He’s a house and was riding a similar uphill in Providence hard every lap on both days. Had we been in Vegas I’d have put money on it… and I would have cleaned up because right on que he went and I rode that wheel right to the front. I tried to keep the pressure on by overlapping wheels with him on the last section of the climb before the run but the pace was slow and it didn’t matter. I just didn’t want JF to come around and ride up that thing. MR did try to ride the run but couldn’t and we were all together coming off the hill.

Smooth again through the playground turns I was second wheel approaching the tight turns just past the pit. I wanted to be first into those turns to set a pace I was comfortable with at a point where I knew no one could pass so I promptly jacked up the brakes to slow this train down for a few seconds. Coming out of those turns MR came back around (I knew he would) and said “let’s go!” Across the off camber he got a small gap, and when we hit the track he was gone. I tried to get the draft but couldn’t, and won the 19th spot over MT with a well timed bike throw.

Another great weekend of racing in the books. I have made so many good friends riding my bike in circles around a field, I’m thankful for getting to know all of them. I got the chance to share a laugh with some of the hup guys and the embrocation guys as well as my super teammates. It is always great to chat with the other guys in my field, debriefing our race experiences while cooling down and talking about how much fun it all was. Richard Fries asked me how business was… I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m someone else. Business was good I told him… it’s just insurance.

Post ride we grilled chicken and polished off the last of the candied yams from Thanksgiving. What we lacked in beer we made up for in smiles. Next weekend we’ll be sure to bring plenty of both to Warwick for the series finale. Watch for more sock premes and cookie feeds.

Bay State Cyclocross: 11.28.09

2009-11-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

blah blah blah - wait for it - blah. it seems that each generation develops a new set of phrases that occasionally become part of the vernacular. My generation developed "whatever" and "talk to the hand" along with a series of others that have since faded from the collective consciousness. The generation before mine had "go ahead, make my day" and "gag me with a spoon" so as bad as ours were they were a step in the right direction.

Like Moore's Law the rate at which the phrases are coined is increasing exponentially. (Admittedly this is a long set up/lead in to a race report, but I'm getting there). Recent expressions of note been (blank)-ista, and the subject of this post... wait for it. As previously noted, concern has been growing about my fitness. Multiple races have unfolded where I've been left alone for half the race with no one to chase and no one to run from. Todd Burns hasn't been around, and he is usually nipping at my heels. Keith Gauvin has been kicking my a$$ with regularity and Mike Rowell is a second row call up kind of guy these days. Cross time trials are fun, but not as much fun as hanging with a group and trying to win the little battles to get the best possible result.

After the Lowell race where I blew up after 10 minutes and then glided home I wanted to change gears (wicked pun, fully intended) a bit and modify my race strategy. Go easy at the start and only burn matches if absolutely necessary for 15 minutes, then start racing. I'd only dip into the tank in the first third of the race if I could get a significant rest by jumping on someone's wheel to draft them for an extended time. I've tried this starting slow thing before but wasn't really committed to it and didn't have a plan, which led to me going too hard too soon. A story that Kurt Perham told me about one of the Ironman athletes he trains gave me the idea to set a fixed time to start "racing." He told the client to set the alarm on their watch for 2 pm and start racing when it went off. Maybe it wasn't Kurt who told me about that, but it sounds like something he'd say so he gets the credit. FYI... Ironman races start at 7 am.

I can't wait until the 7 hour mark to start racing in the master's cross field, but waiting 15 minutes seemed like a good mark. I figured that the front of the race wouldn't be too far ahead that early on, that anyone who rides like I used to would just be starting to fade so perhaps they could pull me around a bit, if I go hard from the 15 minute to 30 minute mark, I only have to hold on for the last 15 minutes to bring it home, and perhaps I'll find myself riding with others towards the end of the race... something I haven't been doing much off but that will only help me to improve.

With little fanfare I lined up third row on Saturday at Sterling. This was the first time Sterling has been two days and Saturday was the traditional Sterling course, around the track, up the run, over the horse jump, back and forth across the fields, some off camber work, and the long gradual climb along the road to the finishing straight. It was cold and very windy, but the sun was out and the course was surprisingly dry in the wake of a lot of rain the day prior. Course Designer Superstar Tom Stevens added a series of tight repetitive turns to two of the the normally long straight power sections that really made the course fun. Bravo Tom.

At the whistle I got going, but didn't hammer away like normal. "Sit tight, sit tight, sit tight" I had to say out loud... the temptation to go balls out is strong as (some of the ) guys (that normally are behind you the entire race) are flying past you. Rowell had popped a spoke on the start and was riding easy, but everyone else was killing it. The danger of a first lap crash is higher the further back you are, but I managed to stay safe around the first few turns and up the run. Down the hill and over the horse jump and I let more spots go... Still too early. I found a pace that was very comfortable about 30th spot and rode there for a while, getting warmed up and watching for any big opportunities up ahead. Not much was going on, so I rode a few laps with Brant Hornberger, Stephan Marcoux. The three of us moved up through the field comfortably, and the effort was not taxing at all. This was working out great so far.

At the start of lap 3, the watch said 15 minutes and it was time to go. I hit the track and told Brant to take my wheel, but he was unable and I began to ride away from the group and closed in on Aaron Millett. He was just a few seconds behind a group with John Foley, John Meerse, Jeff Ferraro, and Jeff Molongoski in it. I caught Aaron and rode with him for a bit, and after the barriers asked him if he was going to be able to close a gap that was opening up as the group started to increase the pace. "Nope" so I went around and off to crash the party up ahead. I got to them with 3 to go (which meant that I had used up about 7 minutes of my reserves) and then Molongoski basically pulled us around the course for two laps. This entire time we could see Mike Rowell coming back up to us, and it looked like he was bringing the entire race with him. We were running scared, and I was hoping that we would shake some one off the group to satisfy Rowell's appetite for crushing master's riders. I was sure we'd shake Ferraro as he hasn't been placing in the top 20 all year, but he was hanging very tough. I was mostly second wheel, and Molongoski would put in these monster efforts which required a full match-burning response each time. At some point Foley dropped off the pace, I'm happy he's racing more this year as he's a great guy and is super fun to ride with assuming you can keep up with him in the technical stuff.

Going into the last lap I was down to about 2 more efforts, one of which was going to have to be the sprint. We started to play reindeer games around the track at the bell, no one wanted to work too hard now, but Rowell was getting closer with each turn so Molongoski hit the gas again. Ferraro moved to the front with a half a lap to go, baited to that spot by Molongoski and I who took a turn near the pits super wide and left the far-too-tempting main line open for him. He brought us to the final turn and into the sprint. The strongest rider in the bunch got clear: Molongoski took 15th with ease. I tried to come around Ferraro but couldn't, and the half second lapse opened the door for Meerse to pip me at the post by a 1/4 of a wheel. Rowell had latched on just as we started to open up the sprint so he was unable to come around, but he had one hell of a ride to get up to us without any help at all.

So finishing 19th was about where I would normally be, but it was much more interesting and fun to be racing the entire time rather than taking a ride up to the front on every bit of effort I have in me and then trying to hang on to my spot once the rubber band snapped. I think the new approach will help me develop my fitness more completely, and I'll end up enjoying better results in the long run.

Shedd Park: 11.21.09

2009-11-27T04:23:00.000-08:00

I'l spare you the details of my involuntary 3 week racing hiatus. In summary form it goes like this: get sick, stop eating, stop riding, think that you can race after two weeks, realize that you're wrong, physically feel the fitness leaving your body, start riding to work to get some activity in and feel great and exhausted at the same time, drive to Lowell to race Shedd Park.

Lowell, like Canton and SBC, are becoming the bigger non-VERGE races on the calendar, with plump fields, great organization, and fantastic courses. The Lowell course starts on a cinder track that circles a baseball field, featured a series of concentric circles, a forced run up that was longer and harder than it looked, a series of switchbacks, a quick ride up, and several long straight sections through the wood... on that was gravelly/muddy but high speed none the less.

Arriving plenty early I got a few good laps in to warm up, then lined up for the start on the front row of the 35+ field. Yeah for me!!! Realize that the starting gate was soooo wiiiide.. the entire field was on the front row. Boo...

Gun goes off and I felt great. Super fresh and very fast. I stuck with the front group (P. Smith, K. Perham, B. Shattuck, R. Hult, J. Mosher and M. Gunsauls) and we started to pull away from a few NE masters studs (M. Rowell, R. Laroque). The racing seemed pretty easy, granted I was tailgunning, but the course offered enough turning that rest was available and the short efforts didn't hurt much. Three weeks off the bike thanks to H1N1 was paying dividends!

On lap two, about 10 minutes into the race we got to the run up and the rest of the group didn't wait for me at the top. They were gone in an instant and my best moments were now behind me. Ryan Laroque caught me on that second lap and we rode together for a while, seeing three to go and wondering out loud if that was right... It seemed short. Rowell was coming and when he made contact half way through lap three the two of them dropped the hammer and left me in the dust. I came through and saw two to go in 9th place, but was so far ahead of 10th I had no reason to go very hard. I rode hard enough to keep my place and didn't mind loosing 4-6 seconds per lap, nothing short of a mechanical would change the out come of this race for me.

With one to go I started to really back it off. This whole season has been like this with the exception of a few races. I spend the last 20 minutes of the event in no mans land, not getting the push of competition. I was feeling really tired and realized that the lack of riding hard for 45 minutes the entire year has cost me some late race fitness. I tried to put in a better effort but was so tired I had very little left. I was also scared that I had trained/raced myself into one of the better 12 minute cyclocross riders in the master's field.

None of this worry changed my race effort, and I cruised it in to the finish. Looking across the field at the finish I saw Rowell go through the line and keep on the gas. WTF?! why is he still going? Another effect of riding solo for the last 30 minutes of my races has allowed me to develop a nasty day dreaming habit. Seeing Mike still racing I panicked. I had already shut it down and Helicopter Matt and Doug Aspinwall a real threat if given an extra 6 minutes to catch me.

What happend? Had I counted off a lap during the middle of two to go? Was there a bell twice? Later I learned that everyone was confused, apparently they had given the front of the race (I was considered the front) the 1-to-go indication a lap early.

Facing an unexpected additional 6 minutes of racing, I got on the gas, taking care not to go to hard too soon, but needing to get a few seconds back to stop the bleeding and generally feel better about what I was doing. The group behind, unlike me, were racing hard. Battling each other, they were constantly attacking and in doing so were pulling me back. Fortunately, I locked down my advantage and rolled in for a lonely 9th place.

This same thing (racing solo, not the lap card fiasco) happened in day 2 in Maine, Putney, both days at Gloucester, and both days at Providence. No kidding... it really is a problem. This time of year, the races are your best training, and if you're only going for 15-20 of the 45 minutes, you're eventually going to loose that second half of the race speed.

Too late to change the fitness now though, I'm going to have to try a new strategy. Normally I would go as hard as possible for 10-15 minutes and then just hang on for deal life as the smart racers would blow by me. I haven't been able to race my competition after the first 15 minutes of a race in a long time.

I'd try my new approach at Sterling.

Slow Recovery

2009-11-11T16:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-11-05T05:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-31T04:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

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."

Must see Gloucester Video

2009-10-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

I'll get to the Day 2 Providence report soon, but you have to check this out. Watch it over on Vimeo in HD if you can. The song has been overplayed in bike race compilations, but the footage is absolutely top shelf.

Gran Prix of Gloucester - A Cyclocross Film from Benjamin Eckstein on Vimeo.

Providence Cyclocross Festival Day 1: 10.10.09

2009-10-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'm an analyst.

Basically that means I ask an annoying amount of questions about a person, process or thing until I understand why that person, process or thing is the way it is.

That's the part I'm good at. I'm not so good at documenting the results, but I'm usually good enough at the first part that everyone recalls the annoying question and answer sessions sufficiently and doesn't need or want to be reminded of them.

Regular readers know that I'm pretty much a lock for a 21st-26th place finish in any Verge series race where I don't crash or have a mechanical. Good days, bad days, muddy, dry, cold, hot, big field or small, it doesn't seem to matter. Line me up at the front or the back... If you want to make some money, put a few dollars on me finishing right around 22nd. Vegas would never give you odds on that, and if they did there would be no payout because it's a LOCK!

So if you don't want to read on, my analysis of this race is as simple as this: 22-5=17.

Curiosity peaked? Grab a cup of tea and read on...

After two full seasons of no racing at Roger Williams park in Providence, the cyclocross community descended once again on the site of the 2005 & 2006 national championships with a first year event timed to take place in conjunction of Interbike's Outdoor Demo East. It was a perfect marriage of trade show and the best fall spectator sport around: Cycle Cross!

I had a terrible week of sleep and felt flat flat flat Saturday morning before the race. Working with JM, MZ, and KA, we did have the "base camp" down pretty tight: ez up tent, an entire bike shop worth of tools, several chairs, a table, grill, sausages and hotdogs, kiddie and adult beverages, water... everything. We're going to have to work on a heat source as it starts to get colder, but it was mild this weekend so no worries yet.

Brief Day 1 course description: Exactly the same as 2006 nationals course.

Long Day 1 course description: uphill paved start to a right hand turn onto the grass. Two or three turns and a long sweeping gently up hill left-hander that emptied out along an off camber straight away. Hard turn left past the pits, left, right, left and over a set of barriers. Two 180s after those with some elevation changes, the turns being at the highest points. The course then ran along one of the bankings and up further still to cross the road (an extension of the road from the starting pavement), then head down hill (on pavement still) to a 90 degree right turn off the pavement and around a tree or two. This dropped down to the base of a set of 5 or 6 concrete stairs (3' deep stair treads, these were not stairs like the ones in your house) that ended with a left hand turn back onto that same road. 200 meters later, a right off the road again and back towards the swoopy section near the barriers. The drop down the hill and back up the first time included a forced run, the next several half-pipe like drop ins and hills were all rideable, weaving back and fourth before you had to climb a long gradual power section towards the water. A few gentle turns, a pass by the pit, a gravel section of path near the lake, a long paved section of road (start line behind you here), and a final section up two hills (one a run up) and around a few trees before dropping back onto the start pavement for the run to the line and you were done Easy, right?

Warming up on the trainer was tiring me out and I didn't really want to race. Well, I did want to race, but not as hard as it was going to take to keep from getting lapped never mind finishing in the points (top 25). The points that I have managed to scrape together did get me a call up to the third row and I lined up on the left behind Mike Rowell and Johnny Bold. At the whistle I didn't go hog wild, but kept the pace high as we crested the hill and slipped up a few extra spots as the field was setting up for the turn. I hit the grass 12th wheel maybe, feeling surprisingly good. Smoothly through the first turns, I settled in around 14th and rode a bit ahead of where I usually am but didn't feel taxed. Keith Gauvin was just ahead, he also just a few spots further up than normal. Jon Foley was around as well, but he pulled away in his usual just-as-fast-in-the-corners-as-in-the -straight-aways kind of style.

Through the barriers things were good, and I moved up a few spots, teasing the top 10 but as we turned off the pavement before the cement stairs I heard a loud crash behind me. "Was that someone who should be ahead of me or behind me" I thought, not having time to look. Onto the upper section of pavement Kevin Hines passed me and I knew I was over my head. I only see that guy in warm ups. Ryan Rumsey is having a great early season and he left me with his buddy Alan Starrett who is fast again as usual.

I managed to catch up and latch on to Keith, Alan and Erich Gutbier and felt pretty good through the first two laps. It seems that I was even a half a step ahead of Keith at one point....

note: these are the kind of photos you get when you let a 5 yr old do the race photography.

So two laps/15 minutes into this I realize I'm going to die a quick death if I try and keep this up: I back off the gas a bit and take my rightful position at the rear of this group. I decide to rest for a lap but still keep in touch so that I'm in a position to draft (read "rest some more") in some one's wake on the paved sections. This strategy consisted of spending energy when needed by punching it on occasion, taking unnecessary chances when the opportunity presented itself, braking as late as possible most every turn, and riding "within myself" the other 1-2% of the time.

It worked I guess, because thought I felt like $hit I managed to stick with Alan and Keith as Erich slipped ahead through two more laps. I spent a good deal of time 4-6 bike lengths behind them, but did stick around. Here I'm leading Alan up the stairs on lap three... maybe 4.

more photography by Cory

Seeing three to go I was on Gauvin's wheel through the finish and he gave me the thumbs up, indicating his approval of my ability to make the impossible possible by sticking with those two despite feeling like crap. He also probably knew I was no threat in a sprint finish and was happy about that as well. Through the infield onto the off-camber Scott Rosenthal yells "you're about to pass Mark McCormack" and sure enough, there he is, former US road and cyclocross national champion soft pedaling just ahead. Mark's soft pedaling is just a bit slower than my full-on race pace, but it is slower, and I blew his doors off...er... politely passed Mr. McCormack... just a few turns later. (Mark later commented to an acquaintance that he was "just cooling down for tomorrow." Whatever, just stay in the race and don't slide back too far - I want this minor victory to at least appear legit!)

During my "Tour of Roger Williams park presented by Alan Starrett and Keith Gauvin's a$$e$" our group was caught and passed by Peter Sullivan, who you can see here in black preparing to catch and pass Gutbier and ride away from all of us.

He was gone at the start of lap 4 and I felt like dropping out. I came off the back of the Gauvin Starrett duo before that lap ended and around that time Jon Bruno came through me as well. I asked him to wait but he was going so fast he didn't hear me.

That marked the point where I ceased to race the people ahead of me and started to race the ones behind me. On the pavement after the cement stairs on lap 5 Jon Foley was riding a flat rear tire, so here I was running 16th on the road with 10 minutes of racing left and thinking "how the hell can I hold this?" & "how many positions am I willing to give up here?" & "this is fun exactly how?"

I was alone and feeling increasingly bad but recalled how a bit of "rest" earlier on had helped me recover a bit. I turned it down to 10 from 11 (spinal tap reference) for a few turns else death was imminent. I also needed to know who else was behind me that was fast enough to catch me and pass me as easily and steathily as Bruno had... I sweah he came from outta nowhere!

During those couple of turns I took inventory of who was back there and saw Mark the Shark was still soft pedaling. I had opened up a massive... 3 or 4 seconds at least... gap on him. There also was Curtis Boivin... and Mike Rowell... and Jeff Molongoski... and Jon Bernhard... and Todd Burns. (BTW... knowing this much detail about who is behind you in a race is a bad sign - a "red light" to success if you will - a clear demonstration of the wrong mindset) Boivin was softpedaling like Mark, but Rowell looked angry and Molongoski, Bernhard, and Burns were on the charge. I'm usually ahead of Burns... directly ahead of him... but ahead none the less so while he could have caught me it was likely he was tired too and catching me was going to make him more tired.... He wasn't my biggest problem - it was the others that were coming.

Here I am running scared...

Down by the pit I saw Molongoski and Boivin head in for service and figured they wouldn't come back to me. Small relief. Bernhard was coming next and he caught me after the bell in the off camber. This was my ticket home I thought, and I turned my self inside out to stay with him, keeping my distance ahead of the others. 7 minutes of agony later he outsprinted me to the line for 16th place.

Hardest effort I've ever put in at a cross race from start to finish.

So... I'm usually 22nd. Now subtract 5...

1) Mark McCormack (sat up, because he can)

2) Mike Rowell (he was the one that crashed on the first lap and that's why he never got back up to me)

3) Jeff Molongoski (two thrown chains)

4) Curtis Boivin (general bike problems and didn't really chase as hard as he could have)

5) Jon Foley (late race flat)

and you get my finishing position... 17!

Here's one more from Cory's portfolio...

Rare Pre-race post

2009-10-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the Providence Cyclocross Festival. Way back in 2006 I had one of my best races ever at this venue, taking 5th in the 35+ B field at that year's national championship. I love Providence and always feel a bit more at home in RI so I'm hoping for good things once again. Here's the famous video from lap one of that race, which had 196 starters and most likely signaled the coming of age of amateur cross racing in the US.

That was me in second behind Paul Curley and his disc wheel. It is still amazing to watch that many people go by.

So for this weekend I'm happy to be racing close to home for the first time in three weeks... just a short 25 minute drive to the venue and that's it. We're going to be trying to go for the full monty with the tailgate arrangements, but parking at Roger Williams park is going to be a bitch, so there may be some lengthy gear haulin' to get things set up properly. Stop in and say hi.

I'm hoping this wheel holds up after tangling with a course stake at Gloucester and winning...

and that my fueling strategy works as well...

GP Gloucester Day 2: 10.4.09

2009-10-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

The second day of the Gloucester GP was much more pleasant than the first. Gone was the rain, the wind, the cold and most of the mud. The course was still squishy, but it was getting firmer and faster by the minute and the day 2 layout featured as many long straight sections as the previous day had turns. Normally I would have been looking forward to a fast course, but I was pretty sure that my legs were going to be heavy after two mediocre nights of sleep and a power sucking effort in the mud the day before.

The best thing about Sunday was being able to get out of the car without getting soaked. The driving cold rain on Saturday meant that we would have to go with the "Mark McCormack warm up"... sitting in the car until call ups and then rolling over to the start. Sunday was overcast but warm, and changing into my skinsuit with a towel wrapped around my waist while standing out in a field was heavenly.

Sunday's course was one of those puzzling arrangements where you start half way through a proper lap and come through the finish straight about four minutes after the whistle. This confused the racers as well as the course marshals who more than once forgot to rearrange the barriers until the last second, barely avoiding catastrophe.

Fortunately the start of my race went off without a hitch, and I felt great on the uphill dash from the line. I made the grass about 10th wheel, and stuck with the leaders for that first half lap. It was kind of easy, but as soon as we hit the fields for the beginning of the first full lap the weight of the effort hit me hard and I slowed while the others pushed on. I managed to stay close through the muddy ride up and across the twisty section as you can see here.

Soon afterwards, I fell off the pace and offer this photo from the same spot one lap later as evidence.

Clearly me legs had been good for one lap... maybe 10 minutes total. After that I was riding defensively, trying to limit my losses and catch drafts when I could: not to improve my position but to hold on to stay in front of the guys coming up from behind. I've done enough of these races to know the difference between being in the race and racing. This day, I was in the race.

After the slide back from the leaders, the gentler pace was more my style and I found myself comfortably riding around 20th. Svelte Cycles rider Peter Sullivan and CVC's Todd Bowden caught up to me at the end of lap one, but stuck around enough that I was able to ride with them. A Gotham rider came through and former Cyclonauts teammate dangled just ahead. Long time adversary Mike Rowell was up ahead as well, battling with Jeff Molongoski who has always been fast.

The fast off camber after the finish line was the best part of the course for me, I could afford to let guys roll away knowing that I could easily catch them with some selective late braking and a good outside-in line. The proximity of our base camp to this turn undoubtedly helped... it afforded me a good view of racer after racer stacking it up in the lower categories all morning. Each lap I used this to my advantage to latch on the the back of the group that I kept coming off, and hung on as long as I could.

Bowen, Sullivan and I hooked up a bit to chase the Gotham rider when Bowden dove into a turn on lap two and broke our rhythm a bit. I scolded him for slowing the chase in an attempt to improve his position, but he apparently wasn't interested in my bitching because he got to the front and started to pull away. I burned several matches to stay in touch on the long back stretch, knowing that the rest that I'd get would give me the best opportunity to stay ahead of Todd Burns who was coming up from behind. On one of those switchbacks, I looked directly into the eyes of Greg Ferguson who rode poorly the day before but was going much better today. Greg's a great guy, but his game face is pretty intimidating and he looked like he wanted to tear out my liver and eat it raw. I pedaled in fear.

Coming up the pavement on lap three I thought about getting in front of Bowden and Sullivan, but the effort to get on their wheel a minute earlier took a lot out of me, and I felt a cramp coming as I stood up and tested the legs. Time to sit down and see if I can get to the front of this group on that off camber.

Through the bell I lined up left to take that early line on the off camber but Bowden took a line that didn't allow me to come through and I had to check the brakes in a spot I would much rather have been rolling. This planted me firmly behind them, and the acceleration I had to put in to stay with them I knew would preclude me from any meaningful future attacks. I hung on as long as possible and came off the back of the group through the barriers towards the end of the lap and rolled over alone in 24th.

I felt terrible and still finished in the top 25. My results puzzle me. Good days, bad days, fast or slow it doesn't seem to matter. The only thing that significantly seems to cost me spots is mechanical problems. I see others like Aaron Millette and Ryan Rumsey well up in the placings one day, then well back the next. I'd take a few mid-pack finishes if I could pop off the occasional top 10 every once in while.

Post race we played with the kids, grilled some food and watched Charlie race in the kids event. He was doing well but crashed out half way through lap 2. He felt bad later on for not finishing the race, but I was proud of him for getting out there in the first place. He was really having fun until he took that soil sample.

GP Gloucester Day 1: 10.3.09

2009-10-07T03:49:00.000-07:00

There seems to be two personality types that race cross and they manifest themselves in the equipment that you see rolling around the course. Some guys have glimmering, silent machines, perfectly matched and currently styled shoes, helmet, skinsuit, gloves, saddle, bar tape, spotless cotton sidewalls, the perfect race support vehicle, and a second set of everything in equally pristine condition. Others have raggedy bikes that creak, skinsuits with holes in them, shoes that barely stay fastened shut, and some nasty ass looking wheels.

I'm clearly in that second group.

Perhaps it is a function of income or spare time, I don't have enough of either to outfit myself with the latest or to maintain my equipment to look shiny new. If it a matter of desire, well, I guess I don't have enough of that either.

My bike is usually a mess functionally too. It creaks and doesn't shift as smoothly as most, but it's cross, I figure I'll find some gear that will turn the rear wheel. I'm just not too hung up on it.

Kenny and I arrived Friday afternoon to inspect the course. We felt super pro and discussed the best way to maintain speed on a layout that was much twistier than in years past. We rode on section of 8 or 9 switchbacks a least a half a dozen times, trying to find the best lines around the circuit.

Arriving at the course on a rainy Saturday morning proved that all of our expert reconnaissance work was wasted effort. The place was a track of think, sticky mud snaking around the park. What happened to the dry gravelly soil that this place was supposed to have being so close to the ocean? I felt better knowing that I hadn't bothered to glue up the file treads, they would have been useless.

So it turned out that my dirty, creaky bike was perfectly suited for the task ahead. I dove into the mud for a few warm up laps without thinking twice, while I noticed a lot of pretty boys and their glimmering white bar tape sticking close to their cars and the paved roads.

The pre-ride before the race only served to get me cold and wet, but it did give my new gloves and opportunity to shine. They are kayaking gloves a guy I work with gave me a few years ago that I had lost track of until recently. My body was cold but my hands were warm despite being soaking wet. If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick some up.

At the start of my master's 35+ 123 race, I took a middle lane, different than the usual right hand side position I like at Gloucester. There were 70+ racers in this field, the biggest of the year so far by quite a bit. The new start position and slightly less aggressive strategy didn't seem to change much, I made it off the pavement around 25th, just a bit behind my normal spot.

Somehow there were very few crashes that I saw, despite the mud. There were a lot of turns for Gloucester, and the haters were probably happy that it was no grass crit. I was not. Mud gets in all sorts of places in a race like this. Everywhere. By the end of the first lap my skinsuit was hanging below my arse it was so heavy with water and dirt. Felt like one big wet diaper. I think.

Unfortunately I recall very few details of the race. There was a lot of mud. More than I thought there would be. Despite this the run up was easier than I expected. Apparently it stopped raining during our race for a short time, but it was difficult to tell. Bill Shattuck was clearly coming back during the last three laps of the race and I was committed to passing him with a bit of conviction when I finally caught him... that happened with about half a lap to go. Ryan Laroque had a good race even though he said before hand that he hated this kind of slop and he "sucked at it." He passed me with 3 to go and I stayed with him until the very end, where he kicked into another gear and got three spots on me in the last 5 minutes of racing. His sucking is apparently 3 spots better than my best effort! My last remount after the barriers resulted in me smashing my sensitive bits off the back of my seat not once, but twice much to the delight of the beergarteners. That damn heavy chamois was holding me down!

During lap 3 I was reminded how strong Mavic wheels can be and why I may never race anything else. I learned first hand about how strong Ksyrium wheels were way back in 2005 with a set of Ksyrium Elites I owned. They are Mavic's entry level clincher wheel that I raced for my first 3.5 seasons of cross. I also raced them on the road and never once had them trued. At a race in Lake Pleasant, MA that fall, I hit a stump and was thrown sideways at full speed in a wooded section of the course. I landed sideways, crashed spectacularly, and was sure that the rear wheel tacoed. Not even a wiggle in the damn thing.

Fast forward to Gloucester 2009. I'm hauling ass across the long back stretch of the course when I get a bit to close to a course stake and suck it into my rear wheel. It jams into the spokes and up against my frame and left leg, bringing the wheel to an abrupt stop and causing me to leave one sweet skid mark in the dirt. I pull out the stake, notice the mangled spoke and give the wheel a spin: dead on balls straight.

The stake in the wheel incident caused me to loose contact with Keith Gauvin and Jon Bernard. I eventually rolled in for 22nd. My best finish so far in 2009 according to crossresults.com

No photos of my race, but here are a few of the elite men and women.

PVB at the top of the run up

Spinelli in the switchbacks

The Ladies of October Racing

Fellow Zanconato Racing rider Karen Potter on her way to a solid finish. We like Karen because she's super cool and rides a bike really fast.

Catamount Cross Day 2: 9.27.09

2009-10-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a week behind here so I'll make this one quick... Got to get to the Gloucester reports.

No proofreadin either... its' late.

The best thing about the VT races are that there are only two of them. This course is so hilly it's hard to put into words. It is stunningly beautiful up there but the pain of doing these races makes me yearn for the flat lands of Southern New England cross racing.

Depending on how they lay it out, you either get 10 of the short punchy 5 second climbs per lap or one or two long minute plus. Saturday's dry track had the punchy climbs, so Sunday's rainy parcours was going to feature the leg busting climb to the clouds right at the beginning of every lap.

With the points from the first day I got a call up... no big deal but it was something that I had been looking forward to. I was happy to be relatively close to the front and shared some nervous chuckling with this Handlebars rider from NY who had two great races on the weekend.

The first lap hurt. Hurt like stomping baby shoes to the crotch hurt. The climb wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, there was enough draft to make the effort getting up the hill disproportionate to the speed I was actually traveling. That is always a plus. This course was wet last year for the Sunday races as well, making the well worn main path around the place a dangerous spot to ride. Where the worn path was deep was the worst: if you got in there you'd damn well better keep it straight because it would suck your wheel to the side if you clipped the edge. Think of it like the cycling version of the game of "Operation" but instead of getting buzzed you'd get to face plant over your bars.

On lap two I got lazy and rolled into the groove on the upper field where the speed was high. I glanced the side of the track, tried to correct, and found myself pedaling forward with my front wheel turned 20 degrees to the left. There was no hope of saving it and I went down after what seemed like and endless fall. This tossed my chain and the whole thing probably took me 45 seconds to correct.

I started to make my way back up but it should be said that the guys towards the back of the field aren't slow. They may finish 3 minutes behind but getting through them isn't easy... not for me at least.

Eventually I moved up and was joined by Ryan Laroque who had crashed on the first lap but made his way back. While he was eating my lunch in the fast pedaling sections and up the hill, he was riding way to conservatively on the descent. He dropped me badly on the uphill portion of the course, but I caught him relatively easily on the descent. I began to wonder about how we could work together to move up with such a wide disparity in strengths, and then we discussed it.

"Come on, keep up" he said to me on the lower field about 1/2 a lap away from the beginning of the hill. "Then stop pedaling so fucking hard" I responded. I sat on his wheel and somehow managed to keep up with him to the top of the course with 3 to go. "I'll show you the fast way down" I said, and we dropped of that hill like two rocks, catching a few more riders and edging closer to the top 30.

But talent and ability always trumps recklessness, so he kept gapping me coming through the finish straight and up the hill. We were bringing back a group of 4 guys that were just ahead of up by a few seconds each lap and with just over two to go I told him to go, that he could catch them and he shouldn't wait for me. Again I managed to stick with him to the top of the course and took the lead back down the hill, getting us closer still to that group.

At the bell we stuck together again somehow, Ryan attacked with 3/4 of a lap but didn't get far, he was trying to reach that group to catch a draft but didn't make it before the descent started again. Taking way to many chances we dropped again, this time I actually put some distance between us and I made it close enough to latch on to the group ahead. Looking back Ryan was coming, but not close enough to get on the train before the final time over the barriers and off into the field. I sat on and tried to rest, but this group was well rested and at the finish I was unable to contest, finishing 28th. Laroque almost caught me in the sprint and probably deserved the placing.

Whatever. Afterwards we laughed about what a great race it was and how much fun you can have on your bike in the rain. It was truly one of the most enjoyable races I've ever done. The hill sucked but that technical descent more than made up for it.

So, not so short, but there you go. Gloucester next.

Catamount Cross Day 1: 9.26.09

2009-10-01T02:31:00.000-07:00

Vermont is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to visit. The area around Burlington in particular - I really haven't been elsewhere - is there anything that Chittenden County doesn't have? Lake Champlain, colleges, a hip vibrant city, beautiful mountains and friendly people. It is a long 4 hr drive from home, but well worth the trip.

I'd never been there before the last year's edition of the Catamount Cyclocross weekend, but that trip and a long weekend at the stone hut on Mt. Mansfield in January were all it took to sell me on the whole Vermont thing. Reports are that the mountain biking is excellent as well. They have Ben and Jerry's and the Cider House. It could only be better if Long Trail Harvest Ale flowed from every faucet in the state.

[/end link fest]

We left the kids home with Grandma and went up early to get a day in the city before the weekend of racing. Friday was a perfectly sunny day: we a bit of strolling, had a nice ride on the bike path, checked out the race course at sunset... very romantic. We met the boys at the Cider House for dinner, and once again the meal was excellent.

We woke Saturday to find it bright but cool and windy. A beautiful fall day with the foliage at about 30%. Here's the camp:

Verge races are always stressful, but this venue doesn't help at all. This may be the toughest course of the year, the way it was laid out had us going up and down theses short punchy climbs one after another after another. There was no place to recover on this course, and these Verge races bring out the best in the field so I lined up in the third row in a lane behind Roger Aspholm thinking that this should open up nicely.

At the whistle the pace was, err... high. Yeah... it opened up a bit. Holy $hit was it fast. I had moved to about "10th holeshot" but by the third turn I was around 17th. It became immediately apparent that this was no Suckerbrook. I don't recall much of the first two laps, they were full on race pace tongue wagglin' sufferfest. I was riding with Jon Foley who was incredibly smooth in the corners but didn't speed up on the straights. I couldn't match his speed in either place though, which suggests that my straight away speed is about how fast he can corner. Impressive.

I laid it down in a dry grassy turn just after the start of lap three and slid back to around 20th. A half a lap later I was trying to get back in touch with the guys I had been riding with before but of course they were never to be seen again. Here's the barriers on lap three.

I eventually settled in with two Bikeman riders... Stephan Marcoux and Ryan Rumsey, but honestly there are 4 or 5 guys on that team that look exactly alike so I didn't know who they were until afterwards. The three of us rode away from a group of four that was right behind and then we settled in a bit, not extending our lead but not losing any ground either. Here's one of those punchy uphills. The straw you see on the ground was slick and too much power to the rear wheel was sure to break it free. It was still super fast.

I circled the course for the final 3 laps following Marcoux and Rumsey and started to think about just getting to the finish and staying in the points. They go 25 deep this year (as opposed to 15 last year) and as you all know those with points get called up for the preferred starting positions at the following series races. I've got no delusions of a front row start, I just don't want to have to be known as the guy who registers super early so he can get the best possible starting spot amongst those with out any points. I'm already known as that guy, I should just embrace it.

So I shamelessly sucked wheel and didn't ride aggressively the entire time but occasionally got second wheel when the paranoia set in that Rumsey was blocking to spring Marcoux. Here we crest the ride/run up on lap 6.

I felt like a tool for doing so little work that rather than sitting on and trying to out sprint them at the finish I figured the honorable thing to do was to attack with 1/4 lap to go and try to hold it. If they caught me, they deserved it and if I stayed away, well, at least it wasn't a cheap "win."

I took off on the back side of the course into the wind and got 10 bike lengths pretty quickly. Through the last few turns I was losing my advantage but hoped that the effort the others had put in to get back to me had them just as tired as I was quickly getting.

Not so much.

Here's the drag up to the line. They both passed me well before the finish.

I collapsed in dramatic fashion after crossing the line to finish 21st. I was happy to be in the points but once again humbled by the quality of this field. Missing from last year were Mark McCormick, Mark Stotz, John Meerse and a bunch of 45+ guys that kicked my ass last year but with a change to the race format were doing a different field this year. Still, I was 17th in 2008.

Listen, I'm comfortable being slower, but I don't think that was the case. In fact, I think I'm in better shape than last year but the front of this field is so damn fast. Hell, the back of the field is fast. It's going to be a great season, I hope to stay competitive and healthy.

I'm no longer the fastest guy without a Verge point, but I may be the slowest guy with one. I admit it was nice not having to stress at noon today when Sterling registration opened... I'm thinking about registering day of for that one... just because I can.

Sucker Brook Cross: 9.19.09

2009-09-22T19:41:00.001-07:00

We loaded up the crossvagen and headed north to Argyle Sock's kick ass season opener in Auburn, NH. This race is awesome. Good vibe and a great course... especially if you like fast racing like I do.

The car was stacked to the gills, but performed it's duty admirably.

We got there too late for me to enter the 35+ 123 field as I had planned, so I signed on the dotted line for the 3 race. Headed over to the start as the 35+ race ended to see that everyone was already lined up for the 3s. Holt cr@p people like to get that early spot. We lined up at the back.

At the whistle I started DFLish, but moved up the right hand side and got into the top 20 (50 or so starters) within 1/3 of a lap. Here's a tip for new racers: Keep pedaling after the first 30 seconds.. ya know, when everyone else starts to slow down.... just keep going and you'll move up. The start is a 60-75 second interval, not a 30-45 second one.

Through the first lap I was moving up steadily, and just after the start of lap two I was right around 15th. The race was strung out, but I moved up by outbraking everyone in one off camber corner and by cutting the tangent on another tricky up and down section that led to an uphill set of barriers. I improved my position on every lap in those two places. I spent most of that time following this guy, a messenger I'd have to guess based on the bike handling exhibition he put on prior to the start. Nasty skills, but about 15 minutes into it he disappeared.

With 4 to go I was 9th and just as I got to that lead group the eventual winner got off the front. His lead increased by 2-3 seconds each lap while I was slowly improving my position in the group: up to 7th, back to 9th, back to 7th, up to 5th, to 2nd, then eventually trading pulls with a guy from VT because it seemed that we were slowing down a bit.

With two to go I put in a hard effort over the S/F line and shed our group down to four and had a brief thought about trying to reach the leader who was 12 seconds up. No one else seemed willing to pull him back though, but they were taking turns so I decided to stay put and give it my best shot at second. With 1.5 laps I attacked again to drop one guy who I knew to be a good sprinter and it worked. At the bell there were three of us gunning for the last two podium spots... the leader wasn't getting caught.

A bikebarn rider took the lead in the field and gave us a nice draft for a minute or two. He led into the woods and the pace wasn't insane: I started thinking that this would be a three up sprint to the line. On the second half of the woods portion of the course after the 90 left hand turn the CL Noonan rider turns it on a bit and passes bikebarn. I followed and was surprised that the bikebarn rider totally gave up his position. Just then the CL Noonan rider kind of slows down, and I stormed past him just by holding the pace that he had set.

I kept that up through the sand pit and coming out of it I realized I had a 5 second gap. It wasn't that much of an effort, but here I was, away clear for second place after 20 seconds of hard riding. I checked back a few times, but they were done and I finished 2nd from the back row.

The teammates rode well, one had a flat, another just getting back to real racing after a year in the mid-west (sorry guys) and the third learning how to get into the cave. We grilled kielbasa and drank dark beer afterwards. It was great.

Here Kenny drills it through the sand.

Next week: VERGE race #1 in WIlliston, VT

huffing mastik

2009-09-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

10 days until the first serious race of the season, and it's time to reglue the tubbies. My FMBs are on their last few races... They went on with the Belgian method (glue and tape together) so I'm leaving them be. The Grifo XSs had to come off to address a flat, and the repaired one is stretching right now. The Fangos pictured came off pretty easy on a glue-only job, I'm glad in hindsight to have pulled them off before they decided on their own when to go.

This is a sweet layer of glue on which to build. The base tape looks great too.

I can't wait for Sucker Brook this Sunday. It is our official pre-season here in NE.

Lengthy D2R2 report for those dissatisfied with the prior post...

2009-08-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

I first heard about this ride from quasi-teammate Helicopter Matt, who rode the inaugural event the full 170k distance. He spoke of steep hills, loose dirt roads, and a whole lot of pain. Matty is a strong rider, and by strong I don't mean super powerful on the flats or nimble on the climbs, though he is clearly no slouch. I mean that he's the kind of guy who goes as hard as he can no matter the circumstances, isn't afraid of a challenge, and would ride a fixed gear messenger bike at a dual slalom downhill race if that was all he had available to him. Tough is a good way to describe him, or better still, Polish. I'm Lithuanian so I kind of get it...

Anyway, I missed the 2008 event for some reason despite the rave reviews from the crew over at vsalon. I made it a point to sign up for 2009. The ride is so great the legendary Richard Sachs decided to sell his home in Chester CT and relocate to Franklin county after 30 years in the nutmeg state. I selected the 100k option because riding your bike should be fun, not torture, and you shouldn't hate your bike after any one ride. The 170k threatened all of these principles.

Saturday August 15th was the date of the ride and coincidentally the first day of a week long family vacation on Lake Winnipesaukee. The crew (Mike Z, Rebecca Z, Kenny A, John M, and Gary S) were supposed to meet at the park and ride at 6:30 am, but when I arrived at 6:35, John (also Lithuanian, which would help him out later in the day) was no where to be seen. Our call to his cell phone woke him from his summer slumber: those damn school teachers have the life except for the poor pay, incompetent administrators, self-serving union heads and parents who can't seem to understand or teach their children about the concept of self-accountability. "Meet us there" we said and off we drove, fully expecting that John would not be making the trip up alone and choose additional sleep instead.

We arrived in Deerfield about 90 minutes later and shortly after registering Johnny boy pulls in. What a trooper! We exchanged pleasantries with some low to mid level cycling icons, folks that have at one time or another at least thought if not said out loud "don't you know who I am?" I could name names, but they know who they are.

We had been warned to be prepared for the first hill, which was so steep that if you didn't get there first you were invariably going to be held up by the bottleneck of riders and forced to dismount. Kind of like a cross race, but without the coordinated start and subsequent hole shot. The preferred manner of preparing for this hill was to be first to go and charge into it like the run into the Arenberg Forest. Queue up the Ride of the Valkyries. Alas, we were late to the start and left the registration area at 5 past 9 am or so. Hold the Wagner for now, but we did set a good tempo heading out.

The first 4 miles or so were nice, paved country roads and we all remarked on how pretty it was around there. Two fit chikas from Vernon cycle blasted past us on the first climb and someone commented that the testosterone levels just jumped through the roof as the pace picked up just a bit. Ronnie did well to keep up riding one of the ugliest yet most practical bikes I've ever laid eyes on or ridden... it was awesome but heavy. At mile 4.85 the fun began as Old Albany Rd turned first to dirt, then to gravel, then to a 10%+ washed out climb littered with the aforementioned hike-a-bikers. Johnny was leading it out and I had his wheel, but 1/3 of the way up he slid a bit to much to the left where the sand was soft and the walkers were dense. His cries of "oh no!" meant the climb was done for him. I took first wheel and held firm to the middle of the road which wasn't the most packed down but was free from pedestrians and offered options to both the left and right should I come across any trouble. The road was in best shape where the tires of a car would be, and with the better traction people tended to push their bikes there. I yelled "you people walking, move to the edges so we can ride the firmer stuff" as I grunted past several others, probably sounding and acting more obnoxious than someone wearing a team kit should. I'm sure I bumped a few people looking for some grip. Two minutes into the climb we had cleared the steepest and roughest parts, and only Kenny and I had made it so far without dabbing. Gary and John were back with us but had unclipped on the lower slopes of the hill. Kenny and I traded turns until he inexplicably went up a small knoll just of the road and slid out on the grass. We pushed along and our crew regrouped as we turned left onto South Shelborne Rd. for some super fast and fun dirt road descending. Yahoo!!!

Crossing Rt 2 we had caught up with 3 ECV guys, one of whom I knew from the cross scene to be a strong rider... the kind of guy who never looks like he's working very hard at all. The others two ECV guys were clearly strong as well and as we climbed the second major hill of the day, Cooper Lane, the pace picked up. "Here come the pros" a few slower riders said as our group, now 8-10 strong, thundered up the incline. This road was in better shape and wasn't so steep so the speed was relatively high. We dropped a few guys, but crested the hill at a farmhouse that overlooked a beautiful valley to the east. The road turned to asphalt and we roared down then right back up the valley walls. The view from the top was breathtaking. Picture perfect green hills and crystal clear blues skies. The sun was starting to really heat things up, and here for the first time it was noticeably hotter being out of the woods. We plugged along the final small climb before the rest stop at 13 miles.

I've not had an Oreo in a few years, but that one was delicious. Gary agreed and we shoved off after refilling our water. Until this point, we pretty much had someone in front of us to follow the entire way, but leaving rest stop #1 we were on the point with John as navigator. Well, things got dicey. He'd read one direction at a time, we hit it 30 seconds later, and pass two or three possible turns unsure if we were missing something. Most of the directions came at less than a mile intervals, in fact the longest stretch of the day was only 5 miles with only one other section longer than 3. When we blew past a left turn onto Reynolds Rd. the taunting began. A woman on a sweet Colnago was cackling at John incessantly, and I goaded her into teasing him further. "Hey Magellan, do you need a bigger map?" she asked, cackling further . He was responding to that barb when I said "ok, ok Vasco DeGamma, just get up here and tell us what is up next." John took it all in good humor but this wasn't shaping up to be his day.

We reached some paved roads in Colrain and kept the pace up, passing many on rt 112 before we pulled up with our only flat of the day: John. Ronnie caught us on his Fargo and a relatively lengthy tire change was at least made bearable by the shade of the road side trees. Off again we were 6 strong, having picked up an Arc En Ciel rider who had been generally hanging around with us but seemed to like to attack whenever he got the chance. He had waited while we changed John's tire but immediately took off never to be seen again which was pretty strange.

Our third major climb of the day started out innocently enough with a turn onto Franklin Hill Rd and a bit of confusion as to which of three left turn options was the road and which were driveways. The myriad of tire tracks led up to the first option, and the road gradually grew loose and steep. Gary and Kenny hit the hill hard and I latched on and rode third wheel for 2 minutes or so. The pace slowed a bit but I felt great so I jumped around and pushed ahead, eventually opening a small gap though I didn't know it until we hit this sweet left/right dirt road switchback combination that afforded you a alpe d'huez-like view of the road from which you just came. Awesome. We regrouped, crossed into Vermont, and headed into the northern-most and mostly flat or downhill sections of the ride.

I should mention here that most people we saw were on cross bikes. Perhaps as many as 60% of the riders were using them with their 32-36 mm (about 1.25" to 1.5") wide knobbed tires. Maybe another 25% were on mountain bikes with tires in the 2-2.5 inch width range, with the remaining idiots riding road bikes with 23-28 mm (.75"-1") wide slick tires. Count our entire group in that last category. It was in this section that we first discovered that a wider knob covered tire would have been nice to have. We bombed the hills anyway, hitting speeds of 30+ mph on dirt roads and feeling so much vibration through the bars and pedals that your hands and feet stung. Kenny, Gary and I were dropping fast, passing lots of people on bikes better equipped for the job, but there was no sign of Mike or John. We pulled to the side and waited while others passed, a few saying that "one of your guys had a flat" but soon "one of your guys crashed." This was not good news and we waited for what seemed like forever with a growing crowd of friends.

John and Mike came into view and it was clear that John had gone down. He had that glassy look in his eyes and he kept saying "I don't know how I went down." However it happened, it must have been hard as his helmet was destroyed and his arm and jersey were pretty torn up. We regrouped and rolled out to the next rest stop which was just a few miles away. There, John was pressured into calling it a day, no one wanted to see him crash again and he was clearly not in the right state of mind to go another 30 miles or so. We dined on PB&J sandwiches and the best trail mix I've ever had in my life.

The handling of John took some time, and friends Ronnie, Tom N and Brian G had all waited for us which was nice. What was not nice was the way we hit Green River Rd coming out of that stop. The 10 miles immediately after the stop were flat, fast, twisty and tons of fun. Mike Z set an insane pace in the high 20s for 4 miles or so, and when he pulled off we had dropped the guys who had waited so long for us. Whoopsie! I'd say "sorry" but can't because I took over and kept the pace high, screaming along the river on this gnarly dirt road that made you think of the spring classics. Replay that Valkyries now. Gary eventually came to the front and drove the final section and later we learned that Kenny was right at the edge of popping here... the long stop combined with eating lunch took the wind out of his sails and 350 watt+ pulls were not helping him get back into it.

The fun of this flat road ended quickly when we turned right onto Nelson Rd, which climbed up and away from the river below. This was the fourth major climb of the day, and it hurt after that run along the valley floor. The grade was steady and the dirt not so loose, but we were now 3 hours or so into this thing, the sun was hotter than ever, and what the hell were we thinking by bombing along that river road?! Gary and I once again set the pace, with Kenny and Mike just behind. Our ascent continued on for 6 miles mostly on dirt and finishing with an absolute beast of a climb up Peckville Rd to the third water stop. This final mile was a straight up stair-step paved road out in the wide open and very hot sun. Gary and I duked it out and pulled into the rest stop craving more water and food. They had the best fresh-picked peaches and plums I had ever eaten.. and I ate many that afternoon.

The next set of directions was interesting, with the cue sheet telling us to first turn right onto Rt. 2, then right onto a side road, only to turn back left onto Rt. 2 a mile or so later. We all knew what that meant: some smarta$$ wanted us to climb some ungodly steep hill that they found rather than sending us the most direct way. Sure enough, we turned onto and then off rt 2 to discover Skinner Rd went pretty much straight up for 200 meters. Back across Rt 2 we were heading into the final sections of the ride and the "gnarly descent" of Hawk's Rd per the cue sheet. Gnarly but fun and a bit frightening on bikes clearly not suited for the purpose. We all survived though and merged back onto one of the paved roads that we had started the ride on, around the spot that the two girls had passed us.

We picked up two guys on cross bikes for the run in to the finish, and a train formed as we flew across the fields abutting the Deerfield River. We arrived safe and happy and were glad to see John hop out of the organizers truck a few minutes later looking a bit better and glad he had choosen to get a ride back. We cleaned up at Deerfield Academy and enjoyed free food and beer courtesy of Bershire Brewing Company.

An hour after finishing the ride I met my mother at Yankee Candle to pick up the kids and take them north to the lake house a short 3 hour drive away. It was a long day, but I will not miss D2R2 in the years to come regardless of what else may be going on. I would love to ride this course in the rain on cross bike but when dry, a road bike is more than enough.

Stats: 61.5 miles, 7,500' climbing, 4:20 minutes ride time.
Gearing: 53/39 front, 12/27 rear
Wheels: DT swiss 1.1 rims 32 h on dura ace front hub, power tap rear. Bontrager hard case 25 mm tires
Bottles consumed: about 6

Next: Le Tour de Winnepesaukee and how to catch small mouth bass

shame on you...

2009-08-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

for missing D2R2.

best. ride. ever.

sensational

2009-07-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

I shot out of work early yesterday (by 15 minutes) to get on the bike and ride down to Middletown RI to surprise the family. Taking today off to hit the beach was one of the best decisions I've made in the past 18 months relative to work... There wasn't much going on and after a spring/summer of non-stop crappy weather, today was a home run. The kids were surprised when I rolled in to my father in laws last night.

Here's a few pics from the beach.

back on the bike

2009-07-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

I've been back to riding, but not much and not very hard. The R knee still feels off, not painful, just not right, so I'm not pushing it.

This cross season may be more about the party and less about the racing.

It'll be fun anyway.

drw

2009-06-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

incredible

it's game 7

just stay home if you're going to put in that kind of effort.

I'm calling out Brad Stewart. He sucked right from the drop of the puck. He was 100% @ fault for goal #1 and 50% for goal #2, sharing the honor with Hudler.

Rafalski, Lebda and yeah, even Lidstrom weren't much better.

I saw Zetterberg and Hossa on the ice after the game, prior to that it wasn't clear that they were even playing.

That was awful.

I'm happy for Pittsburg because as a hockey fan I'm glad that a team that wanted it went out there and got it.

Good job Pens!

DRWs need to take a long look in the mirror.

rv living

2009-05-24T04:49:00.000-07:00

My father has worked in retail for years, the past 30 or so in furniture sales. In the early 80's we were living in Western Mass and he worked at the Lay-Z-Boy store in West Springfield. He left that job and worked briefly for a company called Scandinavian Design in West Hartford and Long Island. It was like an upscale Ikea and I recall going to NY to look at houses.

I like to think that it was divine intervention that had him leave that company and save us from a life in the Empire state.

He returned to Lay-Z-Boy, but to a new franchise in RI. That was quite a trip from Ludlow, so he bought a small trailer, parked it behind the store, and lived out of that thing for 7 months or so. It was small, the next thing down was a popup and one of those probably would have been bigger once unfolded. I recall that it had a tiny "kitchen" and the "living room" doubled as the "bedroom" at night.

During the summer when I was out of school I'd go down and spend a few days in the RV, wandering around Warwick while my dad worked. Retail is tough on a family man: late nights and weekends are standard, so I learned to entertain myself. Dad's store was in a very busy retail section of town, near the intersection of two highways, two malls and too many strip malls to count. I'd pass the days walking down to the two malls: the Midland Mall (later renamed the Rhode Island Mall) was way better than the Warwick Mall, if for no other reason than it had two floors and a pet store.

I recall that the deli across the street had the best ham and cheese subs for $.99, though it was really $.90 worth of bread and $.09 worth of cheese and meat. Playing in the store after hours while my dad worked in the office was a blast, probably the best part of it all. I rode my bike a lot there as well, but it was just a BMX bike so I kept it local, spending hours upon hours in the parking lot trying to pull off tail-whips and cherry pickers.

The Warwick Mall has since caught and passed the RI Mall on the coolness scale, even though it still only has one floor.

My new ride

2009-05-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Between a hurt knee and the NHL playoffs our couch has seen a lot of my ass the past few weeks. We've had a lot of Friendly's ice cream in the house lately, so the ass in question is getting bigger too. This Sunday will mark two weeks since any sort of ride for me, and now that I'm out of the ironman I can't say that I'm anxious about it. There's plenty of time until cross season, and taking time to heal completely is my new objective for the spring.

That's a training program anyone can get used to. Most people have gotten used to that plan I suppose, too many really.

The ass getting bigger line is an exaggeration, the scale has been pretty kind to me and I'm only up 3-4 lbs over my "fighting weight," but I have virtually no appetite. I can't loose weight when I exercise a lot and can't gain it with lethargy.

I'm having a heated argument with a co-worker as to which college sport is more popular nationally... Men's hockey or Women's softball. I was reluctant to agree when he suggested that Men's baseball was more popular than hockey, but since he's from Oklahoma and I think that is where the College World Series is I figured he knew something I didn't. But when he tried to push hockey down below women's softball, I had to put my foot down. He was going to have his dad who was in Vegas to ask someone at the sports book which sport got more action, but he forgot. That was going to be the thing that settled our debate.

This guy's dad heads out to Vegas (from OK... no big deal) once or twice a year. Ten years ago or so my friend approached me saying that his dad was looking for someone who knew hockey to give him some picks. I was deeply involved in a fantasy hockey league at the time so I handed over 20 or so predictions. I got something like 18 of them right and every year since I get a call from my friend and know exactly what is coming. I'm always promised a little "something special" if the guys wins big, but I don't follow the league as closely as I once did and my picks have suffered from it. I don't think I've broken the .500 mark with my picks since that first year, but the guy seeks out my advice nonetheless. I think I was 3-12 this week. I thought defense won championships, but apparently not this year.

The wagon search continues, but it's not like looking for a house where you know that the right place must be out there somewhere. There are only so many mfgrs that I'd buy from, and all of the models that they make are fairly well documented. The Subaru Forester looks nice, but is 15% beefier than it really has to be. On my last ride I stopped to ask this guy who was working on his lawn mower how he liked his 1991 volvo wagon and he thought I wanted to buy it. He owns an old farmhouse in Douglas with a huge old barn on the property and he used the wagon for dump runs only. The thing was a beater, but clearly had many good years ahead of it. Dan's right... those old volvos are bomber. The guy was pretty chatty, every time I tried to leave he'd find something else to ask me about cycling, cars or living in Sutton. He took a look at my bike and then asked if I was interested in buying a "serious" bike off him. I said no thanks, but then thought that perhaps he had an old Masi or a Pogliaghi in that barn. No such luck, some sort of late 90s alu trek with an ultegra 6700 group... triple. There surely are some treasures in that barn, but a classic bike isn't one of them.

it's over johnny

2009-05-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

well, that was fun. I officially ended my ironman preparation today, canceling the condo rental and initiating the race withdrawal process as well.

Long before I signed up last July and in anticipation of that day I visited an ortho in Boston to get an idea on the likelihood that my left knee IT band problems would hold up to the training volume. Like any good doctor he made no commitment, but the early indications were good so I signed up.

My training started in January and I ramped it up pretty good through February. March 1st I spent 3 hours on the trainer and developed some pain in my right knee, along the inside edge of my knee cap. Classic Patella Femoral syndrome. I rested a few days but kept going for the most part, thought the intensity was slipping. Despite the easier efforts, the pain worsened over the next few weeks.

First it was uncomfortable when I ran but fine when I stopped, then it would hurt while riding, then would hurt for some time after rides and finally it was just sore all the time. I shut it down in mid April for 8 days but upon resuming the knee felt bad again. The training became more spotty as that was the only thing that would keep it from hurting constantly, but this past Monday was the final straw when my right IT band started to ache.

Giving this up for good wasn't easy, there were more than a few people who were/are inconvenienced and I feel I've let a few people down. But no race is worth an injury and I want to be healthy for cyclocross.

So it's done. I won't sign up again. I can't say I didn't try, so I don't expect to feel guilty about not getting to the finish line. Maybe when I'm 60 and the kids are gone I'll consider it again... but probably not.

Salud!

testosterone patch

2009-04-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Honestly I'd like to try one of these some time.

The whole performance enhancing drug scene doesn't impress me in the least, I think cheaters are amongst the lowest forms of life, but I can't say that I'm not curious as to the effects of HGH, EPO and the like. Guys dope and get caught all the time, but depending on who you listen to, everyone that isn't caught is either completely clean or completely dirty. There is one indisputable fact: none of them are me.

Isn't it hypocritical for people that have no idea what sort of effect the go-go juice has on performance to criticize those who use them? How do we know how much they help without first hand knowledge? Maybe they don't help that much at all. To assist us in properly scaling our disdain for cheaters we should all get a shot at trying some of this stuff out so we know exactly what kind of an effect it would have.

But blood transfusions and anything else delivered via a needle seem hardcore, the heroin of performance enhancers: serious shite. The testosterone patch is like marijuana... it'll still get you high but you're not a junkie if you dabble in it.

None of this will ever happen but if there was a gun to my head and I had to choose one performance enhancer I'd go with the patch and get my Floyd Landis on.

The Way Back

2009-04-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last week a younger colleague and I were traveling to a conference together in her well equipped and relatively comfortable Toyota mini-van. The van has seating for 7 with a full sized row of seats behind the second row of seats but in front of the tailgate. In discussing her van's utility she referred to this row of seats as the "way back" and I had to stop her mid sentence. "Sorry" I said "that's my generation's term, and I forbid you from ever uttering it again... unless you do so in deference to those who actually experienced a true 'way back'." I'll accept mini-van owners saying "seating for seven" or "third row seating" but "way back" is sacred ground.

No way back ever had seats. In my estimation time has cheapened the significance of the term "the way back." There once was a time when the way back was a frontier, a vast wilderness of molded plastic, carpet and safety glass. There was no direct access, you clamored over the bench seat or crawled in through the tailgate to get there. There were no seat belts or air bags, curtain or otherwise. Your protection was limited to the very low probability that you'd actually get in an accident. Entertainment was spit balls and pretend space travel, not tiny TVs hanging from the ceiling.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, loves station wagons. We love them for their sentimentality as much as their practicality. It's funny to see how car manufacturers are now trying to come up with vehicles that drive like a sedan but with the carrying capacity of an SUV. They make crossovers or CUVs... when all we really need are station wagons. They'll come up with an entirely new vehicle, when they only really needed to blow up the trunk of the better sedans on the market.

My family's first wagon was a Pinto with fake wood panels that looked just like this except it was green where this one is white. These weren't prone to explosion as far as I recall... at least ours never blew up.

We moved on to a pair of Chevy Malibu wagons, like the one below but in blue and red and without the jacked up wheels. My strongest memory of that car was slamming our dog's tail in the rear window which opened separately from the tailgate.

Take a moment and appreciate the enormity of that rear storage area. Such a beautiful thing.

Today I drove neutral support today for the Quabbin Road Race in our current wagon, a 1995 Corolla Wagon (seen below). Once again the wagon proved to be an perfectly suited tool for the job. This car is going on 1/4 of a million miles, and I'd replace it if there was something as good as it on the road.

There isn't.

Here's our other car, a wagon of sorts, but without the glorious amount of "way back" room a proper wagon should have.

But the reality is the the corolla does have 225,000 miles on it, and we've been looking. Here's what we found so far.

The first generation Matrix (below) was looking pretty good, but there was a corolla redesign coming and we were hoping for a proper wagon to replace the stubby rear end of the 2008 version.

The new Matrix was a disappointment. Check it out here. The tiny third window standing watch over the cargo area was eliminated. What the hell is that? Doesn't this create a huge blind spot? Are we as car buying consumers that afraid of station wagons that we can't handle the third window?

Apparently so... check out the Venza. A wagon by any other estimation, but again they've jumped through hoops to avoid a sizable window over the cargo area, and have created another monster blind sot in the process.

Here's the 2002 Protege 5, another good looking car. This is a respectable small wagon.

The Mazda3 replaced it, and again the third window has been hacked down to near non-existence.

Hyundai's new Elantra wagon sedan seems to be afraid of that rear window too, but perhaps the name "Touring Sedan" will help it overcome the station wagon stigma.

Hopefully some of the euro "touring sedans" make their way stateside, like this straight sexy accord wagon.

That is a way back I can relate to.

Having fun

2009-04-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's ride confirmed a something about triathlon that I have known for years but just recently came to fully understand and appreciate.

Triathlon sucks.

I've been riding a bike since I was a kid. I started banging around the neighborhood like everybody else, spent many hours pedaling around delivering papers, and got interested in BMX & freestyle in the years right before I began to drive. I started mountain biking in college and it never occurred to me that riding a bike would be anything other than fun.

I bought my first real road bike 6 years ago and did a few triathlons mostly because a few of my riding partners were doing them as well. The bike part was always my favorite, I never liked running much and swimming wasn't a whole lot of fun either. I moved on to road racing and cyclocross to continue to compete without the running and swimming, but my focus had changed significantly. I worried more about watts, results, and crossresults points than about having fun.

The joy had been sucked out of riding.

But that's nothing compared to training for an Ironman.

I started training in January for IMLP, logging 7-12 hours per week, watching everything I ate, and spending a lot of time alone just pounding out the miles. After the first 10 weeks of my program, my right knee developed some mild pain. Pushing through that for the next 5 weeks was hurting more and more, so I shut it down two weeks ago to try and fully recover. I stressed over the injury for nearly two months worried how I was going to heal while still maintaining fitness, and whether I'd be well enough to complete the event itself. At best I was looking at a very long day, 14 hours or more, and at worst I wouldn't even be able to start.

Looking back, most of the training time and miles have just been stressful. Not relaxing or enjoyable at all, but something else to maintain and worry about. It is for this reason I don't own a dog: they are one more thing that requires time and maintenance.

The recent time off got my knee feeling better but that's no way to prep for an Ironman. My physical therapist/coach/friend told me to ride this weekend, I needed to get out and put some time in as we were under the gun. To stay close to home I took the 29er out to the trails behind our house.

OMG what a great time. This ride reminded me that cycling is supposed to be fun. Cleaning some fresh twisties, dropping off steep rocks, railing the switchbacks, and point and shoot downhill runs are so much more fun than being hunched over a set of aerobars pounding out the miles all alone. Crits are great too and of course cyclocross.

But even with cross somewhere along the way riding my bike(s) got way to serious. Thom came to the same epiphany in his 3.23.09 post. There's no reason not to enjoy each and every ride.

If the Ironman doesn't happen because of my knee, I'm comfortable with that and would not try and sign up for the race in the future. Why? Triathlons are not fun. Training for triathlons is not fun. Maybe it is for some people, but not for me. Sure, there's a lot of energy at the start and the finish but very little about the actual race is enjoyable either. Most people do them for the accomplishment of finishing or breaking a personal record and not the enjoyment of the actual event. This is now seems to be a waste of time.

All this said, I do want to finish the race for the same reason I signed up to begin with: to complete a grueling endurance race before I die. My motive for doing the race hasn't changed, nor has my desire, but I've not caught the Triathlon "bug" if there is such a thing that's for sure. I do hope that my knee holds up to the training... and through the race. If am able to finish, I hope I do well and finish before it gets dark. I hope my wife, kids and friends will be there at the finish so I can thank them for the sacrifices that they made.

After July 26th I'll leave the multi-sport cr@p to the tri-geeks. Let them chase negative splits, smooth transitions, and worry about fueling strategies.

None of that fits my definition of leisure time, so I'll simply go out for a ride.

Play ball!!

2009-04-07T04:07:00.000-07:00

Phish FP 2009

Tried to imbed (embed?), but this video is worth the link.

after the battle, the smell of lime, we miss our friends

2009-04-05T04:21:00.000-07:00

Last night was the perfect storm for having weird dreams, which I usually forget the instant I wake up. This time though a hard ride yesterday followed by late night movies lead to a memorable night's sleep.

A group of us headed out for a tour of the scenic and historic Blackstone Valley for the second edition of a ride I call de Ronde von Blackstone Valley. It's a tribute to the greatest of the spring classics, the Tour of Flanders, but in name and calendar situation only. My event is around 50 miles with rolling terrain and well maintained roads, while Flanders features 17 cobblestone covered climbs and regular carnage.

The radar was ominous so we headed out expecting the worst, but we got nary a sprinkling all day. The only consistent weather phenomenon we were dealing with was the incredibly gusty wind which had us riding pitched over off camber more than once. Brant and Colin set a pretty high pace early on, something just at the limit of conversational. We hit our first longer climb about 18 miles in, and there was a lot of spinning. The difference between being in front and in back was huge: out of the wind you were thinking "man this pace is slow" but at the front it was all business.

Unlike last year, Colin wasn't bitching about not having any miles in his legs, but he was clearly reserving the right to qualify his performance based on the fact that he was riding his cross bike which was equipped with, amongst other things, wide handlebars, a 46 tooth big ring, and anti-aero cantilever brakes. Kenny was concerned about the length of the ride, so he spent a good deal of time sitting in, as did Tom.

We only contested one town line, I hit 1300 watts at the outset of that effort and held Colin off for the win. The last 15 miles of our ride featured 3 serious climbs, including the road up through Purgatory Chasm State Park and the infamous Sutton Dip. Despite very little riding this spring, Kenny hung tough up Purgatory but he joined Tom off the back on the dip. The multiple difficult climbs at the end of a hard ride cracked all of us, but not enough to stop some shenanigans coming home along Manchaug Lake Rd. I attacked the group with 2k to go and only Brant responded, and we got an instant gap. When he took the front I stood to get into his draft and cramped. I was done.

Check the map below as well as the power graph... notice the spikes towards the end? Reindeer games...

Apres ride we had some homemade lasagna and bread, sampled tasty Long Trail beers and chatted about our 2009 plans. While everyone has a different focus for the beginning and middle part of the season, we'll all be gearing up for cyclocross soon enough.

The kids were away so I stayed up late looking for a decent movie to watch and found Braveheart. I got hooked in until midnight, and went to bed exhausted.

I started to dream about being at University. I often dream about school, but never good stuff like beer die, single women and Sega NHL 93. Usually I'm panicked about some assignment or class that I have completely lost track of and am about to fail. This was the case last night, but three hours of Braveheart put some serious english on the topic of my dream.

I realized that a poetry class I was taking was giving the final in 5 minutes and I hadn't been to class in months. I made it to class in time, to find everyone dressed like Robert the Bruce. The professor was a big fan of the middle ages, and apparently our assignment was to deliver a poem to the class that reflected on the reality of life during the Wars of Scottish Independence.

Soon enough I was standing in a foggy field listening to my classmates participate in a bizarre poetry jam, emulating the kooks you see at Renaissance Fairs complete with smelly clothes and horse swords. The handful of people willing to volunteer for the humiliation of this final exam had completed their poems and the professor started to scan the rest of the class for the next victim. Of course I was next, and as he pointed to me a teacher's aid approached from behind to guide me out to the presentation area. "The smell of lime" she whispered in my ear.

Two things to note here. Much like Princess Isabella did for William Wallace in the movie, this fair maiden/teacher's aid was trying to help me survive the day. Strange I would bring that into the dream but stranger still may be that I knew in an instant that lime was an important component of burying dead at that time in history.

I was about to ace my final.

I took a knee, stuck my sword into the mossy earth, and slowly looked up at the class.

"After the battle, the smell of lime, we miss our friends"

The professor, who apparently had no idea that I had missed most of the semester, was tearing up and applauding with long, slow claps: medieval style. I realize I'm making a lot of assumptions about what life in England was like in the middle centuries, but I've seen Braveheart and the freecreditreport.com commercial enough to consider myself something of an expert.

Whoops... the Tour of Flanders is on TV... gotta go.

keg stands

2009-03-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

It's been years since I last did a keg stand. My father had never done one, didn't even know what it was in fact.

Until Saturday night.

My mom threw a surprise party for my dad who turned 65 today. As the party was dying down my cousin commented that there was still a lot of beer in the keg he had brought. I jokingly suggested we do keg stands to draw it down a bit. One of my dad's co-worker leapt up in excitement, all to willing to take the first pull. He was a big guy, came to the icy keg brimming with experience, and posted a strong 18 count.

I was leading the remaining guests in goading dad to mount up, but like an animal backed into a corner he lashed out, challenging me to get on the tap since I was yapping the most. Seeing no alternative way to get him to give it a go, I got on the keg for a solid 12, though the counting got off to a very slow start. I'm going to award myself a 15. Probably no more that the equivalent of a single pint of beer, but consumed in a way that took me back at least 15 years.

So it was Dad's turn. We reviewed the protocol and hoisted him skyward. I had the honor of holding the spigot and watched the old man take a nice long pull. The count: a perfect 10.

With the keg drinking over, we stayed up late, chatting about airplane radios and flying in general, his favorite past time. It was a great party and nice to see so many of his friends and family come out to celebrate.

Cheers Papa Al. Here's to many more birthdays in the future... and no more keg stands, I promise.

I don't get twitter

2009-03-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

Am I missing something with this? Who would ever thought that there was a market for a service that allowed people to post what they just ate for breakfast and that they are headed out the door early to get gas before driving to work.... then an hour later that they are at their desks and gas was up $.05 today?

If you use twitter and you're a friend of mine, we can still be buds... but if I read your hourly updates, don't expect to have much to talk to you about when we get together. You should also prepare yourself to receive a good many updates on everything I have been doing since we last saw each other, otherwise known as "conversation." A growing number of my recent "conversations" with friends have been me just saying "yeah, I know."

egg nog and pumpkin pie

2009-03-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with a coworker on St. Patrick's day about dinner that evening. She was feeling the pressure from her mother-in-law to prepare corned beef and cabbage, one of the worst meals known to man, but no one in her family could stand it. I can relate.

With the exception of turkey on Thanksgiving and Octoberfest beer in Spetember I refuse to believe that people really like any of the holiday/season specific foods. This list includes pumpkin pie, egg nog, corned beef and cabbage, and lamb on Easter. I'm sure that other heritages have their own list. If this stuff was so good, you'd eat it year round.

On a related note how is it that an entire civilization couldn't come up with one decent dish?When's the last time you went to that really great Irish place or shopped the Irish section of the market for that final something you needed to make your favorite Irish dinner? Thank goodness for Guinness.

a good 7 days

2009-03-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

The boat

The cabana

The carrot cake

The pool

I'm torn

2009-03-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

between wanting winter to end so that running and cycling are fun again and wanting it to stretch out a bit longer now that we've discovered skiing/snowboarding. "They" say that spring skiing is the best, so I'll just have to wait and see.

My ironman training volume has been pretty high for a first timer this early in the season, I put in 8, 9, 12.5 and 11.5 hour weeks in February, and fortunately have been injury free, although today the inside of my right kneecap is tender.

I pulled a Colin (I can't find the post where he talked about doing it, but he did) and cut the steerer on my road bike too short on Saturday. $250 mistake right there, perhaps offset by whatever I can get on ebay for a used custom painted fork with a short 1" diameter steerer, which isn't much I'm sure.

Two more days in New England and then we make our more-or-less annual trip to Puerto Rico. It sucks there - you shouldn't go. I'm not going to have any problem whatsoever relaxing and just doing nothing. People who can't relax when they are away from their daily routine don't have enough stress to begin with... and good for them. I love my job, kids, and home/family life but they boil up their fair share of angst so it's time to move the circus to the Caribbean and see how that works out. If I could get ride of just one of those three things, or better just the stress associated with one of them, I'd be high as a kite.

If the market is bad enough there may be some product* down there we will look at.

* listening to NPR Saturday while cutting my steerer too short they had a lengthy segment about two guys who were buying up foreclosed houses in Norther NJ and they kept referring to the homes as "product." My high school girlfriend was the first one I ever heard using that word as a pronoun to represent something specific rather than just saying what she was talking about. She referred to her hair spray as product. In this case I use the term product to refer to real estate, not hair spray.

Peanut Butter

2009-02-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

My name is Matt and I have an addiction to Peanut Butter.

This is something I need to come to grips with. I think at least 50% of the daily calories I take in come from a never-ending parade of spoons filled with peanut butter.

I'll never get skinny this way.

I'm nearly at the point where I'm going to substitute one of my three meals for a pint of peanut butter.

The economy is in pretty bad shape, time to eat as much peanut butter before the supermarkets all close.

IMLP

2009-02-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, too long really, since I've added anything meaningful here. Colin's right... without races to report on, there isn't much exciting stuff to post on.

I'm doing the Ironman in Lake Placid NY this summer, and training is well underway for that, so I'll update my training progress here for that. I've been focusing on running, which will be where that race gets difficult. I'll be fresh for the swim and the bike shouldn't be a problem for me at all, but that run is going to be killer. Starting a marathon after being on the bike for around 6 hours? I am not looking forward to that at all.

We've been skiing with the kids several times at Wachusett Mtn, a great place to start but a mountain that even a beginner (like me) can soon outgrow. I got spoiled by Stowe last month... That is what a ski resort should be.

Time for work. I put fenders on the Zank cross bike. That's like putting spinner hub caps on a mercedes, but they are so effective at keeping the melting snow and dirt off me that I don't care.

VERGE 2009

2009-01-08T16:06:00.000-08:00

A New England Cyclocross racer's favorite thing to do right after the season ends is to debate how to improve the traditional race schedule and start times. Split masters by age, ability, combine this field or that, what on earth are we going to do with the women...

This year, the discussion was quite animated on the NE cyclocross yahoo group. So many people weighed in, it was difficult to keep up with.

Here are my thoughts. Some of this has been said before elsewhere.

To improve the Verge series I would:

1) Appoint someone or a group of someones to coordinate and promote host housing and car-pooling. (It's first on my list because I've not seen anyone else suggest it.) This is an important issue to me personally... at least the car-pooling part is and I'm a big fan of host housing vs. hotels.

2) Offer season passes with some sort of discount (as previously discussed) and eliminate day of registration. This means cash in hand and will ease the "day of" burden on organizers.

3) Line up riders by points and then crossresults.com scores, with pointless/crossresults.com score-less racers at the back. If they are good, they'll move up. Using cross results would put racers in their rightful place. The only potential down side I can see with this (other than general bitching about Colin's scoring system which is something he has to worry about) is that some people use their ability to register quickly as a way of getting a better starting spot, even if they are slower. (That group of some people would include me by the way.) Using cross results could discourage a percentage of those racers from even participating at all, but it wouldn't be a large number I think. That number may even be offset by additional participation from others who see the equity in the new system and race when they normally wouldn't have, especially if they miss the opening of registration.

This staging protocol would create a more equitable and organized start.

4) Focus on the 300 racers who make the series great rather than the handful of racers that the series makes great.

There's many layers to this one, so I'll start at the top...

UCI status: I've read the Verge mission statement and understand the concept of a mini-series to provide high level racing with minimal travel. This promise has been kept in spades... for every field except the pro field, where we have seen consistent reduction in the number of top pros coming to Verge events. There is no question that we had great pro riders at our 2008 events, and we have sent and will continue to send some great riders to Europe, but the top US pros are racing outside of NE and VERGE with increasing frequency. The best guys seem to be starting here, rather than ending here. The evidence is clear that building up the series to 9 and now 12 races and getting the majority of them to UCI status hasn't had the desired effect of drawing the top pros, because while we add UCI events so does Ohio, and Kentucky and Colorado, and the elite field is spread out all over the country. It's the same thing that happened to the NHL: expansion diluted the talent. Except in the NHL there was an organized approach to adding franchises. With cyclocross, an indivudal promoter doesn't owe the rest of the promoters anything and the conflicting weekends go unchecked.

They say you have to race with the best to get better. If we are expecting our up and coming local talent to get better and the top pros aren't around, then we shouldn't be surprised when those up and comers don't stay around either. Adding UCI status to more of our events therefore isn't serving the best interests of our local talent. The Keoughs, Goguens and just about every parent with a talented kid in any sport nowadays has shown that they aren't afraid to lay out some cash to get their kids to the best events, where ever they may be. In fact, we've been lucky to see them here as much as we have.

I'd scale back the number of UCI races in the Verge series and work on getting the country's top pros here for two marquis weekends. Dare I say it... start money? I'd vote for Noho and/or Gloucester to be the showcase events but more importantly make sure that the highlighted events are the best options for any racer in the country and the rewards for participation are high. Spare no expense. Redirect resources from the other planned UCI events to these 4 races. Let's get the whole US cross scene here for two weekends and let our local guys race the best 4 times in their back yard. Let's show the rest of the country how we... as spectators, lower class racers, organizers, and communities... can put on a couple of world class events. The rest of the series will still be great because that UCI status really only applies to a fraction of the total participants.

Others have made the point that more UCI races mean more racers get a chance to collect UCI points. This is absolutely true, but points only matter for pro contracts and starting positions. We can toss the contract issue out for all but a handful of US pros, and the idea that your starting position will be significantly improved because you have points is flawed.

Consider two elite racers in 2006. Racer A grabbed the last UCI point (say 15th place) and Racer B was 7 spots back, out of the money and the points. With more UCI events around and the top of the field thinner, Racer B now finished 15th and finally grabs a point. Racer A also benefited from the thin field, and he won that race. In the end, the points may go deeper but the results are the same. Unless you have a breakthrough year, the guy who was faster than you before is still faster than you naow and will take more points than you.

UCI points have become basically meaningless. Everyone knows what the pecking order is for the top pros. We don't need 40 UCI races to rank our elite US racers, we could do it in 10 races. There aren't that many surprises in the list. Trebon and TJ will be at the top and the others will slot in behind them. If there were only 10 UCI races domestically, you'd be damn sure to see every pro there.

Series Expansion: The Verge series is expanging from 9 to 12 and I don't think this is such a good idea for NE cyclocross in general. The Verge races are without a doubt the best races in NE and I'll be at every one of them in 2009. They have the biggest fields, are always well organized, post prompt and accurate results, are brimming over with quality officials, offer a great NE cyclocross experience, and have some of the best courses. Most NE racers set their schedule by looking at the Verge events first as "must do" races, then fill in the rest of the weekends based on which races remain, how much cost is associated, whether or not they have other obligations to get to such as house work, employment, kids soccer games, holiday parties, whatever people do on weekends in the fall besides race cyclocross. With Verge at 8 or 9 races, most people can find time for the smaller races and these other things. Likewise, the smaller races have space on the calendar to peaceful coexist with the big series. With 12 Verge races, something will have to give. For the individual is probably isn't going to be the leaves piled up in the yard or little Johnny's regional semi-final: they are going to have to miss a race and it won't be Verge (at least not in my case). The smaller races will be battling for calendar dates and racers and you can be sure some will disappear as a result.

The smaller races have an important place in the NE cyclocross scene. They help others learn the art of race promotion, they donate to charity, they give racers the chance to race a different division than they would (or use a single speed bike or dress up in some funny outfit), they keep classic venues (like Palmer and Putney) alive, they give someone else a chance to win, they let you shake out new gear, they take the pressure off or at least take it down a notch. I worry about the health of NE cyclocross when one series grows too big.

Race Day Schedule: Plenty of people much smarter than me haven't been able to figure this one out yet so I don't pretend to have the answers. Personally, I'd like to see a singlespeed category and a costume race around halloween. I know that isn't enough time in the day towards the end of the year for these things though.

Looking at our schedule problems it seems that there are two. 1) slower riders sharing a field with faster ones are getting lapped and pulled sooner than they would like and 2) some group is going to have to wake up early to race.

Issue #1 can be resolved by putting smaller fields of similar ability together, but it seems that the available smaller fields are not of similar ability. The massive 4, 3/4 masters, 2/3 race and elite masters races don't appear to be suffering from these problems as much as the others: participation is high and people seem happy. I like the idea of making the elite masters race 1/2 only and make the 3s earn their upgrade, but can the 3/4 field handle the swelling that will occur when that happens until the appropriate number of 3s upgrade? Also, this would necessarily mean that racers in the 3/4 masters would have to upgrade if they were placing well to make sure that the 3/4 field is truly composed of 3/4 racers. Some folks may not like that.

Related to this is the question of what to do with the 3/4 master's field that comes up every year at this time. I'm not sure who starts it but I have an idea. These guys all seem pretty happy to race in a less cutthroat field, generally don't seem to mind the early start times, and don't necessarily feel like upgrading at all simply so that they can spend the last 10 minutes of a race worrying about staying ahead of Johnny Bold. Leave 'em alone, let them race at the level they are comfortable. The numbers suggest that they are perfectly content with the way it is, but as the 3/4 masters and 4 races are the cash cows of this series, it would be bad business to ignore their collective wishes. If 35% of your paying customers wanted to race at noon rather than 8 am... You'd be wise to make it happen.

In summary, I end where I started on this one. I don't have a solution for the main problem of smaller fields being combined and the slowest riders in that race getting lapped early.

Race Atmosphere: This is all still under the "focus on the 300 racers who make the series" section, which means we're talking about the masters (3/4 & 1,2,3, the 4s and the 2/3 fields. Lots of guys in these fields (hell lots of guys in all the fields) have families. What pulls these racers away from the venue after they are done racing most of the time? Their family. Want people to stay? Make these races a destination for families rather than a distraction from them. Bring some new thinking in to this such that racers come for not just their race, but come for the day, watch all the races, stay right through the pro race, and go home with everyone in the car happy and looking forward to coming back next week. Every effort to reach this goal will grease the skids for the next improvement and the next after that, so it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Kids races are a great start and every Verge races should have one. Make the pros help with this event and give them some cash for doing it.

I'd like to see more food vendors and of course beer vendors are great as well. Offer day care or some sort of sitting service so someone can bring their kids while their spouse gets some down time at home if they don't want to come. On site or affordable mobile showers would keep people sticking around too. Hay rides or sleigh rides or anything that would draw a crowd would work.

Parking: Go out of the way to allow parking as close to the venue as possible. This supports the race atmosphere concept above, with the idea being that people will be changing, warming up, partying, tending to the kids, etc at their cars more likely than anywhere else. If they are close to the race while doing this, they are more likely to become interested in the outcome and stick around longer.

Randomly Reward Participation: Not a unique idea, but randomly give prizes out to non elite fields. Hell, give out random prizes to racers in the elite field too. There are plenty of guys that are never going to finish in the money there.

I think that is all I can handle for now. As more thoughts come up, I'll post.

Flame away...

a shout out to my RSS peeps

2008-12-17T03:21:00.001-08:00

got'cha! check the updated race report, now with video.

12.13.08: Ice Weasels Cometh

2008-12-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, this is going to be a short report.

I spent my alloted blogging time this week playing with iMovie on this here MacBook. It's incredibly intuitive, like everything else on this machine, and since the movie is made up of clips from the Ice Weasels single speed race it wasn't a complete waste of time. If I can figure out how to get that video up here, I will.

Edit: Here it is. This is my first effort on iMovie, so forgive the over-the-top editing and gratuitous campy-ness, I was trying to learn the tool.

Ice Weasels Cometh 2008 from Matt Myette on Vimeo.

In a nutshell, I sucked eggs this past Saturday. I checked out for the season last weekend after the two RI races, but wanted to go to Ice Weasels figuring it would be a bit more "festive" than your average cross race. I made the mistake of actually racing though, and worse yet racing in the last field of the day so just when I was finishing up and getting ready to put down a few beverages, everyone was leaving the venue.

On the way to the Wrentham, I forgot more than once that my bike was on the roof and that I was headed to a race. The last time this happened to me it ended in disaster.

Three years ago on my way to work I decided at the last minute to bring my bike to the shop at lunch. Already late for work, I was rushing around and stuck the bike up on the roof racks, too lazy to take put the rear seats down and slide it inside as I prefer to do when the bike sits all day in our parking lot. After eating lunch at my desk I had to go to a meeting downtown and going out to the car I saw the bike on the roof, realizing at once that I'd forgotten all about it and the my hastily planned trip to the shop. At the end of the day walking out to my car I saw the bike again and realized I'd forgotten about it for a second time. I recall thinking right then "I have got to remember that thing is up there, this is not good."

Maybe you can see where this is going.

Fifteen minutes later I was stopped at the last stop sign before my house, a scant .9 miles away. This guy in a Subaru with bike racks on the roof pulls up next to me to take a right hand turn, but when I look over at him his neck is cranked up and he's looking at something over the top of my car to my left. "What the hell is he looking at?" and I to turn to my left and look out the window expecting to see some sort of exotic bird or fireball in the sky. Then it hits me... he's looking at my bike. Ok, that's 3 times I've forgotten about that bike.

Ninety seconds later I drove the car with the bike still on the roof into our garage.

So Saturday I was having similar lapses in memory. Clearly I wasn't into the "racing" part of this race.

I lined up with 20 or so others and was second wheel for two laps and in the top 4 for three. Then the lights went out. I had nothing. It wasn't lack of fitness, I couldn't make the legs turn over at all and the muscles were simply shut down for the day (Later that evening I got winded climbing the stairs just one time). I slowed down by 10-15 seconds per lap at least for the remaining 5 or 6 laps after that and watched as 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th caught and rode away from me. With two to go, Colin was gaining and would have easily passed me until we discussed our mutual desire to take a beer feed. With 1.5 laps to go and entering the beer feed area, there was no drink to be found. A few turns later Scott managed to dig up one cup of grog: and seeing the prize I easily out-sprinted Colin to it but shared it with him in the spirit of sportsmanship.

We rode together through the bell and around to the beer feed area for the final time to discover that the feeds were plentiful. We drank, toasting a great season and took 3 or 4 turns to get the small cup of PBR down in an impromptu mid-race period of neutral racing. With the beer gone, I stuck my front wheel inside of the next turn to indicate I was prepared to throw it down for the last 3 minutes of racing for the year.

So was Colin apparently, and he stayed in front of me all the way to the line.

I was 8th or 9th overall, I forget, but 3rd 35+. My main nemesis in 2008, Mike Rowell, had raced earlier and despite that effort took 5th overall. He was also 1st master. Dave Wilcox from Cambridge bikes had the ride of his life I suppose, hanging with two strong elite riders for the majority of the race and finishing a well deserved 3rd in the end. All of that in a black and silver head to toe skin suit with a gigantic shark fin on top.

It wasn't an epic course, the fields were not large, and the racing wasn't very serious, but there have been enough of those events this year. Ice Weasels was a perfect way to end a great season with all of the NE cross family. Kind of like a back yard cookout... cyclocross style.

Holy Cow I Blew Up HARD Today

2008-12-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

It was a well organized event today and after riding three strong laps I was D.O.N.E. My mind had checked out for the season last week, and at 2:20 today my legs followed suit.

Details to follow...