The Ice Weasels Cometh

For those of us without any aspirations of becoming national champions in 'cross, Colin (http://www.crossresults.com/ and http://www.untilthesnowends.blogspot.com/) and Tom (http://wellonabigbikeya.blogspot.com/) put on one hell of a season finale at Tom's Grandmother's farm in Wrentham Saturday December 13th.

After two strait weekends of UCI racing with season series points on the line for many, a more relaxed event was just what the doctor ordered to cap off the competitive bike racing season that, for many, started in March. With a name like The Ice Weasels Cometh (a name partly borrowed from Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strip (pre-Simpsons)), you knew this race was going to be a little different and it did not disappoint.

The heavy rain storm that passed through Wednesday through Friday could have easily turned the Ice Weasels into mud weasels, but a good cold snap after the rain froze the ground solid except for the mulch piles behind the big white barn. Without the constraints of UCI regulations, our heroes were able to devise a course with multiple sets of barriers and no less than 25 turns (according to Tom's count). That's four more than Alpe d'Huez!! If you hate power courses with long straightaways (Plymouth South) you loved this course with most of every lap spent navigating the serpentine maze around the barn and farm house. Personally, I haven't figured out yet if it's better to ride this kind of thing at a steady speed or to hammer out of every corner and brake hard before the next one. I guess if you have the fitness for it brake/hammer/brake/hammer must be faster. Better still would be to learn how to corner faster and stay off the brakes. Something to work on in the off-season.

Here are a few pictures form the event:

Dan Coady leading the single speed race

Through the mulch pit on lap one

Nega-coach ("because you suck") hands out the Washingtons while Bruce holds onto a 40 for dear life. Notice how much clothing everyone else has on!! How ya feeling this morning, Dave?

In other news, the National Championships weren't too terribly kind to New England riders this weekend with only Mo Bruno (W30-34), Kathy Sarvary (W45-50), Julie Lockhart (W65-70) winning stars and stripes last I checked. That's still pretty sweet, but considering all of the talent we have around here, it sure would have been nice to bag a few more. Still, it will be nice to see those jerseys on the scene next season.