Spring time at Ninigret RI generally means nasty conditions for bike racing and after the Chris Hinds "Sunshine Criterium" at Ninigret two weeks previously actually lived up to its intentionally ironic name, there was little chance the Arc-en-ciel sponsored Rick Newhouse memorial race would also luck out with the weather. As per usual, it was a cold, rainy, and windy day at Ninigret but nowhere near as bad as was predicted. The Jens Factor was never worse than JF3.
Arc-en-ciel racing put on a full slate of races with proceeds from the race going to their former teammate's family. Considering the predicted weather, the early season schedule, and competion from other races, the turn out was good with about 160 participants.
Category 5: The day started with 15 Cat 5s. Three or four of them seemed to do the bulk of the work setting the pace at the front of the field while everyone else was along for the ride. That isn't atypical for a Cat 5 race where no one has much, if any, tactical experience. For Alejandro Cifuentes and Anthony Clark, it worked out well placing 1st and 2nd after doing way more than their share of the work throughout the race. One other rider set the pace for 4 laps in one long pull but over extended himself and couldn't recover as the race went past him. After the race I tried to explain that he should take shorter pulls and not wear himself out past the point of no return like that. I think he got it. Hopefully we will see him at the races again.
Masters55: 10 Riders took the line in the 55plus race including former national champion Mark Hagen (CCB). Hagen and Ed Deming (Mystic Velo) got away off the front of the race in the first half of the 55 minute race while the chase group was trimmed to 4 including Demings two Mystic Velo teammates, Jim Themig and Chip O'Lari, who obviously weren't going to chase. Hagen and Deming built up a lead of a couple of minutes by the end of the race. Knowing that Hagen is a time trial specialist, and a very good one, we all expected that he would try to drop Deming before the finish but it didn't happen. At the finish, Deming came around Hagen to take the win.
Cat 3/4: Within the first 10 minutes of the 55 minute race, Scott Glowa (Svelte Cycles) and Gary Aspnes (Horst-Benidorm) took a flier off the front of the field to shake things up. Aspnes has been on great form recently and rode away from the field at the Myles Standish Road Race the previous week. But in my memory Glowa has never been a break away type rider. He will be from now on, at least on flat courses like Ninigret. Working together, they built up about a minute lead which is approaching half a lap on the 0.9 mile Ninigret loop. Geoff Williams and his tream mates from Providence Velo tried to real the break back in but without success. Both leaders had one teammate in the field to help control the pace. After the race, several riders mentioned how Spike McLaughlin (Horst) did an especially good job blocking for the breakaway. It isn't often you hear other racers compliment someone's blocking so he must have been doing something right out there. At the finish, after about 45 minutes of two man team trialing, Glowa outsprinted Aspnes for the win by less than a bike length.
Masters45: I could try to tell you what happened in this one, but I'd rather link you to the race winner, Dave "Solobreak" Foley (BOB), so you can get the first hand version . I'll just say that he played it perfectly, getting everyone else to watch him roll away from the break away in the closing seconds of the race. Well done!
Masters35: When David Potter (Arc-en-ciel), Tyler Monroe (CCB), and Tom Francis (Bikebarn) took off the front it looked like it was going to be for the long hall. They built up ove a minute lead by working smoothly together throughout the race. Ciaran Mangan (CCB) tried to get across in the closing laps without dragging anyone along with him but his move was shut down when the host club (Arc-en-ciel) went to the front and picked up the pace to ensure that 4th place would be that easy to snag. David Potter took the sprint from 200 yards out to give the host club the victory while Tom Francis took second, Monroe third. Ernie Tautkus, who had won three prime sprints for 6-packs of Newport Storm earlier in the day took the field sprint for 4th.
Pro1,2,3: This was the third race of the day for a few of the riders including Tautkus and Aspnes as well as a couple of the Arc-en-ciel riders. Surprisingly, this was not an especially tactical race. It stayed together from start to finish with no serious break attempts. The finish was a mass gallup to the line that crossed most of the width of the road. Squirting through the flailing bikes to resach the line first was 16-year old Evan Kirk (CLNoonan). A split second (literally 0.1 seconds according to the official results) was Ryan Serbel (CCNS) followed by the man of the day, Ernie Tautkus (CCNS) just another 0.1 seconds behind. It is worth noting that Evan Kirk was sprinting on restricted junior gears which equate to something like a 45x12 tooth combination (or 3.75 revolutions of the back wheel for each turn of the pedals) while the older riders where probably in or near their max gear, typically 53x11 (almost 5 revs per turn of the pedals). I don't want Evans head to swell up as big as his hair so don't tell him I said so, but I think we might be looking at a real prospect here.
Women and Juniors: The women and juniors took the line together to start the race but after some discussion and a quick vote on the stasrt line they opted to race separately, starting with a one-minute gap between them. This didn't stop them from catching and passing each other but both fields were small enough (8 and 15 riders that it wasn't a problem). Both races came down to two person duels. In the women's race, it was between Anna Barensfeld (Ladies First Racing) and Silke Wunderwald (Kenda). They lapped everyone except Kimberly Edwards (CVC). At the finish Silke passed Anna for the win with Kimberly less than a minute back for third. In the Juniors race, it came down to the McCormack twins, Cameron and Brendan (both Hot Tubes). Peter Vollers Jr and his Killington Mountain School teammates hung in with the McCormacks for a while, but they couldn't contain them for the whole race. The twins would replay their sprint from the previous week at Myles Standish and the result would be the same with Cameron just edging out Brendan by less than half a bike length.
I have a couple of weeks off from announcing now so maybe I'll do a little racing myself. I never did make it to Wells Ave last week as threatened in the previous post. I'll either try to get there again this weekend or I'll do something I haven't done in about 20 years - a mountain bike race. Paul Curley is promoting a new race at Massasoit State Park near Taunton on Saturday. That should be fun even though my MTB is a 20 year old totally rigid (except for the loose headset) beast. The thing should be in the recycle bin at the dump, not in a race. I am thinking about getting a new MTB so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know in the comments. 29er? Full suspension or not? Frame material? Brands? Deals?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Myles Standish Road Race, April 10, 2010
The State finally re-paved the main road into Myles Standish State Forest from the Plymouth side. So, this year's race returned to the College Pond loop after a year on the training loop at Charge Pond. Or that is what we thought would happen. As it turned out, 14 inches of rain in the month of March (a record) on top of a rainy 2009 raised the groundwater levels so high that a portion of the College Pond loop was flooded out. Race promoter Bill Sykes had a tough choice to make: move back to Charge Pond again or shorten the College Pond loop to avoid the massive puddle. No one really wanted to race the Charge Pond loop again for the 6th straight week, so he wisely shortened to College Pond loop to avoid the pond/puddle on the south side of the College Pond loop. That left just a 2 mile loop that was pretty much all either climbing or descending with a couple of small rollers in between. Maybe someday the State will fix the dam at East Head Bog near the forest headquarters and the race will be able to return to the classic 7 mile loop. I'll bet most people that raced MSRR this weekend weren't even around for that version of the course, it's been more than 10 years since the dam has been closed.
Before we go any further here, I should point out that the staging and the finish were the only parts of the races that I could se from my vantage point as the announcer. As a result, the race summaries below are a combination of what I could peice together from the USAC officials' race radio transmissions (thanks Kelly) and reports from riders after the race. Sorry if I don't have it all exactly right.
Cub Juniors – The cub juniors certainly don't remember the full length version of the course and that's ok because their race was just two miles (or one lap) long. In an effort to explain the course to them, I figured I would put it in kid terms. I told them the course is like a lollypop, you go out the stem, take one lap around the lollypop, and then come back down the stem to finish. I got blank looks, but it made sense to me so I kept using the analogy all the way though to the Masters and Pro races at the end of the day.
Five kids lined up for the once around the lollypop race. When they came back down the stem to the finish, Ian Keough took the solo victory by about a minute. As Joe Parkin (author of a Dog in a Hat) would say, there was no one else in the picture. Three of Ian's older brothers were at the Tour of the Battenkill and the oldest, Jake, was racing in California. I couldn't tell which brother he was talking to, but he got some last minute coaching via cellphone while on the start line. It seemed to help.
Juniors 15-18 – This race was a rematch of Vollers vs. McCormack through the proxies of their respective sons. Frank McCormack had 15 year old twins Brendan and Cameron while Peter Vollers had Peter Vollers Junior (PVJ in Belgian shorthand). The fathers raced together as professionals on the IME team that Bill Sykes put together years ago. PVJ also had lots of teammates from the Killington Mountain School while Cameron and Brendan were the sole representatives of Hot Tubes Cycling. They did 7 laps of the course and within the first half of the race the McCormack twins took off the front. At the finish, Cameron narrowly took the sprint from his brother. Nate Etchells (Mystic Velo) finished third with PVJ right behind.
Cat5 – The Cat 5s were split into two fields with 35 years being the dividing line and they set off a couple of minutes apart. Both fields had almost 30 riders which is about all you would want on the narrow twisting roads at MSRR. The 35plus Cat 5 group came in to the finish line with a big bunch sprint and as they came into view over the last rolling hill one of the riders suddenly moved to the right taking out the 3rd or 4th rider in linfrom the front off the course and causing others to take evasive action. Fortunately the rider that was taken down did most of his tumbling in the pine needles on the side of the road and not on the asphalt. Still, he was banged up enough to go to the hospital in the ambulance . The diagnosis included broken ribs and some serious road rash. He returned to pick up his truck and bike from the parking area just moments before it was about to be locked in by the State. It would still be there now if he had been tewn minutes longer. His wife who had picked him up at the hospital didn't seem too happy, but he said he would be back on the bike soon. In the race, Robert Hoenick (Bikeworks) was leading out the sprint when the crash happened and was therefore ahead of the crash. He held on from 300 yards out without even having to stand up to take the win.
The Cat5 35plus field came to the line in a big bunch also but a little more strung out. They passed the crash victim from the previous race who was fortunate to be well out of the way. Geremia Ortega took the field sprint by a bike length.
Cat4 – Just past the halfway mark of the 20 mile race, Nevin Rallis (Bikeman.com) and three others took off to establish a few seconds lead after a series of chases and reformations in the first part of the race. The lead group of four was trimmed to three and they stayed clear by about 7 seconds and got to sprint it out. Rallis won the three-up sprint with a blast of speed to come around the right side of Ben McCoy and Justin Neviakis.
Masters55 - A break of three formed in this race also, lead by Mark Hagen . With one to go, and partly because the Cat4s past the Masters55, Dusty Adams, who had been in no-mans-land between the break and the field, didn’t get the word that he had one to go and headed strait to the finish. Unfortunately his official result is a DNF even though he had been in fourth. At the "sprint", Mark Hagen (CCB) powered away from the other two in the break without even getting up from the saddle followed by Graydon Stevens (OA) and Bill Sawyer (Gearworks) in that order.
Masters35 – Mark McCormack (Team Fuji) and Johnny Bold (Corner Cycle) lined up with a stellar field of about 30 riders. Mark got away with a Corner Cycle rider (not Johnny) and Tom Francis (Bike Barn). Bold couldn’t cross to the break because his teammate was up the road. However, the teammate got dropped from the break leaving just Mark and Tom. They later caught the Cat3 field and passed through. This lead to confusion in counting the laps resulting in Mark and Tom doing an extra lap. Tom Francis stayed tied to Mark's wheel longer than most would have, but in the final 100 yards Markie pulled away for the win. Here's where it really got confusing at the finish line. The next riders through the finish were the Cat3 field, one lap sooner than the cat 3 break which never got passed by Markie and Tom. Then, the next through the finish was the Masters55 field sprint, and then finally the Cat3 winning break.
Cat3 – The Cambridge Bike team came in force to the MSRR. Their team leader, R Michael McKittrick, had publicly vowed months ago to boycott theTour of the Basttenkill and its suddenly increased entry fee. He stayed true to his word and dragged his team to Plymouth with him instead. Also lined up for the Cat3 race were several of the Gearworks masters team looking to get in some extra quality training miles. A group of three got off the front including Paul Curley (Gearworks), Luke Fortini (Specialized), and Gary Aspnes (Horst-Benidorm). That group would come to the finish line with Aspnes leading it out. If there is one thing in bike racing you don't want to do, it's lead out Paul Curley. That man has been racing since the days of penny farthings and knows exactly how to use you up in a sprint and come around for the win. That's exactly what he did. Fortini felt it wasn't a clean sprint but the result didn't change. Hopefully young Luke learned a thing or two from the Jedi sprint master.
Women – The race plan called for separate Pro123 and Cat4 fields, but almost everyone that showed up was a Cat4. So, the fields were combined into one race since they were to be on the course at the same time anyweay. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any info from the officials during this race so I don't have any details on how it developed. But, at the finish it was Kristen Gohr (Stage 5 Cycling) from the Pro field outsprinting Sheila Vibert (NHCC) from the Cat 4 field. Although the fields raced together, they were scored separately so they both won! Unfortunately, the exertion of the sprint caught up to Sheila after the line and she seemed to lose her concentration long enough to bump into Kristen. Both tumbled but at that point, 30 yards past the finish line, they had slowed down enough that neither was hurt. Still, its a lesson to everyone that the race isn't over until you are off your bike or at least have a foot down.
Mens Pro123 - Adam Myerson, Al Donahue, new dad Andy Mills, and about 15 others took the course for 15 laps. Donahue and Sean McCormack (Team Fuji) took off the front of the race about half way through. Sean couldn't hold the pace but Donahue kept going with teammate Dan Greenfield (both Wheelhouse/NCC). They would hold a two man team time trial until the finish and in the process they even caught and lapped about ten riders. With only a two mile lap, the officals decided to use criterium rules and finish the lapped riders on the same lap as the breakaway that caught them. So, when Donahue and Greenfield had completed their laps, the officials sent them all down the stem of the lollypop to the finish where Donahue took the win a few yards ahead of the field with Greenfield riding in comfortably for second. Minutes later, Myerson (Mountain Khakis), who had broken off the front of the main field, rolled in for third to claim a little gas money. As best known full pro in the race he had been a marked man. The rest of the field that wasn’t lapped straggled in one at a time for a while until the last unlapped rider (Luke Fortini) finished. Curiously, he placed 8th despite being the last rider to cross the line.
Masters 45 – Host club Mass Bay Road Club put four riders on the line. A lot of the riders in the field were in their second race of the day including Johnny Bold. Graydon Stevens was in his third race of the day. If you are going to drive all the way down from Maine, you might as well make it worth while. John Stonebarger (MassBay) had a much shorter ride from the other side of Plymouth and did it on his bike. It would be the perfect warmup except that he didn't realize that the road he took to get to the race was completely flodded in several places, worse even than the intended race course. He was too far into it to turn back and take a longer route around so he rode through it and arrived at the race with flooded shoes and shoe covers. This wouldn't probably be noteworthy except that it seemed to help because he won the race. After a series of attacks late in thelate stages of the race, Stonebarger counter attacked after Johnny Bold tried to go on the high point on the course with half a lap remaining. Stonebarger made the all-or-nothing move and managed to stay ahead of the entire field to take it all. Bold crossed the line in second with Joe Rano (Gearworks) right behind for third.
Next weekend I'll be at Ninigret to do the announcing for the Newhouse Criterium put on by Arc en Ciel racing. The weather can be challenging there this time of year, but it's always a fun day of racing on the built-for-bycles road loop there. Where else can you get so much cornering practice in one race? And, if the weather is decent on Sunday, you just might see me making my season debut with a number on my back at Wells Ave. I haven't been there in about 15 years, should be interesting.
Thanks for reading.
Before we go any further here, I should point out that the staging and the finish were the only parts of the races that I could se from my vantage point as the announcer. As a result, the race summaries below are a combination of what I could peice together from the USAC officials' race radio transmissions (thanks Kelly) and reports from riders after the race. Sorry if I don't have it all exactly right.
Cub Juniors – The cub juniors certainly don't remember the full length version of the course and that's ok because their race was just two miles (or one lap) long. In an effort to explain the course to them, I figured I would put it in kid terms. I told them the course is like a lollypop, you go out the stem, take one lap around the lollypop, and then come back down the stem to finish. I got blank looks, but it made sense to me so I kept using the analogy all the way though to the Masters and Pro races at the end of the day.
Five kids lined up for the once around the lollypop race. When they came back down the stem to the finish, Ian Keough took the solo victory by about a minute. As Joe Parkin (author of a Dog in a Hat) would say, there was no one else in the picture. Three of Ian's older brothers were at the Tour of the Battenkill and the oldest, Jake, was racing in California. I couldn't tell which brother he was talking to, but he got some last minute coaching via cellphone while on the start line. It seemed to help.
Juniors 15-18 – This race was a rematch of Vollers vs. McCormack through the proxies of their respective sons. Frank McCormack had 15 year old twins Brendan and Cameron while Peter Vollers had Peter Vollers Junior (PVJ in Belgian shorthand). The fathers raced together as professionals on the IME team that Bill Sykes put together years ago. PVJ also had lots of teammates from the Killington Mountain School while Cameron and Brendan were the sole representatives of Hot Tubes Cycling. They did 7 laps of the course and within the first half of the race the McCormack twins took off the front. At the finish, Cameron narrowly took the sprint from his brother. Nate Etchells (Mystic Velo) finished third with PVJ right behind.
Cat5 – The Cat 5s were split into two fields with 35 years being the dividing line and they set off a couple of minutes apart. Both fields had almost 30 riders which is about all you would want on the narrow twisting roads at MSRR. The 35plus Cat 5 group came in to the finish line with a big bunch sprint and as they came into view over the last rolling hill one of the riders suddenly moved to the right taking out the 3rd or 4th rider in linfrom the front off the course and causing others to take evasive action. Fortunately the rider that was taken down did most of his tumbling in the pine needles on the side of the road and not on the asphalt. Still, he was banged up enough to go to the hospital in the ambulance . The diagnosis included broken ribs and some serious road rash. He returned to pick up his truck and bike from the parking area just moments before it was about to be locked in by the State. It would still be there now if he had been tewn minutes longer. His wife who had picked him up at the hospital didn't seem too happy, but he said he would be back on the bike soon. In the race, Robert Hoenick (Bikeworks) was leading out the sprint when the crash happened and was therefore ahead of the crash. He held on from 300 yards out without even having to stand up to take the win.
The Cat5 35plus field came to the line in a big bunch also but a little more strung out. They passed the crash victim from the previous race who was fortunate to be well out of the way. Geremia Ortega took the field sprint by a bike length.
Cat4 – Just past the halfway mark of the 20 mile race, Nevin Rallis (Bikeman.com) and three others took off to establish a few seconds lead after a series of chases and reformations in the first part of the race. The lead group of four was trimmed to three and they stayed clear by about 7 seconds and got to sprint it out. Rallis won the three-up sprint with a blast of speed to come around the right side of Ben McCoy and Justin Neviakis.
Masters55 - A break of three formed in this race also, lead by Mark Hagen . With one to go, and partly because the Cat4s past the Masters55, Dusty Adams, who had been in no-mans-land between the break and the field, didn’t get the word that he had one to go and headed strait to the finish. Unfortunately his official result is a DNF even though he had been in fourth. At the "sprint", Mark Hagen (CCB) powered away from the other two in the break without even getting up from the saddle followed by Graydon Stevens (OA) and Bill Sawyer (Gearworks) in that order.
Masters35 – Mark McCormack (Team Fuji) and Johnny Bold (Corner Cycle) lined up with a stellar field of about 30 riders. Mark got away with a Corner Cycle rider (not Johnny) and Tom Francis (Bike Barn). Bold couldn’t cross to the break because his teammate was up the road. However, the teammate got dropped from the break leaving just Mark and Tom. They later caught the Cat3 field and passed through. This lead to confusion in counting the laps resulting in Mark and Tom doing an extra lap. Tom Francis stayed tied to Mark's wheel longer than most would have, but in the final 100 yards Markie pulled away for the win. Here's where it really got confusing at the finish line. The next riders through the finish were the Cat3 field, one lap sooner than the cat 3 break which never got passed by Markie and Tom. Then, the next through the finish was the Masters55 field sprint, and then finally the Cat3 winning break.
Cat3 – The Cambridge Bike team came in force to the MSRR. Their team leader, R Michael McKittrick, had publicly vowed months ago to boycott theTour of the Basttenkill and its suddenly increased entry fee. He stayed true to his word and dragged his team to Plymouth with him instead. Also lined up for the Cat3 race were several of the Gearworks masters team looking to get in some extra quality training miles. A group of three got off the front including Paul Curley (Gearworks), Luke Fortini (Specialized), and Gary Aspnes (Horst-Benidorm). That group would come to the finish line with Aspnes leading it out. If there is one thing in bike racing you don't want to do, it's lead out Paul Curley. That man has been racing since the days of penny farthings and knows exactly how to use you up in a sprint and come around for the win. That's exactly what he did. Fortini felt it wasn't a clean sprint but the result didn't change. Hopefully young Luke learned a thing or two from the Jedi sprint master.
Women – The race plan called for separate Pro123 and Cat4 fields, but almost everyone that showed up was a Cat4. So, the fields were combined into one race since they were to be on the course at the same time anyweay. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any info from the officials during this race so I don't have any details on how it developed. But, at the finish it was Kristen Gohr (Stage 5 Cycling) from the Pro field outsprinting Sheila Vibert (NHCC) from the Cat 4 field. Although the fields raced together, they were scored separately so they both won! Unfortunately, the exertion of the sprint caught up to Sheila after the line and she seemed to lose her concentration long enough to bump into Kristen. Both tumbled but at that point, 30 yards past the finish line, they had slowed down enough that neither was hurt. Still, its a lesson to everyone that the race isn't over until you are off your bike or at least have a foot down.
Mens Pro123 - Adam Myerson, Al Donahue, new dad Andy Mills, and about 15 others took the course for 15 laps. Donahue and Sean McCormack (Team Fuji) took off the front of the race about half way through. Sean couldn't hold the pace but Donahue kept going with teammate Dan Greenfield (both Wheelhouse/NCC). They would hold a two man team time trial until the finish and in the process they even caught and lapped about ten riders. With only a two mile lap, the officals decided to use criterium rules and finish the lapped riders on the same lap as the breakaway that caught them. So, when Donahue and Greenfield had completed their laps, the officials sent them all down the stem of the lollypop to the finish where Donahue took the win a few yards ahead of the field with Greenfield riding in comfortably for second. Minutes later, Myerson (Mountain Khakis), who had broken off the front of the main field, rolled in for third to claim a little gas money. As best known full pro in the race he had been a marked man. The rest of the field that wasn’t lapped straggled in one at a time for a while until the last unlapped rider (Luke Fortini) finished. Curiously, he placed 8th despite being the last rider to cross the line.
Masters 45 – Host club Mass Bay Road Club put four riders on the line. A lot of the riders in the field were in their second race of the day including Johnny Bold. Graydon Stevens was in his third race of the day. If you are going to drive all the way down from Maine, you might as well make it worth while. John Stonebarger (MassBay) had a much shorter ride from the other side of Plymouth and did it on his bike. It would be the perfect warmup except that he didn't realize that the road he took to get to the race was completely flodded in several places, worse even than the intended race course. He was too far into it to turn back and take a longer route around so he rode through it and arrived at the race with flooded shoes and shoe covers. This wouldn't probably be noteworthy except that it seemed to help because he won the race. After a series of attacks late in thelate stages of the race, Stonebarger counter attacked after Johnny Bold tried to go on the high point on the course with half a lap remaining. Stonebarger made the all-or-nothing move and managed to stay ahead of the entire field to take it all. Bold crossed the line in second with Joe Rano (Gearworks) right behind for third.
Next weekend I'll be at Ninigret to do the announcing for the Newhouse Criterium put on by Arc en Ciel racing. The weather can be challenging there this time of year, but it's always a fun day of racing on the built-for-bycles road loop there. Where else can you get so much cornering practice in one race? And, if the weather is decent on Sunday, you just might see me making my season debut with a number on my back at Wells Ave. I haven't been there in about 15 years, should be interesting.
Thanks for reading.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Harpoon Indoor Time Trial
Richard Fries got the call to work the Cyclocross World Championships in Tabor, Czech Republic, but I got the call to work the next most important bike event on the calendar on January 30th - The Harpoon Indoor Time Trial. Richard did the announcing for the inaugural HITT in 2009, but for good reason declined this year. When they told me it would be at the Harpoon Brewery, I was happy he couldn't make it for year number two.
As it turns out, the HITT is the largest indoor time trial in the world with about 260 participants competing in heats of 24 at a time. It is kind of like riding the trainer in your basement but with 23 friends all hooked up to computers that measure speed, distance, and wattage. Too bad it didn't measure BAL also, but we'll get to that in a few paragraphs.
The technical side was handled by Fast:Splits, a shop and training facility for endurance athletes in Newton. They seem to be quite popular with the triathalon crowd, a scene I know very little about. Fast:Splits brought the 24 computrainers and the computers to monitor and record everyone's output. Capron lighting and sound brought 9 big flat panel screens so everyone could see their progress in the race. And Harpoon provided the venue and the beer - lots and lots of beer. On tap they had their IPA, the seasonal Celtic Ale, UFO Pale, and UFO Heffeweisen for everyone to try.
We started the first heat at 12:30 PM with the first 24 riders. I don't think any of them were USA Cycling types, at least I didn't recognize any of them. They turned in some impressive times, finishing the 8 mile course in around 20 to 25 minutes. I was still trying to figure out this whole "indoor time trial" computrainer thing at this point as this was my first exposure to it. In fact, this was my first exposure to the world of watts. I am old enough that all we had in my day were heart rate monitors and we liked it that way. And that was only the last couple of years of my so called "career". Most of the time we just rode hard or rode easy, it was very subjective. So when I arrived at the brewery for the HITT, I had no idea if 400 watts is Pee Wee Herman power or Fabian Cancellara power. Turns out, it's closer to Cancellara and there would be a few who would come close to putting out 400 watts for almost 20 minutes.
The route was a simulation of the final 8 miles of the 150 mile Harpoon Brewery to Brewery Ride (aka B2B). It was mostly flat until mile 6 where a 5% grade kicks up for almost a mile then it's a downhill to the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor Vt. Last year's best time was set by Cort Cramer (Svelte Cycles) at 19:11 with an average power output of 362 watts. For the women it was Ironwoman pro and former US swim team member Dede Griesbauer at 20:57 and 282 watts.
Did I mention that Harpoon was giving away beer? In addition to two free beers to each competitor, they also gave away a case of beer to the mens and womens winner of each heat. Brian Quigley (Colavita) was the mens winner in the second heat and got to take his place on the Harpoon Hot Stool which was kind of like a wobbly life guard stand with two barstools on top. After saying "hot stool" a couple of times over the mic, I unofficially renamed it the Harpoon Hot Seat. I think that sounds better and led to fewer chuckles from the audience. Quigley's time of 19:52, although half a minute slower than his second place time last year, held up for several more heats. While on the Hot Seat, he was served as many beers as he wanted and got to wear the Mavic Red Vest of Courage, the "maillot jaune" of the day. He told me the secret to his success was a combination of lots of basement training, Rage ATM on the earbuds, and Harpoon IPA. Quigley won the Cat 4 race at day 2 of the Downeast Cyclocross in October so apparently he has some skills to go with the power.
As it turns out, the HITT is the largest indoor time trial in the world with about 260 participants competing in heats of 24 at a time. It is kind of like riding the trainer in your basement but with 23 friends all hooked up to computers that measure speed, distance, and wattage. Too bad it didn't measure BAL also, but we'll get to that in a few paragraphs.
The technical side was handled by Fast:Splits, a shop and training facility for endurance athletes in Newton. They seem to be quite popular with the triathalon crowd, a scene I know very little about. Fast:Splits brought the 24 computrainers and the computers to monitor and record everyone's output. Capron lighting and sound brought 9 big flat panel screens so everyone could see their progress in the race. And Harpoon provided the venue and the beer - lots and lots of beer. On tap they had their IPA, the seasonal Celtic Ale, UFO Pale, and UFO Heffeweisen for everyone to try.
We started the first heat at 12:30 PM with the first 24 riders. I don't think any of them were USA Cycling types, at least I didn't recognize any of them. They turned in some impressive times, finishing the 8 mile course in around 20 to 25 minutes. I was still trying to figure out this whole "indoor time trial" computrainer thing at this point as this was my first exposure to it. In fact, this was my first exposure to the world of watts. I am old enough that all we had in my day were heart rate monitors and we liked it that way. And that was only the last couple of years of my so called "career". Most of the time we just rode hard or rode easy, it was very subjective. So when I arrived at the brewery for the HITT, I had no idea if 400 watts is Pee Wee Herman power or Fabian Cancellara power. Turns out, it's closer to Cancellara and there would be a few who would come close to putting out 400 watts for almost 20 minutes.
The route was a simulation of the final 8 miles of the 150 mile Harpoon Brewery to Brewery Ride (aka B2B). It was mostly flat until mile 6 where a 5% grade kicks up for almost a mile then it's a downhill to the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor Vt. Last year's best time was set by Cort Cramer (Svelte Cycles) at 19:11 with an average power output of 362 watts. For the women it was Ironwoman pro and former US swim team member Dede Griesbauer at 20:57 and 282 watts.
Did I mention that Harpoon was giving away beer? In addition to two free beers to each competitor, they also gave away a case of beer to the mens and womens winner of each heat. Brian Quigley (Colavita) was the mens winner in the second heat and got to take his place on the Harpoon Hot Stool which was kind of like a wobbly life guard stand with two barstools on top. After saying "hot stool" a couple of times over the mic, I unofficially renamed it the Harpoon Hot Seat. I think that sounds better and led to fewer chuckles from the audience. Quigley's time of 19:52, although half a minute slower than his second place time last year, held up for several more heats. While on the Hot Seat, he was served as many beers as he wanted and got to wear the Mavic Red Vest of Courage, the "maillot jaune" of the day. He told me the secret to his success was a combination of lots of basement training, Rage ATM on the earbuds, and Harpoon IPA. Quigley won the Cat 4 race at day 2 of the Downeast Cyclocross in October so apparently he has some skills to go with the power.
It was not until the sixth heat, 3 and a half hours later, that Quigley was dethroned by Jeff Capobianco (Breakthrough Coaching) so he had plenty of time to enjoy a couple of IPAs while on the hot seat. Capobianco's time was 19:37 and that was looking good until the 8th heat when the inter-family grudge match between brothers-in-law Dave McCutcheon (Mass Bay Road Club) and Arnold Roest (Team Psycho) took place. This heat also included the heavyweight sub-division for those over 200 pounds. Among them was Scott Shaunessy, a former NHL player who lead the league in penalty minutes two years in a row. "Just putting on the foil, coach." He didn't look at all like a Hanson brother, but he definitely looked like a big dude on a bicycle. He turned out a respectable time of 20:56.
But the winner of the heat would be Roest with a new best time of 19:32, beating his brother in law by 50 seconds to take family bragging rights. Roest is the guy you might have seen at the races with the Surly Pugsley with the motorcycle tires. He won the Cat 4 race at the Ice Weasels race on that thing. Here's a picture of it from the Brockton cross race in 2008. Note the fixed cog on the front tire just in case the back axle breaks. This bike is made for survivalist nut cases. Roest didn't use this bike on the computrainer.
But the winner of the heat would be Roest with a new best time of 19:32, beating his brother in law by 50 seconds to take family bragging rights. Roest is the guy you might have seen at the races with the Surly Pugsley with the motorcycle tires. He won the Cat 4 race at the Ice Weasels race on that thing. Here's a picture of it from the Brockton cross race in 2008. Note the fixed cog on the front tire just in case the back axle breaks. This bike is made for survivalist nut cases. Roest didn't use this bike on the computrainer.
Roest's time held up until the elite men's heat. And by the time we got to that heat, the race was running way behind schedule because it takes a while to enter each competitor's name and assign them to a computrainer. The elite mens heat was the 12th heat of the day and was two hours behind schedule. I wouldn't bother to mention it but it played a factor in the race because not only did the elite men start their heat well after their bed times, several of them also got bored waiting and decided to sample the beer selection before their heat.
Robbie King, Al Donahue, Dylan McNicholas, Tom Parsons, Cort Cramer, Mark McCormack, and Peter Bradshaw were all in the elite men's heat. Two time U23 national triathalon champion Ethan Brown was in this heat also. With this crew, even though some of them had been partaking of the beer supply, you knew a new best time would be set. It looked for a while like Tom Parsons would be late for the start when he couldn't get his 29'er MTB to fit the computrainer. Only Tom could be late for a start that started two hours late. It probably didn't help that he spent more time lining up his beer feeds with Kevin Sweeney than he did checking his bike. But, he found a bike that would work and made the start in the nick of time. Read his detailed account here. Ethan Brown would set the best time, showing the inebraited road racing and mountain cyclists what power per kilogram is all about. His 18:37 was nearly matched by Robbie King (Indy Fab) at 18:46.4 with Matt Mitchell (545 Velo) only 0.1 seconds slower. Average wattages over the course for the top three men were 348, 395, and 384 in that order. For Brown, that was close to 5 watts/kg. Robbie is well over 6 feet tall and weighs a lot more than Brown so his watts/kg was less than Brown's despite having the higher raw number. It was about 11:30 when the elite men's heat finished but they took over the top 5 spots in the overall standings and nobody puked.
Robbie King, Al Donahue, Dylan McNicholas, Tom Parsons, Cort Cramer, Mark McCormack, and Peter Bradshaw were all in the elite men's heat. Two time U23 national triathalon champion Ethan Brown was in this heat also. With this crew, even though some of them had been partaking of the beer supply, you knew a new best time would be set. It looked for a while like Tom Parsons would be late for the start when he couldn't get his 29'er MTB to fit the computrainer. Only Tom could be late for a start that started two hours late. It probably didn't help that he spent more time lining up his beer feeds with Kevin Sweeney than he did checking his bike. But, he found a bike that would work and made the start in the nick of time. Read his detailed account here. Ethan Brown would set the best time, showing the inebraited road racing and mountain cyclists what power per kilogram is all about. His 18:37 was nearly matched by Robbie King (Indy Fab) at 18:46.4 with Matt Mitchell (545 Velo) only 0.1 seconds slower. Average wattages over the course for the top three men were 348, 395, and 384 in that order. For Brown, that was close to 5 watts/kg. Robbie is well over 6 feet tall and weighs a lot more than Brown so his watts/kg was less than Brown's despite having the higher raw number. It was about 11:30 when the elite men's heat finished but they took over the top 5 spots in the overall standings and nobody puked.
Mark the Shark
Al Donahue (front) and Peter Bradshaw
Apparently it was past Robbie King's bed time
Mr. Big Bikes, Tom Parsons
U23 National Tri Champ, Ethan Brown
The view from the Hot Seat
Have you ever seen this look on Mark's face? Or Robbies? Me neither.
The women's elite heat was earlier in the day at around 3:00 and included a couple of notable triathlete celebreties in Dede Griesbauer and Karen Smyers. Karen would take the hot seat and the Mavic Red Vest of Courage with a time of 21:05 and an average power output of 265 watts. Having the women's elite race early in the day meant that the women's final results were likely to remain unchanged unless a big upset came along. At least the women in the remianing open heats had cases to beer to ride for and in some heats there were only one or two women so their odds were good. Karen Smyers remained on the hot seat until the awards ceremony at the end of the evening. Amy McGuire was the second women overall at 22:10 and 272 watts with Dede close behind at 22:19 and 251 watts.
Dede and Karen were able to fill some of the time between their heat and the awards ceremony with the team event. This event required 8 members on each of three teams to work together like a Tour de France TTT. The lead rider feels the resistenace of the wind at whatever speed they are riding. Any rider within 40 feet of the rider in front of them feels less resistance to simulate the draft. Anyone who has ever been dropped, and that is probably everyone reading this blog, wishes you could still feel the draft at 40 feet in real life, but the simulation is close enough. The team's time is taken on the 7th rider to finish so you can only drop one rider so it doesn't matter at all how fast any individual on the team might be able to go. Team Psycho and Blue Hills Cycling Club were on opposite sides of the room with the Boston Triathalon Team in the middle. All three teams are sponsored by Harpoon. Arnold Roest, who at that point was still the leader of the men's race, was not on the Psycho team because, as he said, he didn't make the cut. That didn't make much sense until we saw the team which included Karen Smyers and Dede Grisbauer and triathalon Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker. To no one's syrprise Team Psycho won with a time of 20:15 for the seventh rider, which was only 5 seconds behind the team leader.
The final heat of the night was the collegiate heat with about 16 riders from Boston area colleges including MIT, BC, Northeastern, and Wentworth. Ian from MIT won the heat, and the beer that went with it. His time was 19:56 which was good for 15th place overall.
Here is a photo of the two individual winners who both took home a set of Mavic wheels among other prizes.
Ethan Brown and Karen Smyers enjoying their just rewards
(photo by Harpoon Brewery)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
And just like that, it's over
Sometimes you see the end coming, sometines it catches you blind sided. Sometimes it's for the best, sometimes you wish you had had a little more time together. But time marches on and, whether you are ready or not, it's now over. The parting is bittersweet, but at least we ended it with a bang. If it's better to burn out than fade away, we couldn't have ended it any better. And best of all, we will have sweet memories to carry us over to the next romance, the next love, or the next 'cross season.
Well, I tried to be all deep and poetic, but that just isn't me.
The Ice Weasels cometh, and unfortunately they also go-eth, and in so doing they mark the end of the bicycle racing season in New England. It's finally time to nurse the sore bones, catch up with the family, and get some of the big ticket items off the honey-do list that has taken a back seat for almost four months now (9 months counting road/MTB seasons).
For the second year in a row Colin and Tom, with help from Kevin, put on the party of the year at White Barn Farm and they even managed to fit in some bike races to keep us all entertained. There are a few esential elements that make a party great. Beer is a given. They had that covered (for a while anyway) with two kegs of beer from Harpoon. Music is a must have for any party. I was happy to supply 800 watts of sound pumping power and an ipod full of tunes (until Tom pulled host priveleges and switched it to his ipod while I was out racing, gotta admit his might have been better). Good food is a must and the boys and girls from HUP had that covered. Good people and great conversation are the only other ingredients that a great party must have, and they were in abundant supply.
I arrived at 8:00 to set up the PA system and hopefully still have time to warm up a little before the 10:00 AM Cat 4 race. It was nice being parked on the same side as the race course this year. Folks, if you want to get a good parking spot at next years race, just offer to bring some heavy equipment to the race or get there early. There was no snow where I live so the conditions caught me by surprise. But I discovered that racing in snow and ice means that there is no way you can go fast enough to really make it hurt (on the inside) becasue you just can't apply that much power. While I was setting up I heard talk about opening up the wait list at 9:45. What, you mean this race is sold out? No way! So we are going to have 100 Cat 4 cross dudes bouncing and sliding around for 40 mintes on what is almost certainly the shortest and narrowest course of the year? Cool!
I lined up around the middle of the pack (100 riders divided by 5 per row= 20 rows) and waited for the whistle. We took off at a reasonable pace with most everyone choosing one of two packed down tire tracks . I realized a few seconds later than I should have that I could easily go faster down the middle and started passing people and moving up a few spots before the first turn. It's a good thing I did because there were very few passing oportunities on other parts of the course. Unless someone fell down, your chances of getting past them were slim. But lots did fall down. After what seemed like a long time, the lap cards read 5 to go. What? I was about ready for the bell. Then the next time around the double barriers where the crowd was gathered, I heard Motorhead on the PA and got enough extra kick to put the lap count out of my head and dig a little deeper for a while. Unfortunately, digging a little deeper in slick snow means falling down more often.
Over the course of the race I think I wiped out on ice about 6 times. Most of the time I got up quick and laughed it off but the last ime, near the big tree, it took some of the life out of me and a few guys got around before I was back up to speed. That was on the last lap as I was trying to catch a few guys that were tantalizingly catchable until I crashed. I ended up 45th so I made my goal of being in the top half with a few places to spare. The guy on the huge mountain bike (a Surly Pugsley) won it but I never even saw him.
The Cat 3 race was next. I had done a poor job explaining the open mic heckling concept to the crowd before the Cat 4 race becasue I was in a hurry to get to the line. As a result, nobody had picked up the mic and heckled us. So, I made sure during the Cat 3 race that the concept was understood: There would be no real announcing this day, just an 800 watt free for all. Tom got into it and got some help from Steve H. who it turns out has some real announcing experience from the collegiate racing scene. The kids got potential.
I have no idea who it was that was on the mic during the single speed race but he was a cycling Henny Youngman. Great lines and a great voice to match. I used the Chabot method to turn my old Faggin cross bike into a single speed Friday night (but didn't test ride it) so I was ready to do the double for the first time in my cross career (beleive me, 44 years old is no time to start doing the double). I had been shifting frequently in the cat 4 race so I knew this wasn't going to be easy but at least the course is flat. I managed ok but I was beat by the end. The weird thing is that I didn't fall down at all in this race after falling over about 6 times in the Cat 4 race. It could have been that the course was worn in by then. It could have been the different bike. Also, I did the single speed on clinchers with about 45 psi as opposed to the Cat 4 where I was on tubulars with about 34 psi. Could clinchers with pressure be better in slippery snow? I beat the hipster in the plaid shirt and msutache but I lost to Leah from Indy Fab. So it goes. At least I took a beer feed for the first time ever. Andy says it was Harpoon but it tasted like Miller and that's what he had been drinking. It didn't settle too well so that was the only time I tried that. I looked for a real Harpoon after the race but, the horror, it was all gone!
After the single speed event, the racing became a blur of hideous red and white striped kits (I'm looking at you JD), beer/cupcake feeds, pumpkin pie, and bouncing aimlessly from one conversation to another.
Then just like that, the sun set on the 2009 season and it was time to pack up.
I should point out that Tim Johnson missed the Ice Weasel's race once again but he made it worthwhile by collecting his third Elite Men's stars and stripes jersey in Bend Oregon today. Paul Curley, Johnny Bold, Kevin Hines, and Julie Lockhart also missed the Ice Weasel's but they'll all be in stars and stripes next season also so they probably mad the right choice too. Thanks to Cyclingdirt.com for the live video coverage of the races, it was incredible. I can't beleive that a couple of guys were able to put together a live internet video feed from Oregon and beam it around the world for us to watch for free. They don't even have adverts on their site. Next time I might take some dramamine first, but still, what a great job they did bringing us the races. Versus could learn a fews things from them.
Between announcing, racing, and spectating, I have had only one complete weekend away from bike races since mid August. I am getting tired of getting up earlier on the weekends than I do during the week. I am ready for a break but if there was a race next weekend, I'd still want to do it. That's probsably the right feeling to have at the end of the season.
If something comes along that is blog-worthy, maybe I'll fire up the laptop but it might be a while. See you next year.
Well, I tried to be all deep and poetic, but that just isn't me.
The Ice Weasels cometh, and unfortunately they also go-eth, and in so doing they mark the end of the bicycle racing season in New England. It's finally time to nurse the sore bones, catch up with the family, and get some of the big ticket items off the honey-do list that has taken a back seat for almost four months now (9 months counting road/MTB seasons).
For the second year in a row Colin and Tom, with help from Kevin, put on the party of the year at White Barn Farm and they even managed to fit in some bike races to keep us all entertained. There are a few esential elements that make a party great. Beer is a given. They had that covered (for a while anyway) with two kegs of beer from Harpoon. Music is a must have for any party. I was happy to supply 800 watts of sound pumping power and an ipod full of tunes (until Tom pulled host priveleges and switched it to his ipod while I was out racing, gotta admit his might have been better). Good food is a must and the boys and girls from HUP had that covered. Good people and great conversation are the only other ingredients that a great party must have, and they were in abundant supply.
I arrived at 8:00 to set up the PA system and hopefully still have time to warm up a little before the 10:00 AM Cat 4 race. It was nice being parked on the same side as the race course this year. Folks, if you want to get a good parking spot at next years race, just offer to bring some heavy equipment to the race or get there early. There was no snow where I live so the conditions caught me by surprise. But I discovered that racing in snow and ice means that there is no way you can go fast enough to really make it hurt (on the inside) becasue you just can't apply that much power. While I was setting up I heard talk about opening up the wait list at 9:45. What, you mean this race is sold out? No way! So we are going to have 100 Cat 4 cross dudes bouncing and sliding around for 40 mintes on what is almost certainly the shortest and narrowest course of the year? Cool!
I lined up around the middle of the pack (100 riders divided by 5 per row= 20 rows) and waited for the whistle. We took off at a reasonable pace with most everyone choosing one of two packed down tire tracks . I realized a few seconds later than I should have that I could easily go faster down the middle and started passing people and moving up a few spots before the first turn. It's a good thing I did because there were very few passing oportunities on other parts of the course. Unless someone fell down, your chances of getting past them were slim. But lots did fall down. After what seemed like a long time, the lap cards read 5 to go. What? I was about ready for the bell. Then the next time around the double barriers where the crowd was gathered, I heard Motorhead on the PA and got enough extra kick to put the lap count out of my head and dig a little deeper for a while. Unfortunately, digging a little deeper in slick snow means falling down more often.
Over the course of the race I think I wiped out on ice about 6 times. Most of the time I got up quick and laughed it off but the last ime, near the big tree, it took some of the life out of me and a few guys got around before I was back up to speed. That was on the last lap as I was trying to catch a few guys that were tantalizingly catchable until I crashed. I ended up 45th so I made my goal of being in the top half with a few places to spare. The guy on the huge mountain bike (a Surly Pugsley) won it but I never even saw him.
The Cat 3 race was next. I had done a poor job explaining the open mic heckling concept to the crowd before the Cat 4 race becasue I was in a hurry to get to the line. As a result, nobody had picked up the mic and heckled us. So, I made sure during the Cat 3 race that the concept was understood: There would be no real announcing this day, just an 800 watt free for all. Tom got into it and got some help from Steve H. who it turns out has some real announcing experience from the collegiate racing scene. The kids got potential.
I have no idea who it was that was on the mic during the single speed race but he was a cycling Henny Youngman. Great lines and a great voice to match. I used the Chabot method to turn my old Faggin cross bike into a single speed Friday night (but didn't test ride it) so I was ready to do the double for the first time in my cross career (beleive me, 44 years old is no time to start doing the double). I had been shifting frequently in the cat 4 race so I knew this wasn't going to be easy but at least the course is flat. I managed ok but I was beat by the end. The weird thing is that I didn't fall down at all in this race after falling over about 6 times in the Cat 4 race. It could have been that the course was worn in by then. It could have been the different bike. Also, I did the single speed on clinchers with about 45 psi as opposed to the Cat 4 where I was on tubulars with about 34 psi. Could clinchers with pressure be better in slippery snow? I beat the hipster in the plaid shirt and msutache but I lost to Leah from Indy Fab. So it goes. At least I took a beer feed for the first time ever. Andy says it was Harpoon but it tasted like Miller and that's what he had been drinking. It didn't settle too well so that was the only time I tried that. I looked for a real Harpoon after the race but, the horror, it was all gone!
After the single speed event, the racing became a blur of hideous red and white striped kits (I'm looking at you JD), beer/cupcake feeds, pumpkin pie, and bouncing aimlessly from one conversation to another.
Then just like that, the sun set on the 2009 season and it was time to pack up.
Between announcing, racing, and spectating, I have had only one complete weekend away from bike races since mid August. I am getting tired of getting up earlier on the weekends than I do during the week. I am ready for a break but if there was a race next weekend, I'd still want to do it. That's probsably the right feeling to have at the end of the season.
If something comes along that is blog-worthy, maybe I'll fire up the laptop but it might be a while. See you next year.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Oh No Noho!
For those of you not so wise in the ways of Western Mass, Noho is local shorthand for Northampton, the self-proclaimed Paradise of America. It's also the cultural capital of Western Massachusetts. I was lucky enough to spend five great years during college just down the road in Amherst and my firends and I spent much of our leisure time in Northampton. Some of the store fronts and night clubs have changed but it's still the same great town and going back there, whatever the excuse, is always fun. For the first time in many years my excuse was bike racing instead of conferences for work, the UMass Marching Band, or random drunken excursions.
The seeds of the Northampton race took root when Adam Myerson put on the first cyclocross race at UMass-Amherst in the early 90s (give or take a couple of years). At the time, UMass had a very successful road racing club that produced lots of great talent. I can't count myself among them for at least two reasons, one being that I never rode for the team, the other reason should be obvious to anyone that has seen me race, no talent. Adam, the Swinand brothers, Peter Vollers, Stephanie Roussos, and many others formed the core of a great collegiate cycling scene.
When Adam put on that first cyclo-cross race in the grass fields behind the Orchard Hill and Northeast dormitories at UMass, I was about three years into competitive cycling and just beginning to try 'cross. I showed up on a Bianchi hybrid that was lighter than a mountain bike but still wasn't quite a cross bike. But in the early 90's there weren't many cross bikes around. As usual, Adam was way ahead of his time. A couple of weeks ago I rode those same fields again while at UMass for a conference. There is a new parking lot covering a small part of the area, but most of the old course, as well as I can remember it now almost 20 years later, is still there.
As many UMass students do, Adam transplanted himself from Amherst to Noho and at some point he took the race with him. While in Noho, Adam started his coaching business, Cycle-Smart, and he became the title sponsor as well as the promoter of the race. The Cycle-Smart International now has the distinction of being the oldest UCI sanctioned cyclocross race in the country. When Adam Myerson does something, he does it right!
My love for Western Mass has rubbed off on my sweetie so she and our big dog joined me on my quest for Cat 4 cyclocross glory. She is also a big proponent of wind energy so a chance to check out the new wind turbines on Jiminy Peak and Brodie Mountain helped seal the deal. We were packed up and on the road Friday afternoon and got to the "Pick Up Party" at the Cycle-Smart Offices in time for a beer and some socializing. I was hoping to check out the Spooky Bikes shop downstairs but didn't have a chance. I saw an old friend from Needham High School there. I ran across his website first and eventually figured out that I know this guy. I had no idea that he had become a bike racer and, justifiably, he had no idea that I had either. Hey Chip!
The Pick Up Party was a scene and thee place to be, but we had plans to grab some dinner in town so we finished a quick beer (mmm, Sam Smiths porter) and headed for the Sierra Grill. D'oh, 45 minute wait! Back up plan: The Dirty Truth. Double D'oh, no seats and a line! We needed food and alcohol quick! So we walked Main Street looking for good food quick, but not fast food. I can't remember the name of the place we ended up at, but we found a nice little Italian pasta place a couple of blocks west on Main St and had a great meal.
I desparately wanted to hit the Dirty Truth for a beer after dinner, but Sweetie's better judgement prevailed (as it usually does) so we went strait to the hotel to rest up for a big Saturday. If you haven't been to the DT, I suggest you go. If you have any appreciation at all for fine beers and food, this is the place to go. They have something like 30 beers on tap and several times more than that bottles. A cruise through the beer menu can take all night. They specialize in Belgian and craft brews. Sorry, no PBRs there for you hipster messenger types. If you are the indecisive type just get one of everything until you can't stand any more.
Oh yeah, there was a bike race Saturday: My goal for the Cat 4 race (other than making it there on time for the 8:30 start) was to finish in the top half. With a full field of 125 and starting on the 8th row, it wasn't going to be easy. The whistle blew and 250 pedals, 250 wheels and 250 flaring nostrils surged forward. Make that 248 pedals. My nostrils did their job, but I blew it trying to clip in. I lost several places before I had even turned a complete revolution. I cursed each stroke as I continued to try to spin and connect with the pedals. I hope no little kids were nearby. At least I wasn't next to the fences. I had looked at the narrow chute before the start and decided I would rather tangle with other riders than the steel fencing. As it turned out, being a little further back was a good thing when we reached the wooden ramp to enter the grass. For some reason there was a big pile up there and being a little further back allowed me to pick a line around it with minimal delay. It would have been better to be in front of it like most of the race, but it was a small victory to get around it unscathed.
From there, it was elbows out for a while as I tried to make up places and get into the top half of the race. I might be competely wrong about this, but I might have better technical skills than the other riders that are at my fitness level. I chose some great lines through the corners and when I got gapped by stronger riders, I could usually make it back up by coasting into the next corner a little hotter and letting it fly. Equipment choices might have a little to do with this - tubulars at 38 psi allow you to corner faster than clinchers, no doubt about it. I would like to run them even lower, but at 205 pounds and with lots of roots on the course, that was as low as I dared go. I'd rather bounce a little extra than run half a lap to the pit with a flat.
You might expect that racing with 124 friends would be a nightmare and the start kind of was. But, on the bright side, it means you are likely to have some company no matter how well or how badly you are doing. This race was the most fun I've had so far because there was always someone to race with. I passed a bunch, I got passed by a bunch. Sometimes in the tricky stuff, sometimes in the power sections. It felt like a race, not a time trial, all the way through. In the end I finished up 57th so I made my goal of top half. It's not an earth shattering result, but it's not bad for someone who spends more time announcing races than racing them. I think I even lapped one or two guys. That's definitely a first.
After the race it was time to get out of selfish bike racer mode and do what Sweetie wanted to do for a while. So we went to the farmers market in downtown Noho and stocked up on fresh veggies. When we were done with that it was almost lunch time so we did what any Belgian cyclocross fan would do, we got beer and frites at the Dirty Truth. I've been to Belgium (too breifly, but I was there) and Sweetie used to live there so we know our frites. Let me tell you, the Dirty Truth has the only real frites you are going to find in Massachusetts. I would say they have the best in all New England, but Duck Fat in Portland (the real Portland, not OR) is good too. So, at 11:15 AM we had the place to ourselves and we were having a lunch of Belgian beers and frites after finishing my best cross race so far. Heaven!
We returned to Look Park in time to see the Elite mens and womens races. I got some pictures but other real media outlets have covered those races better than I can. Follow this link to Adam Myerson's site where he has a comprehensive list of all the race coverage from the "real media".
Day two at Noho was pretty much the same race as day one except backwards. That meant that the steep run up after the rail road tracks was now a steep drop off into the rail road tracks. I nearly lost it on the landing after taking way too much air and landing front wheel first. But I held it together and recovered. I finished a few places lower than day one but still pretty good for me.
My congratualtions to technical director JD, who Solobreak correctly notes was everywhere busting his hump (camel reference?) all day long both days. Thanks JD for a great course.
A little later in the day, while Sweetie, me, and our dog were looking at Western Mass's first wind turbines, the UCI Official at the race, Harry Lam, found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by riders sprinting for a finish in the 35 plus race. If you were there, you either heard it or heard about it. If you weren't, suffice it to say, he was very seriously injured but is now released from the hospital and on the long road to recovery. There is a fund raiser set up on Bikereg where you can donate to support Harry and his family while he recoveres. As I understand it, Harry's family (wife and two or three kids) could really use the help since, other than officiating, he was out of work at the time of the accident. Hopefully he still had health insurance, but I don't know about that. You can also help out this weekend at Lowell. Check out Chip's website for details.
The seeds of the Northampton race took root when Adam Myerson put on the first cyclocross race at UMass-Amherst in the early 90s (give or take a couple of years). At the time, UMass had a very successful road racing club that produced lots of great talent. I can't count myself among them for at least two reasons, one being that I never rode for the team, the other reason should be obvious to anyone that has seen me race, no talent. Adam, the Swinand brothers, Peter Vollers, Stephanie Roussos, and many others formed the core of a great collegiate cycling scene.
When Adam put on that first cyclo-cross race in the grass fields behind the Orchard Hill and Northeast dormitories at UMass, I was about three years into competitive cycling and just beginning to try 'cross. I showed up on a Bianchi hybrid that was lighter than a mountain bike but still wasn't quite a cross bike. But in the early 90's there weren't many cross bikes around. As usual, Adam was way ahead of his time. A couple of weeks ago I rode those same fields again while at UMass for a conference. There is a new parking lot covering a small part of the area, but most of the old course, as well as I can remember it now almost 20 years later, is still there.
As many UMass students do, Adam transplanted himself from Amherst to Noho and at some point he took the race with him. While in Noho, Adam started his coaching business, Cycle-Smart, and he became the title sponsor as well as the promoter of the race. The Cycle-Smart International now has the distinction of being the oldest UCI sanctioned cyclocross race in the country. When Adam Myerson does something, he does it right!
My love for Western Mass has rubbed off on my sweetie so she and our big dog joined me on my quest for Cat 4 cyclocross glory. She is also a big proponent of wind energy so a chance to check out the new wind turbines on Jiminy Peak and Brodie Mountain helped seal the deal. We were packed up and on the road Friday afternoon and got to the "Pick Up Party" at the Cycle-Smart Offices in time for a beer and some socializing. I was hoping to check out the Spooky Bikes shop downstairs but didn't have a chance. I saw an old friend from Needham High School there. I ran across his website first and eventually figured out that I know this guy. I had no idea that he had become a bike racer and, justifiably, he had no idea that I had either. Hey Chip!
The Pick Up Party was a scene and thee place to be, but we had plans to grab some dinner in town so we finished a quick beer (mmm, Sam Smiths porter) and headed for the Sierra Grill. D'oh, 45 minute wait! Back up plan: The Dirty Truth. Double D'oh, no seats and a line! We needed food and alcohol quick! So we walked Main Street looking for good food quick, but not fast food. I can't remember the name of the place we ended up at, but we found a nice little Italian pasta place a couple of blocks west on Main St and had a great meal.
I desparately wanted to hit the Dirty Truth for a beer after dinner, but Sweetie's better judgement prevailed (as it usually does) so we went strait to the hotel to rest up for a big Saturday. If you haven't been to the DT, I suggest you go. If you have any appreciation at all for fine beers and food, this is the place to go. They have something like 30 beers on tap and several times more than that bottles. A cruise through the beer menu can take all night. They specialize in Belgian and craft brews. Sorry, no PBRs there for you hipster messenger types. If you are the indecisive type just get one of everything until you can't stand any more.
Oh yeah, there was a bike race Saturday: My goal for the Cat 4 race (other than making it there on time for the 8:30 start) was to finish in the top half. With a full field of 125 and starting on the 8th row, it wasn't going to be easy. The whistle blew and 250 pedals, 250 wheels and 250 flaring nostrils surged forward. Make that 248 pedals. My nostrils did their job, but I blew it trying to clip in. I lost several places before I had even turned a complete revolution. I cursed each stroke as I continued to try to spin and connect with the pedals. I hope no little kids were nearby. At least I wasn't next to the fences. I had looked at the narrow chute before the start and decided I would rather tangle with other riders than the steel fencing. As it turned out, being a little further back was a good thing when we reached the wooden ramp to enter the grass. For some reason there was a big pile up there and being a little further back allowed me to pick a line around it with minimal delay. It would have been better to be in front of it like most of the race, but it was a small victory to get around it unscathed.
From there, it was elbows out for a while as I tried to make up places and get into the top half of the race. I might be competely wrong about this, but I might have better technical skills than the other riders that are at my fitness level. I chose some great lines through the corners and when I got gapped by stronger riders, I could usually make it back up by coasting into the next corner a little hotter and letting it fly. Equipment choices might have a little to do with this - tubulars at 38 psi allow you to corner faster than clinchers, no doubt about it. I would like to run them even lower, but at 205 pounds and with lots of roots on the course, that was as low as I dared go. I'd rather bounce a little extra than run half a lap to the pit with a flat.
You might expect that racing with 124 friends would be a nightmare and the start kind of was. But, on the bright side, it means you are likely to have some company no matter how well or how badly you are doing. This race was the most fun I've had so far because there was always someone to race with. I passed a bunch, I got passed by a bunch. Sometimes in the tricky stuff, sometimes in the power sections. It felt like a race, not a time trial, all the way through. In the end I finished up 57th so I made my goal of top half. It's not an earth shattering result, but it's not bad for someone who spends more time announcing races than racing them. I think I even lapped one or two guys. That's definitely a first.
After the race it was time to get out of selfish bike racer mode and do what Sweetie wanted to do for a while. So we went to the farmers market in downtown Noho and stocked up on fresh veggies. When we were done with that it was almost lunch time so we did what any Belgian cyclocross fan would do, we got beer and frites at the Dirty Truth. I've been to Belgium (too breifly, but I was there) and Sweetie used to live there so we know our frites. Let me tell you, the Dirty Truth has the only real frites you are going to find in Massachusetts. I would say they have the best in all New England, but Duck Fat in Portland (the real Portland, not OR) is good too. So, at 11:15 AM we had the place to ourselves and we were having a lunch of Belgian beers and frites after finishing my best cross race so far. Heaven!
We returned to Look Park in time to see the Elite mens and womens races. I got some pictures but other real media outlets have covered those races better than I can. Follow this link to Adam Myerson's site where he has a comprehensive list of all the race coverage from the "real media".
The Elite Women on the line. Mary McConneloug (far left) would win both days.
Elliot takes the hole shot.
Early action: Laura Van Gilder's leg, Sarah Bresnick-Zocchi , and Andrea Smith
Myerson, Timmerman, Driscoll and Powers
Melee in the sand pit
The melee continues
Race Promoter Adam Myerson
The U23 battle taking shape between Luke Keough and Jerome Townsend
J-Pow with Richard Fries after winning
"Wow, what the hell is this thing?" Driscoll and Timmerman don't know either, but they want it.
Driscoll got his on Sunday.
Sunday podium with Driscoll first, Weighall second and St. John third (right).
More important, after the races, I found out from Adam that the Dirty Truth would be the center of the cyclocross universe later in the evening. Twice in one day? Yeah, I can handle that. I arrived, while Sweetie slept at the hotel, in time to wish Richard Fries a happy birthday as did many others. I got a chance to talk to a lot of 'cross people that I normally only get to talk about while they are announcing. The most unusual (in a good way) was Kirt Fitzpatrick, the Sexual Camel.
The legend of Kirt Fitzpatrick is growing even faster than I can type this and may someday be a blog post in itself if not a made for TV movie. From what I remember of our conversation over the din of a very busy bar, he told me that his team is named after a strip club in Dubai UAE. However, I also heard at least two other people ask him the same question about the team name and he gave them both completely different explanations. I am not naming names, but the Sexual Camel's dry spell may have ended after he left the DT because he didn't leave alone. I also got a chance to talk to Pete Smith of the embrocation cycling team. I complemented him on the fine picture of him in the Herald in advance of the Mayor's Cup race in Boston. He went on to tell me how he was surprised to hear his name during call ups before that race but unfortunately he was too sick to ride and was just there to support team mates. He didn't realize that I was the announcer that did the call ups. It must have been frustrating as hell to get a call up at the biggest criterium his home town had seen in decades and not be able to take the line. He should have walked up to the line in street clothes, that would have been funny.
Day two at Noho was pretty much the same race as day one except backwards. That meant that the steep run up after the rail road tracks was now a steep drop off into the rail road tracks. I nearly lost it on the landing after taking way too much air and landing front wheel first. But I held it together and recovered. I finished a few places lower than day one but still pretty good for me.
My congratualtions to technical director JD, who Solobreak correctly notes was everywhere busting his hump (camel reference?) all day long both days. Thanks JD for a great course.
A little later in the day, while Sweetie, me, and our dog were looking at Western Mass's first wind turbines, the UCI Official at the race, Harry Lam, found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by riders sprinting for a finish in the 35 plus race. If you were there, you either heard it or heard about it. If you weren't, suffice it to say, he was very seriously injured but is now released from the hospital and on the long road to recovery. There is a fund raiser set up on Bikereg where you can donate to support Harry and his family while he recoveres. As I understand it, Harry's family (wife and two or three kids) could really use the help since, other than officiating, he was out of work at the time of the accident. Hopefully he still had health insurance, but I don't know about that. You can also help out this weekend at Lowell. Check out Chip's website for details.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Cyclocross Smorgasbord
So many races, so little time. It's been a while since my last confession (mostly because I am not Catholic), but here we go with an update for the past four weeks or so. Sorry for the lack of pictures but between rain and announcing duties, I haven't even taken the camera out of the truck in a while.
Brockton and Wrentham, October 17-18
October had five weekends for racing and it seemed like it rained one day or the other every one of those weekends except the last. Saturday in Brockton, Travis Cycles once again hosted their City of Champions Cyclocross. A year ago, they asked Mark McCormack to redesign their course around the lake and he found some interesting features. This year they used pretty much exactly the same course and it was still a bit of jungle cross and certainly not UCI approved, but it had a nice mix of surfaces and conditions. It was a nice change after three strait weeks of Verge UCI approved courses at Vermont, Gloucester, and Providence.
Attendance was a bit light with a total of about 70 riders taking the line in four different races. This might have been the result of the scheduling gods putting four races on the schedule this day or maybe lots of folks just wanted a weekend off after three strait weekends of Verge series racing. The Category 4 race was the largest of the day with a field of 44 riders (I was bib number 44 and I think I was the last to register). The hole shot was shorter this year than last with only 100 yards of pavement before hitting the grass and a short uphill. That meant traffic and lots of it when we reached the uphill. I somehow got a decent start and made it to the top of the run up in decent position. But I also somehow managed to drop my chain which I didn't notice until after I remounted the bike which, of course, led to lost time and many lost places. More time was lost when I had to get off the bike to put the chain back on the big ring. Suddenly I was next to last place in the race and had to chase. This seemed to be good motivation because I passed almost half the race to finish 23rd. I never even saw them, but the results say that Erik Petterson won with last year's winner, Jacob Morrison, right behind.
I didn't see the women's race, but I heard there were only two competitors so it wasn't much of a race.
The masters-45 race was a friendly battle between Sam Morse and Kevin Hines, teammates on the Corner Cycle team. They rode away from the field and came on to the paved finishing stretch together on the final lap. They wound up the sprint but Sam pulled out of his left pedal, leaving Kevin to take the win by a length.
Sam and Kevin lined up again for the Masters-35 race but they got some company when course designer Mark McCormack signed in. Mark was the only rider I saw hopping the barriers on the uphill near the start. This bought him a few seconds each lap while the others dismounted and then had to chase back on to stay with him. Only Kevin managed to stay with him and they sprinted out the finish with Markie taking a narrow victory.
Last year the Wrentham race was a lot of fun despite being quite cold. This year wasn't quite as cold (at least the ground didn't start off frozen this time) but it didn't look like much fun at all. I was heading to Amherst for a conference for work and the race was almost directly on my way there. Still, I wisely decided not to race this one myself and just watched the elite race on my way to the conference. I watched for all of twenty minutes in 38 degree pouring rain before DNF'ing as a spectator. But that was longer than a few of the racers lasted. This was the kind of day when most racers "warmed up" in their car and waited until the last possible minute to get on their bike. It also led to some interesting equipment choices including Colin "Results Boy" Reuter selecting rubber dish washing cloves to keep his results-entering fingers warm and dry. If the gloves worked, whatever else he had on apparently didn't because he passed me on his bike as we were both heading to our cars with most of the race still to go. And he wasn't the first or last to retire from the race. Only 17 riders finished and there are 38 in the results including all of the DNFs. These were the worst conditions I have seen at a race and apparently it got worse after I left. If you too had the good sense to skip this race this year, you may remember watching the Patriots demolish the Titans in 4 inches of snow at Foxboro. Well, Wrentham is just a bunny hop, chain skip, and bike throw down Route 1 from Foxboro and the snow fell there as well before the race was over. Sorry I missed that part (not).
Downeast Cyclocross, New Gloucester Maine, October 24-25
The pattern of one rainy day/one nice day continued when the Verge series resumed. The Maine Cycling Club did a great job putting on this race, the first time at the UCI level. Near constant rain and hundreds of pairs of bike tires turned the fields and trails of Pineland Farm in New Gloucester into the proverbial "mud pit" on Saturday. I got to do the anouncing for this one as Richard Fries, the usual announcer for the Verge series races, was out of town at the USGP in Louisville. As wet as it was, working all day in the rain at this race was no where near as uncomfortable as the twenty minutes I spent at Wrentham the previous weekend.
Mo Bruno-Roy had a tangle at the start line with Amanda Carey so they lost the whole shot and had to chase to get back into contention. Natasha Elliot (Garneau) took the early lead by several seconds while Bruno-Roy and Carey made their way through the field. They managed to pass every one but Elliot, who remianed off the front for several laps. But they couldn't drop Andrea Smith (Minuteman RC) and Mary McConnelog (Kenda/Seven). The four women formed a chase group and closed the gap to Elliot. As Bruno-Roy put the pressure on, the group fell apart and only Carey could stay with her. As she did in (old) Gloucester weeks ago, Carey proved that she is very good in the mud, especially for a first year cross racer. When Brnuno-Roy and Carey caught Elliot, they completed their run from the back to the front of the race and would finish one-two on the podium with Elliot third. Elliot would later say that she regretted not pushing a little harder while she was in the lead to establish an insurmountable gap. But under the conditions, she did well to hang on to third. All three women fought hard until the end and it wasn't decided until the final hair pin on the grass before a short paved sprint to the line. Usually, a cyclocross race is decided long before the final meters, but this one was a battle right up until the end when Bruno-Roy just had a little bit more left in her than the others.
As the rain continued and the temperatures dropped a bit, Dan Timmerman (Sachs) and Luke Keough (Champion Systems) started the men's race on the front row in the leader's jerseys of the elite men and the under 23 men respectively. They would take the hole shot and hit the muddy field first. With the rain falling constantly, the grass field was a mess with chocolate milk mud but it was watery enough that it didn't stick to the bikes too badly and most of the course remained ridable despite deep tracks. Timmerman was clearly the class of the field and had seemingly little trouble handling the mud and his competitors. Keough hung tough to take second while Josh Dillon (Sachs) closed several places in the last two laps to earn himself a spot on the podium by the end of the race. But the weather remained bad and many of the riders were near hypothermic so we cancelled the podium events. There weren't any spectators left at that point anyway, even Downeast Mainers know when to call it a day and admit that the weather sometimes wins.
As bad as Day 1's weather was for the racers, Day 2 started with blue skies from the sunrise and stayed that way. If you didn't have to race, Day 2 made up for all the rain Day 1. Unfortunately for the riders, Maine cow pasture mud does not dry out as fast as the sky and we were left with atrocious mud that would go from chocalate milk, to peanut butter, to concrete throughout the day. Riding the same course but in the opposite direction from Saturday, the lower category men and women were kind enough to take quite a bit of the mud with them throughout the morning, but there was still plenty left for the elite racers. The officials noticed during the early races that even the seemingly mild hils of the cow pasture had become unridable in the thick goop so they re-routed the course slightly to take advantage of grass that had previously been outside the barrier tape. This slight realignment made all the difference and the course was again ready for a cyclo-cross race.
The result of the women's race was about the same as Day 1 with Mo Bruno-Roy taking another win and proving that she is a mudder. This one came with a lot less drama and a more comfortable margin as she held off Mary McConneloug and Natasha Elliot.
Dan Timmerman worked the pits for his team manager/sponser, Richard Sachs, during the masters race. One wise guy asked if that was in his contract with the team but Dan was too busy rushing off to the bike wash with Richard's bike to think of a snappy comeback. Apparently, it was a good warm up for him because he had another fine day in the saddle when his turn came a couple of hours later. If you were wondering, Richard did return the favor for Dan during the elite race. The pit crews were very busy thoughout the day as almost every rider in contention in the race made several bike changes, sometimes within a half lap. And the bikes were coming into the pits absoutely clogged up with mud. Fortunately, by the time the elite races started, a hose connection closer to the pit was found cutting the commute to the bike wash down to about one quarter of what it was on Day 1.
Timmerman and Keough got off to good starts again and stayed near the front until the race went out of site in the woods on the north side of the course. Kirt Fitzpatrick (Sexual Camel) came out of the woods in first place with a wide gap on the rest. Something happened back there while they were out of site, and Fitzpatrick took full advantage of it. He was flying coming into the cow pasture and taking some big risks in the rutted mud. With some of the biggest names in the sport away at the USGP in Loiusville for the weekend, the Downeast races were a golden opportunity for some of the lesser known riders to shine, but no one would have predicted the man from the Sexual Camel racing team would lead for the first two and a half laps before finally getting caught by the Verge series leader, Dan Timmerman. Fortunately, Fitzpatrick had a video comera on the front of one of his bikes and caught some nice footage of the race (thanks to Colin for the tip, I never would have found it on my own).
Apparently Fitzpatrick, the Sexual Camel, has been drinking heartily from the Oasis of Awesomeness and stored it up in his legs for this race. Fitzpatrick did eventually get passed by five other riders but held on for 6th. Timmerman and Justine Lindine (Joe's Garage/IF) were the first to pass him about half way through the race and went on to sprint the final 300 meters down the muddy dirt road in a battle for first place. Timmerman led it out with Lindine glued to his wheel. Surprisingly, Timmerman took the time to adjust his glasses with his right hand as they reached top speed but that wasn't enough to give Lindine a chance to get around and Timmeman took another win. The U23 battle between Gavin Mannion (Hot Tubes) and Luke Keough was won this time by Mannion who also rounded out the podium for the elite race. Josh Dillon put another come from behind trick and took 5th. Derrick St. John (Garneau) had been in contention for a podium spot but mangled his rear deraileur somewhere out of site in the woods on the last lap. He had to run with his bike on his shoulder for several minutes to get to the pit with a quarter lap to go. On a new bike, he held on for 8th. It would have been easy to pack it in and quit, but 8th place prize money in a UCI race is still enough to replace the deraileur and pay for some gas money back to Ontario Canada.
Canton Cup, October 31
This one I raced, sort of. Bike racers often have a problem telling the difference between excuses for failure and reasons for failure and I am no exception. This time I think I have a good reason, and certainly a novel one that you haven't heard before: I sucked at Canton (even by my modest standards) because the day before the race I climbed to the top of the new wind turbine at work and my legs were beat. You would be surprised at the weird muscles that get sore after climbing up, and then down, a 300-foot tall ladder. When I got on my bike Saturday, I realized just how bad it was. But I'd do it again, the view of Cape Cod and Buzzard's Bay from up there was worth it. My warm up wasn't great either and that didn't help (OK, I am veering off into excuses now, I know). Anyway, I didn't lose, I didn't get hurt, and I didn't damage my bike so it wasn't all bad. And I got in a good workout before Northampton. That reminds me, I need to prereg for that tonight so I don't have to start in the back row again. Se ya, got to go.......
Brockton and Wrentham, October 17-18
October had five weekends for racing and it seemed like it rained one day or the other every one of those weekends except the last. Saturday in Brockton, Travis Cycles once again hosted their City of Champions Cyclocross. A year ago, they asked Mark McCormack to redesign their course around the lake and he found some interesting features. This year they used pretty much exactly the same course and it was still a bit of jungle cross and certainly not UCI approved, but it had a nice mix of surfaces and conditions. It was a nice change after three strait weeks of Verge UCI approved courses at Vermont, Gloucester, and Providence.
Attendance was a bit light with a total of about 70 riders taking the line in four different races. This might have been the result of the scheduling gods putting four races on the schedule this day or maybe lots of folks just wanted a weekend off after three strait weekends of Verge series racing. The Category 4 race was the largest of the day with a field of 44 riders (I was bib number 44 and I think I was the last to register). The hole shot was shorter this year than last with only 100 yards of pavement before hitting the grass and a short uphill. That meant traffic and lots of it when we reached the uphill. I somehow got a decent start and made it to the top of the run up in decent position. But I also somehow managed to drop my chain which I didn't notice until after I remounted the bike which, of course, led to lost time and many lost places. More time was lost when I had to get off the bike to put the chain back on the big ring. Suddenly I was next to last place in the race and had to chase. This seemed to be good motivation because I passed almost half the race to finish 23rd. I never even saw them, but the results say that Erik Petterson won with last year's winner, Jacob Morrison, right behind.
I didn't see the women's race, but I heard there were only two competitors so it wasn't much of a race.
The masters-45 race was a friendly battle between Sam Morse and Kevin Hines, teammates on the Corner Cycle team. They rode away from the field and came on to the paved finishing stretch together on the final lap. They wound up the sprint but Sam pulled out of his left pedal, leaving Kevin to take the win by a length.
Sam and Kevin lined up again for the Masters-35 race but they got some company when course designer Mark McCormack signed in. Mark was the only rider I saw hopping the barriers on the uphill near the start. This bought him a few seconds each lap while the others dismounted and then had to chase back on to stay with him. Only Kevin managed to stay with him and they sprinted out the finish with Markie taking a narrow victory.
Last year the Wrentham race was a lot of fun despite being quite cold. This year wasn't quite as cold (at least the ground didn't start off frozen this time) but it didn't look like much fun at all. I was heading to Amherst for a conference for work and the race was almost directly on my way there. Still, I wisely decided not to race this one myself and just watched the elite race on my way to the conference. I watched for all of twenty minutes in 38 degree pouring rain before DNF'ing as a spectator. But that was longer than a few of the racers lasted. This was the kind of day when most racers "warmed up" in their car and waited until the last possible minute to get on their bike. It also led to some interesting equipment choices including Colin "Results Boy" Reuter selecting rubber dish washing cloves to keep his results-entering fingers warm and dry. If the gloves worked, whatever else he had on apparently didn't because he passed me on his bike as we were both heading to our cars with most of the race still to go. And he wasn't the first or last to retire from the race. Only 17 riders finished and there are 38 in the results including all of the DNFs. These were the worst conditions I have seen at a race and apparently it got worse after I left. If you too had the good sense to skip this race this year, you may remember watching the Patriots demolish the Titans in 4 inches of snow at Foxboro. Well, Wrentham is just a bunny hop, chain skip, and bike throw down Route 1 from Foxboro and the snow fell there as well before the race was over. Sorry I missed that part (not).
Downeast Cyclocross, New Gloucester Maine, October 24-25
The pattern of one rainy day/one nice day continued when the Verge series resumed. The Maine Cycling Club did a great job putting on this race, the first time at the UCI level. Near constant rain and hundreds of pairs of bike tires turned the fields and trails of Pineland Farm in New Gloucester into the proverbial "mud pit" on Saturday. I got to do the anouncing for this one as Richard Fries, the usual announcer for the Verge series races, was out of town at the USGP in Louisville. As wet as it was, working all day in the rain at this race was no where near as uncomfortable as the twenty minutes I spent at Wrentham the previous weekend.
Mo Bruno-Roy had a tangle at the start line with Amanda Carey so they lost the whole shot and had to chase to get back into contention. Natasha Elliot (Garneau) took the early lead by several seconds while Bruno-Roy and Carey made their way through the field. They managed to pass every one but Elliot, who remianed off the front for several laps. But they couldn't drop Andrea Smith (Minuteman RC) and Mary McConnelog (Kenda/Seven). The four women formed a chase group and closed the gap to Elliot. As Bruno-Roy put the pressure on, the group fell apart and only Carey could stay with her. As she did in (old) Gloucester weeks ago, Carey proved that she is very good in the mud, especially for a first year cross racer. When Brnuno-Roy and Carey caught Elliot, they completed their run from the back to the front of the race and would finish one-two on the podium with Elliot third. Elliot would later say that she regretted not pushing a little harder while she was in the lead to establish an insurmountable gap. But under the conditions, she did well to hang on to third. All three women fought hard until the end and it wasn't decided until the final hair pin on the grass before a short paved sprint to the line. Usually, a cyclocross race is decided long before the final meters, but this one was a battle right up until the end when Bruno-Roy just had a little bit more left in her than the others.
As the rain continued and the temperatures dropped a bit, Dan Timmerman (Sachs) and Luke Keough (Champion Systems) started the men's race on the front row in the leader's jerseys of the elite men and the under 23 men respectively. They would take the hole shot and hit the muddy field first. With the rain falling constantly, the grass field was a mess with chocolate milk mud but it was watery enough that it didn't stick to the bikes too badly and most of the course remained ridable despite deep tracks. Timmerman was clearly the class of the field and had seemingly little trouble handling the mud and his competitors. Keough hung tough to take second while Josh Dillon (Sachs) closed several places in the last two laps to earn himself a spot on the podium by the end of the race. But the weather remained bad and many of the riders were near hypothermic so we cancelled the podium events. There weren't any spectators left at that point anyway, even Downeast Mainers know when to call it a day and admit that the weather sometimes wins.
As bad as Day 1's weather was for the racers, Day 2 started with blue skies from the sunrise and stayed that way. If you didn't have to race, Day 2 made up for all the rain Day 1. Unfortunately for the riders, Maine cow pasture mud does not dry out as fast as the sky and we were left with atrocious mud that would go from chocalate milk, to peanut butter, to concrete throughout the day. Riding the same course but in the opposite direction from Saturday, the lower category men and women were kind enough to take quite a bit of the mud with them throughout the morning, but there was still plenty left for the elite racers. The officials noticed during the early races that even the seemingly mild hils of the cow pasture had become unridable in the thick goop so they re-routed the course slightly to take advantage of grass that had previously been outside the barrier tape. This slight realignment made all the difference and the course was again ready for a cyclo-cross race.
The result of the women's race was about the same as Day 1 with Mo Bruno-Roy taking another win and proving that she is a mudder. This one came with a lot less drama and a more comfortable margin as she held off Mary McConneloug and Natasha Elliot.
Dan Timmerman worked the pits for his team manager/sponser, Richard Sachs, during the masters race. One wise guy asked if that was in his contract with the team but Dan was too busy rushing off to the bike wash with Richard's bike to think of a snappy comeback. Apparently, it was a good warm up for him because he had another fine day in the saddle when his turn came a couple of hours later. If you were wondering, Richard did return the favor for Dan during the elite race. The pit crews were very busy thoughout the day as almost every rider in contention in the race made several bike changes, sometimes within a half lap. And the bikes were coming into the pits absoutely clogged up with mud. Fortunately, by the time the elite races started, a hose connection closer to the pit was found cutting the commute to the bike wash down to about one quarter of what it was on Day 1.
Timmerman and Keough got off to good starts again and stayed near the front until the race went out of site in the woods on the north side of the course. Kirt Fitzpatrick (Sexual Camel) came out of the woods in first place with a wide gap on the rest. Something happened back there while they were out of site, and Fitzpatrick took full advantage of it. He was flying coming into the cow pasture and taking some big risks in the rutted mud. With some of the biggest names in the sport away at the USGP in Loiusville for the weekend, the Downeast races were a golden opportunity for some of the lesser known riders to shine, but no one would have predicted the man from the Sexual Camel racing team would lead for the first two and a half laps before finally getting caught by the Verge series leader, Dan Timmerman. Fortunately, Fitzpatrick had a video comera on the front of one of his bikes and caught some nice footage of the race (thanks to Colin for the tip, I never would have found it on my own).
Apparently Fitzpatrick, the Sexual Camel, has been drinking heartily from the Oasis of Awesomeness and stored it up in his legs for this race. Fitzpatrick did eventually get passed by five other riders but held on for 6th. Timmerman and Justine Lindine (Joe's Garage/IF) were the first to pass him about half way through the race and went on to sprint the final 300 meters down the muddy dirt road in a battle for first place. Timmerman led it out with Lindine glued to his wheel. Surprisingly, Timmerman took the time to adjust his glasses with his right hand as they reached top speed but that wasn't enough to give Lindine a chance to get around and Timmeman took another win. The U23 battle between Gavin Mannion (Hot Tubes) and Luke Keough was won this time by Mannion who also rounded out the podium for the elite race. Josh Dillon put another come from behind trick and took 5th. Derrick St. John (Garneau) had been in contention for a podium spot but mangled his rear deraileur somewhere out of site in the woods on the last lap. He had to run with his bike on his shoulder for several minutes to get to the pit with a quarter lap to go. On a new bike, he held on for 8th. It would have been easy to pack it in and quit, but 8th place prize money in a UCI race is still enough to replace the deraileur and pay for some gas money back to Ontario Canada.
Canton Cup, October 31
This one I raced, sort of. Bike racers often have a problem telling the difference between excuses for failure and reasons for failure and I am no exception. This time I think I have a good reason, and certainly a novel one that you haven't heard before: I sucked at Canton (even by my modest standards) because the day before the race I climbed to the top of the new wind turbine at work and my legs were beat. You would be surprised at the weird muscles that get sore after climbing up, and then down, a 300-foot tall ladder. When I got on my bike Saturday, I realized just how bad it was. But I'd do it again, the view of Cape Cod and Buzzard's Bay from up there was worth it. My warm up wasn't great either and that didn't help (OK, I am veering off into excuses now, I know). Anyway, I didn't lose, I didn't get hurt, and I didn't damage my bike so it wasn't all bad. And I got in a good workout before Northampton. That reminds me, I need to prereg for that tonight so I don't have to start in the back row again. Se ya, got to go.......
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Providence Cyclocross Festival, Day 1 and 2, October 10 and 11
The big news on Saturday was that Tim Johnson did it again. In addition to winning, he again took out another rider for the second straight race. But this time it wasn't a former world's silver medalist (i.e. Jon Page), it was a 6 year old kid riding his BMX bike around the infield after the race.
I barely saw it happen out of the corner of my eye - Tim was starting to ride down hill from the finish area past the bike expo and toward the podium after winning the race. The young guy, whose name was Ryder, was riding right into Tim's path and Tim had little choice but to t-bone Ryder, knocking him off the bike. I doubt Tim even saw the kid until it was too late.
Too many kids are conditioned to think that they should cry when they fall down even if they aren't hurt. To his credit, Ryder got up like a true cyclocrosser and didn't shed a single tear. I just missed having the camera out, and apparently Cyclingdirt.com was nowhere near the scene this time, but I did get a shot of Ryder soon after he got up:
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That was actually the end of the day. A lot happened leading up to it. I got to Providence in time for the Elite Women's and Men's races but missed everything before that, including the race that I had preregistered for. When I went to bed Friday evening, I was planning on racing Saturday morning despite a sore throat and stuffy nose. But it got much worse overnight and at about 2 AM I woke up and turned the alarm off so I could try to sleep it off. $30 down the drain, but I would have been completely miserable if I had tried to race. I slept around the clock and felt good enough to spectate Saturday afternoon.
Readers of this blog (Dave Foley, my mom, my parole officer) might recall that I ruined my camera in the rain at Gloucester last week. That's actually a good thing, I hated that camera. It missed more shots than it got and it would kill a pair of AAs every 20 minutes. I got a new Fujifilm S1500 on Friday and with no practice at all, started taking much better photos than I ever have before. Wait until I learn how to use this thing! It was kind of an impulsive purchase because it was the only real camera the store had, the rest of them looked even cheaper than the one I had ruined. But it got the Paul Weiss seal of approval Saturday so it must be alright. Hey Paul, what does appurture mean? I have a lot to learn, but here are some of the photos I took of the women's race:
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I barely saw it happen out of the corner of my eye - Tim was starting to ride down hill from the finish area past the bike expo and toward the podium after winning the race. The young guy, whose name was Ryder, was riding right into Tim's path and Tim had little choice but to t-bone Ryder, knocking him off the bike. I doubt Tim even saw the kid until it was too late.
Too many kids are conditioned to think that they should cry when they fall down even if they aren't hurt. To his credit, Ryder got up like a true cyclocrosser and didn't shed a single tear. I just missed having the camera out, and apparently Cyclingdirt.com was nowhere near the scene this time, but I did get a shot of Ryder soon after he got up:
Always wear your helmet, kids. You never know when TJ might be near.
Tim really is a nice guy. He went out of his way to make sure that Ryder was ok and chatted for a couple minutes with Ryder and his parents. Once the kid was back on his bike and everything was alright, Tim said "Come on kid, you and me are going to the podium." He later gave Ryder his first place medal.
TJ and Ryder heading for the podium
TJ doing the post-race interview
That was actually the end of the day. A lot happened leading up to it. I got to Providence in time for the Elite Women's and Men's races but missed everything before that, including the race that I had preregistered for. When I went to bed Friday evening, I was planning on racing Saturday morning despite a sore throat and stuffy nose. But it got much worse overnight and at about 2 AM I woke up and turned the alarm off so I could try to sleep it off. $30 down the drain, but I would have been completely miserable if I had tried to race. I slept around the clock and felt good enough to spectate Saturday afternoon.
Readers of this blog (Dave Foley, my mom, my parole officer) might recall that I ruined my camera in the rain at Gloucester last week. That's actually a good thing, I hated that camera. It missed more shots than it got and it would kill a pair of AAs every 20 minutes. I got a new Fujifilm S1500 on Friday and with no practice at all, started taking much better photos than I ever have before. Wait until I learn how to use this thing! It was kind of an impulsive purchase because it was the only real camera the store had, the rest of them looked even cheaper than the one I had ruined. But it got the Paul Weiss seal of approval Saturday so it must be alright. Hey Paul, what does appurture mean? I have a lot to learn, but here are some of the photos I took of the women's race:
Those yellow Mavic shoes are getting popular.
Mo Bruno (blue tape) didn't look comfortable in the race or on the line.
Amy Dombroski had a very strong ride in 3rd place.
Rebecca Wellons heading to the finish
The women's podium with Richard Fries (l to r): Katerina Nash (1st),
Amy Dombroski (3rd) and Mary McConneloug (2nd)
Ms. Nash had the race in the bag early on and not much seemed to change after the first lap. Mary McConneloug was sort of a surprise finishing second in her first cross race of the year. Amy Dombroski is riding very strong and finished third. The podium was exactly the same on Day 2. The Verge points series leader heading into the weekend, Natasha Elliot wasn't present this weekend, probably so she could attend the Canadian National cross championships, so the leaders jersey was in jeopordy. Mo Bruno, who has scored points in all six races so far took the lead by 16 points. Rebecca Wellons has stayed close by being competitive in every race and is currently third in the series.
In the men's race, Dan Timmerman needed to finish well against some strong competion to retain his series lead and he managed to do that with an eighth place finish Saturday and 5th on Sunday. He finished the weekend tied with Tim Johnson for the series lead.
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In the men's race, Dan Timmerman needed to finish well against some strong competion to retain his series lead and he managed to do that with an eighth place finish Saturday and 5th on Sunday. He finished the weekend tied with Tim Johnson for the series lead.
Series leader Dan Timmerman at the start line.
My new camera has a "panorama" feature that stitches together 3 pictures.
Well, sort of. It needs work.
Adam Myerson and Tim Johnson at the start line.
Sexual Camel? Must be a mountain bike thing.
Chris Jones, a roadie (not Rhodey) thing.
Frattini, Weighall, and Timmerman
A beer thief dabs in the woods.
Does Adam squeeze the brake levers with fingers
or push them with the palms of his hands?
Tim Johnson is telling me to "go left, go left". After he went by I understood why. He planned to stretch the tape out on this corner while he carried maximum speed. Pro tip: The course tape is fair game. If it doesn't break, you are still on the course.
Results Boy takes the same line just a moment later.
Exactly how long is a "moment" anyway?
Here is Butch Balzano from SRAM digging through the car looking for some chain rings for Adam Myerson after the race. Van Dessel gave Adam cranks and chain rings with 53 tooth outer rings. Adam was flattered, but decided to build his 2009 cross rigs with something a bit smaller. Butch is the man.
Sunday mornng I awoke feeling much better and decided to do the day of registration for the Cat 4 masters race. Being a day of registrant, I got to start DFL in the last row. I was number 769 and two guys registered after me bringing the total to 71 in the race (counting any preregistered riders who might have been sick and stayed in bed). I was still kind of clogged up from the cold, but I went ok. I passed a bunch on the paved start and kept the pressure on when we reached the grass. The first turns were a pinball game but I managed to get a couple of good bounces and didn't have to get off the bike where others did. I must have gotten near the top 25 on the first lap, but then I started to slide. I lost about 4 or 5 places per lap for the rest of the race and didn't stop sliding until the last half lap. 37th out of 71 is practically top half if you assume that all everyone was there and that DNFs are last (there are only 58 or so i nthe results). So, I almost made my goal of being in the top half and I am getting better each race. Considering my starting position, I'll call it a pass. I wonder what I could have done if I was healthy Saturday and got my prereg starting spot. I think I would have been in the third row, maybe fourth.
My coach, Negacoach, was heckling me during the race and yelled something completely useless about riding too slow to deserve to have a beard. WTF? Try telling me something useful like "get the water bottle out of your back pocket, it's only a half hour long race!" That might have been helpful since I had forgotten to ditch it at the line and rode the entire race looking like a Fred with that bottle back there. I am surprised I never felt it when the bike was on my shoulder on a run up. At least I had a nice sip of Hs, twos, and Os handy at the finish.
So I had the Fred water bottle thing going against me, but I felt totally pro using embrocation for the first time ever, unless Bag Balm counts as embrocation. We used to use Bag Balm in the spring time, especially if it was raining, because tights or warmers would get soaking wet and heavy. But you had to have your legs shaved or it made an awful mess. I haven't shaved them since my Cat 3 days a long time ago, but I found that the Mad Alchemy stuff isn't too bad with hairy legs, it just doesn't look as pro. Even the mildest heat level was pleasant in the morning chill. The only down side was that it lasted well into the night and felt quite hot under the covers when I didn't really want it to. I probably could have wiped it off more thoroughly and avoided the bedwarmer effect.
After my race was over it was time to head back to Plymouth for a gig with my band at noon. I was cutting it close, but made it just in time. When we started playing, my head just wasn't into it. I usually remember the lyrics to songs that I sing pretty easily, but something wasn't right in my head all afternoon and I kept forgetting the lyrics to songs that I wrote and covers that I have sung hundreds of times. It was weird. And that sweet precious nectar, beer, didn't seem to help. I probably won't try to race and play music professionally in the same day again. But despite the mental block, it was a fun afternoon. Stop by T Bones Road House in Plymouth November 1 at noon if you aren't heading to Vermont for the cross race.
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