gloucester...

back from the us grand prix of cyclocross in gloucester, ma. raced the C's both days; here's the short version of the weekend...

saturday was very cold with a couple of flurries as we started... a bad start and bobble in the sandpit put me way back in a big field... rode into the top 10 by the end of the first lap and finished 4th. snow picked up all day and ended up in near whiteout conditions for the later races.

sunday was warm and sunny but with a slick muddy course early in the day. the course was slightly longer and with a better start i was sitting in 2nd at the end of the first lap behind saturday's winner. my race ended 2 1/2 laps into the race when, while i was riding in 4th place, the clamp on my seatpost which had been loosening for a while finally gave up and i lost my saddle on one of the run-ups.

more details later, and lots of pics once i've sorted through the almost 1300 shots i've got from saturday's later races.

granogue pictures...

stuck around after the race saturday to spectate & shoot some pictures. shot a lot during the masters race, but the rain started to pick up and i put away the camera in favor of some refreshments from the beer tent. go to the photos...

photo sighting...

back in the spring i did a photo shoot out local downhiller (and city bikes teamate) hillary elgert since she needed some pictures to help her in her assault on the pro ranks. hillary won a ride with marla streb in a charity auction and i marla wrote the ride up for her blog on mountainzone and guess who's picture showed up... (in case i'm being too subtle, it's one of mine). they've shown up in a couple of city bikes posters and ads but this has to be the coolest place that one's been used so far...

granogue

another early start on saturday for the drive up to granogue for the wooden wheels cyclocross but the 'C' race had a relatively leisurely 10am start, and i was there in plenty of time. took a walk around to try and get a look a the course and ran into marc & buddy who pointed out some of the "features" on the course then got checked in and headed back down to the car to get ready and get warmed up and take a couple of laps on the course...

the course was wet, slippery, and full of off-camber turns and roots... 2 run-ups, the second with a set of barriers at the start, but both had good flat to downhill remounts so hopefully they wouldn't hurt me too badly. the hardest part of the course was a series of sweeping off camber turns on the side of the hill that sent you along the contours for a way and then forced you to turn sharply up the hill and then back down and were already getting torn-up before the racing started.

managed to snag a spot near the outside of the 2nd row in the starting grid. buddy was lined up on the singlespeed mountain bike, thom moore and kevin dillard were over on the other side, fort james was in the 2nd row with me, syd lea was on the inside of the front row. the start went well... the field was big, almost 50 riders, and i went just hard enough to be in the front group as we hit the grass -- probably around 8th - 10th place --and then started picking off riders one by one. after a about a 1/4 of a lap i realized that there were only 2 riders ahead, a pair from east coast velo. i caught up to them just before we got to the climb to the water tower and decided to just try and stick with them for a while, at least untill we knew how many laps we'd be doing. if they were smart and stuck together they'd have an advantage on the road sections and i didn't see any need to try and attack on the first lap.

as we were descending down the water tower hill (evil slick off-camber turns mentioned above) the lead rider of the pair ahead turned to early and got caught in the course tape and his teammate either followed him of just got caught behind him. i rode around them and started to push a little harder to take advantage of their mistake. can't remember if i made it around the evil hairpin on the first lap, but by the time i got to the barriers i was on my own and starting to build a gap. came through the start/finish and didn't see any lap cards out, not a good sign, but from the comments coming from friends on the course it sounded like i was building a pretty good cushion.

on the 2nd lap i tried to stay smooth and ride smart. the ecv riders were close enough behind that i could still see them from time to time but i had a pretty consistent gap, then, on the evil turn i slipped sideways... i got off and ran a couple of steps to the top of the turn and then remounted, only to realize that my chain had come off... i coasted to the bottom of the hill, then fumbled around for a few seconds trying to get my chain back on... not having any luck and knowing that the barriers were up ahead anyway i picked up the bike and ran over the barriers and up the short hill after them, then stopped again and got my chain sorted out... after this run-up there was a good fast downhill section with a couple of nice semi-technical turns that i could ride smoothly but might have slowed down the non-mountain bikers (thanks marc, this was your part of the course, right) so i was able to get some speed and try to save my lead.

coming up to the finish i heard two things, one worrying, and the other the sweetest sound in a cyclocross race... the first was some chatter from the announcer about another rider bridging up to, and then passing the chasers - if he was doing that he might be able to catch me as well, the second was the bell, one lap left.

managed to keep the bike moving for one last lap around the course... almost got caught up in the tape on the first run-up (thanks for the heads up susan) and had to keep the pace high as the chasers were still uncomfortably close and the mystery rider was now ahead of the 2 east coast velo riders and probably gaining on me. the climb up to the water tower hurt a little more this lap and i ended up running a couple of steps at the top of the evil turn. at the bottom of the barriers/2nd run-up i could hear some fans cheering on the rider behind me and as i was getting back on the bike he was jumping the barriers and looked like he was running the hill faster than i did (note to self: practice running with the bike and work on shouldering the bike instead of pushing it) so i kept the pace up and pushed hard on the road untill about 20 yards before the start/finish and managed to cross the line for the win. 2nd place (don yungher from rutgers) came in about 15 seconds later, then the pair from ecv almost 25 seconds after him. buddy took 6th, fort james (fort-gpoa) came in in 10th, kevin dillard (ncvc) 13th...

thanks to everyone (susan, pooch, dave, marc, chris, etc...) that yelled out advice and encouragement, this was my first win ever in any kind of bike race and every bit helped... special thanks to my philly cheering section for some extra motivation...

time to try a 'B' race?

wakefield after dark

back from the new trails at wakefield... first full blown lights on from the start ride since the 24 hours of big bear back in june. there's only one word for the phase I & phase II loop at wakefield: fast and flowy - ok, that's 2 words... fast, flowy, and just a little jumpy...

the new phase II trails have big insloped turns, a couple of switchbacks, and plenty of twisty singletrack and tie into the phase I trails on the hill with a couple of insloped turns that replace a series of tight, flat 180 turns that forced you to brake hard and scrub off a lot of speed.

damn these trails are fast, can't wait for the wednesday races next summer...

granogue...

my cylcocross bike is preped and ready for the granogue race this saturday so i'm going to head to wakefield tonight to take in the new phase II trails that i helped build a couple of weeks ago. the trails looked like they'd be a blast while i was working on them and they've have been getting good reviews, so i'm really looking forward to tonights ride...

spent tuesday night tuning the setup of the tri-cross and getting my new tufos mounted onto my old road wheels. these will be my race wheels and i'll keep my old wheels with michellin mud 35s as training and backup wheels...

no cross this weekend... hit the roads for a couple of hours yesterday for a much needed antidote to last weeks grey & wet weather. beautiful blue skies, cool air, warm sun, and that great autumn scent in the air.

today, instead of 3 hours on the road to the beacon race i opted for a shorter drive up to fredrick for a casual ride at gambrill with jason, david, rob, & chris. we did a pretty casual spin around the yellow trail stopping to play around on some of the technical features and speculate on alternate lines. there used to be a couple of sections of trail that i've never really felt comfortable on, but today i just felt great, flowing... perfect fall riding

hit the gym for the first time since the spring after work today. the overcast damp weather and rapidly shrinking days are starting to get to me, i need some sun... not sure what i'm doing this weekend - riding plans for saturday have been cancelled because of the weather, there are a couple of 'cross races, but they'll both be a pretty good drive, and trailwork at a couple of nearby...

oktoberfest

yesterday after noon we followed up the cross race with a trip to the capitol city brewing company's oktoberfest down in shirlington. according to spearman & DT - who we ran into at the festival - the crowd was thinned a bit from last year by the weather but there were still a good number of people braving the elements. the street in the shirlington "village" shopping center was closed and twenty-some brewers were set up in the middle of the road under a row of ez-ups. we sampled beers from many area brewers and brewers from further afield and had some great bratwurst served up by large german women.

if i was smart, i'd have kept some notes to help write this up as there were so many beers sampled that it's hard to keep them all straight and remember all of the names. most of the beers were pretty good, but a few fell short. had a couple of good pumpkin beers and a few good wheats. not surprisingly there were a lot of breweries serving up oktoberfest (and marzen) style beers, one of my favorites. these were mostly fair but none really shone, which is a shame as this can be a great style. the highlight of the day for me was the chocolate donut stout which has got a lot of mentions from DT and stoner. it had a great flavor with a solid malty base with undertones of chocolate and caramel.

AVC/Breast Cancer Awareness Cyclocross

First race of my season and it's been raining for at least the last 36 hours before the start. It was pouring last night, pouring when i woke up at an ungodly hour too pick up mike, and pouring all the way up 70 to hagerstown. i left a little too much slack in the schedule, so as we pulled in to south hagerstown high school the promoters were still out setting up the course. we hung out in the car untill the rain let up a bit and then ventured out to get registered.

the course was still only half marked as we set out to pre-ride the loop. the tape wasn't up, but the stakes were in the ground and with a little imagination we were able to make out the course. the course was mostly pretty flat, winding around the ballfields, lots of grass with a couple of short ride/run ups and a tricky section that took a 90 degree turn down a hill, then 180'd and when straigt back up. on our preride laps only the down & up was hard enough require a dismounnt, the other two sections were both rideable. 2/3rds of the way around the lap the course went through a small culvert... easy enough to ride if you know what you're doing on a bike, but maybe big enough to force a selection in the field.

on to the racing

about fifteen of us line up for the C race at 8:45 as the rain starts of pick up. we're only 15 minutes behind schedule, not bad considering that the course still wasn't finished at 8:30. no instructions from the ref, just a one minute warning and we're off... a quick pavement section through a parking lot, 180 to loop back through on the other side of an island and onto the grass. mike and i take the 1 & 2 positions on the pavement and hold them into the grass. a couple of turns into the course i see a set of barriers on the course that weren't there when we pre-rode. no big deal though, the entrance and exit were both flat & straight. my crappy remount looses me a couple of places as a couple of coppi riders came by. the course is getting wetter and there are a couple of sections that really drain the power from your legs.

into the down & up section and an even crappier remount (damn off-camber remounts at the top of run-ups, what is it about them that gets me completely f'd) lets about half of the field past me. the 2nd half is fairly flat and put the emphasis on power. between that and the culvert i managed to claw my way up to third, behind 2 coppi riders by the start of the 2nd lap. at the end of the first lap the lap cards show 4 laps to go, more than i expected. i manage to hold my position a couple of seconds behind the 2 coppi riders on the 2nd lap and we start to put a gap on the rest of the field. i'm still having problems with the down & up section, and one of the other ride/run sections is getting pretty soft and unrideable. finishing the 2nd lap the lap cards skipped from 4 to 2 and i start to think that i can probably hold 3rd place.

after the start of the 3rd lap the 2 coppi riders start to separate and i start to gain some ground on the slower of the 2 riders. i managed to pass the slower rider for 2nd place before the down & up section, but lost the place thanks to my slow remount. with a lap & a half left i figured that to take 2nd i had to make sure i had a good lead going into the dismounts on the last lap so i attacked on the flats towards the end of the lap and managed to get a small gap and then extend it. by the time we hit the dismounts on the last lap i had enough of a gap over 3rd that he couldn't catch me while i floundered about on the remounts. heading into the last half of the last lap i looked over my shoulder to see no one behind me (and no one in front, as first place had a pretty good gap on me). i kept the presure on for the rest of the lap, just in case something happened and came across the line for 2nd place, my best 'cross finish ever. there was a swag table, but no podium...

the new bike was great, don't know what difference it made, but i was feeling pretty good so i took some beer by the shop on the way home.

cross

finally kicking off my 'cross season tommorow at the avc race in hagerstown... haven't done any practices, other than a quick hour in the park last weekend, and i haven't done a real hard ride in a couple of weeks, so this could be a painful morning. on top of that i'll be riding a new bike that i finished building last night and so far has been ridden for all of 2 minutes in the alley behind the house. looking at the weather, this bike will be getting a true 'cross christening...

need to sell my old bike now... anyone want to buy a 52cm gunnar crosshairs? black frame with a red IF fork... king headset (1" threadless), seatpost (ritchey), stem (itm), bottom bracket (shimano 105 splined), saddle (fizik nisene cp) included...

wakefield

skipped work yesterday to go out to help with phase II of the wakefield trail redesign... rich edwards from imba is out there doing crazy things with large machines and cutting us some sweet new singletrack. spent almost 10 hours finishing and shaping the machine cut trails and was completely exhausted at the end of the day. can't wait for these trails to be finished so i can get out and ride them. the wednesday races next summer should be even more fun than before.