Am I sandbagging now?

Now is the time to decide when I have reached my goals. I got my first Podium at Verge VT on sunday. It was awesome not to feel like a failure! I sorta knew i had a shot at doing well, it was a small field and I was psyched about the mud after flatting out of 4th on saturday. I had done a good job of passing folks the whole race until the flat so i figured I was stronger enough on the power sections to do some damage, but I couldnt let the leaders get too far out.

I sorta didnt do that part very well. Mid hole-shot I was up with the leaders, but I was trying to find a good line and let a few people, including John from BackBay, come around me while we sorted out the first lap. I hung back, not wanting to get bounced off my bike by someone elses line or misjudging the edges of the dirt track we were all riding. I knew I had caught all of the guys in my group on saturday so i gambled i could do it again and waited for the straighter sections of course i knew were coming. I kept seeing the top 2 riders just up ahead.

As one of the three infront of me would get gassed and start slowing i would make a pass. I was in 5th halfway through the first lap, and feeling pretty strong. The first time we hit the whoopdies I was in 4th i think. I left some room to get a clear run and rode the runup without much trouble. I was really able to wind it up the back half of the course. I was in the drops across the straightaway, almost overcooked the turn to the barriers, then was back in the drops chasing through the wide path on behind the finish line. I caught 3rd place through the finish line, and came around him convincingly (ihoped) in the twisty stuff just after.

This was the first time i had something to lose in a bike race and I wasnt quite sure how to handle it. The course was getting noticably slicker each lap, and I was nervous about the worn in track after Nick had wrecked his bike and his hand last year in them. My caution meant that the second lap had a little back and forth, jockeying for 3rd. I was having a blast though, getting in the drops every time there was a straightish section. I gapped 4th place before the stair run and started trying to reel in 2nd.

there were times when i could see him just a turn ahead of me, Matt Green from Spooky, and times when i couldnt. I found out he was a downhiller and the mtb riding definately helped him. Into the whoopdies I was close. After riding the runup and the fast grassy descent I was not. I was making up ground on the power sections, but losing when bike handling could give you an edge.

I spent the whole last lap trying to balance not falling down and maintaining my podium, since 4th place was still in sight, and pushing to close the gap on #2. He must have been flying on the final lap, coming off of the whoops. I drilled it and was scaring myself a little in some of the turns the 2nd half of that lap, but still finished about 10 seconds back.

My dad had come to the race and i thikn got some pictures of me looking tough on the course, which was awesome! There was no podium becuase of the weather, and no medals because of fedex. But it still was pretty neat to have finally done well and almost won something.

Hopefully i can keep it going with a front row start at gloucester

They are on to me!

This past weekend was the un-official official opening to the cyclocross season in new england. You could tell because it suddenly became necessary to embrocate for simple tasks like dog walking.

There was this bike race too, its called suckerbrook. Its a pretty fun course, nice and fast, not a lot of tough stuff, but enough speed you can get yourself in trouble and fall down if you are not careful and are a fan of file treads. I personally witnessed two slideouts on the off camber grass, and one full yardsale at the bottom of the stairs. i rode a relatively uneventful race. I passed some people, didnt fall down, rode the sand yada yada. I got 12th, but the best news regarding my quest to be the fastest slow kid is that two of the folks who beat me, teammate nick and team villian Jeff, both upgraded because they dont like winning races and dont want to do it anymore. Nick won sucker brook and Jeff won waterville valley the day before. Im most excited about this because I like winning, and now two people who are better at winning than I am are not in my race anymore. sweet!

I was not content to let other peoples upgrade and just cruise to eventual victory in the cat 4's. I figured i ought to get faster as well, and since the races were only 30 minutes I looked into racing again like i did at quad. You know "for training."

I got a bit of a runaround from the volunteers and eventually found myself asking Diane (USACycling's New England Czar) about a hypothetical racer who wanted to race with the 3's. I think she is on to me now though, she offered to sticker my race license right there and make me a cat 3 so that i could race again! Luckily i hadnt told her my name so she cant chase me down and make me upgrade, but she might recognize me at a race somewhere now. I just cant have my quest for domination set back by having to race faster people! Not now while I am so close!

Look how i nervously race bikes!

SOmehow I dont think I have ever seen a photo of myself on a bike that I didnt think, "man I look like a weirdo." I dont know what it is. Maybe just cause i know its me. In trying to analyze this picture I cant really find much wrong.

Bike is jauntily leaned over into the turn-check
Outside pedal down for proper cornering-check
competitor so far behind me he is out of focus-check

I am on the brakes, which Tasha has said "just makes you slower" (true fact!) and my helmet does NOT match my kit, nor does it fashionably cover my hat. That must be it.

In any case. In my quest to eventually dominate the cat fours and at the advice of my new coach I attempted to race twice at the quad cross this weekend. I wont say it went badly, but i will say it only seemed like a good idea before the first race, and then again after the second one. For the 3 hours in between staging the cat 4's and wandering across the finish line with the 3/4's it seemed pretty dumb.

The cat 4 started like they all do. Rushing around to get #'s and bikes ready and kit on and then not warming up and staging way back. I have actually made it my move when i dont warm up to intentionally stage late so i can loosen up on an easy 1st lap because it always clogs up and slows down if you are not up front. 94 people (!) showed up for quad cross. I beat my DFL hole shot from springfield by a good bit but was still well back on the first lap. Once it opened up i started utilizing the 40 second intervals i have been doing all month and was doing pretty well at passing people when there was room, and on this course there was tons of room. The back field was nice and wide and tacky with damp grass over sticky firm mud. It felt great to set a turn on tires that i trusted and pass people on bike handling! I was even complimented mid race by a threshold rider I was passing. I kept moving up and at some point clint yelled that i was 16th. I was a bit impressed with myself but also quickly demoralized when the lap cards told that despite what my internal race clock told me, I had 3 laps to go. I kept moving up and didnt see anyone come from behind me until new team mate Lee powered around me on grassy section after the start. I spent the rest of the last lap feeling like a bully and chasing down a 13 year old Gougin/Kehoe kid who was racing with us. I didnt feel like I faded much through the race, but also had no idea where i was. Assuming clint could count I was top 20 maybe?

With $10 burning a hole in my pocket and not feeling totally destroyed after getting some water I "borrowed" Natalia's rimdrive trainer to stay loose for the second race. My plan, since this was all training, was to race in a gentlemanly fashion until i started embarassing myself. Sadly it didnt happen. I gridded up at the back and was totally DFL at the first pit. The start was noticably faster with a smaller field than the 4 race had been. I literally coasted into the first set of hairpins back in the field, with a pack of riders jammed up and running ahead of me. Inexplicably I had passed a rider by the time we went "all around the mullberry bush" the first time. I felt like I had the course pretty well dialed, but still spent the first lap feeling out how the sun and drying/churned up mud had changed things. But I was pretty confident and every lap picked up a couple places. I caught up to Scott and Spaits, fellow CB riders, just as spaits was having some technicals. He had wrapped up tall grass in his cassette and i could hear him complaining once he got moving behind me. I saw this as a perfect excuse to stop raceing and started yelling at him to figure out if he also had eggbeaters and if I could give him my bike next time past the pits. I would be a hero AND i would be able to stop racing for the day and drink! WIN and WIN! Unfortunately he was riding atacs, a bike several sizes larger than mine and also not into the idea even when his chain broke on the next lap (SRAM RECALL!) I started bargaining with myself that i would ride until the cat results went up, then i would go four laps, and when four laps put me at one to go I told myself to man up and finish, so i did. I faded a bit/scott put down the hammer in the last lap and he came back around me to gain back a couple places. But I finished a second race with a respectable number of folks behind me.

I found out later that my time in the 3/4 was better than in the 4, whatever that means. But all in all It was pretty solid. 13th in the fours and 26th in the 3/4's. Ill be warming up my victim list soon!

BTW, i totally used that photo without permission, so you should check out ejcphotography's photostream on flickr for more pictures to balance things out, Karmicly you know.

I ALWAYS THOUGHT...

I always thought fancy gear was wasted on me and I couldnt tell the difference between the $1,000 frame and the $5,000 frame. I got the fancy stuff cheap from working for bike companies or shops so i just rode it.

I just rode the Edge Tubulars after a month on my clinchers (chris king and DT suisse R1.1). I was amazed at how much stiffer they feel! Even with big fat 34mm tubies with very little air in them I was bouncing off of stuff i got used to rolling over on the clinchers. Weird huh? i guess thats what deep dish carbon is for right!

Maybe the nice gear is worth it?

So it begins (again)

And we're back...

A new coach, new plan, soon a new bike. But Cross season hasnt really begun until the Edge Tubulars shed their larval road tires and emerge, butterfly like, resplendent in Knobby glory.

Last year I kind of geeked out on cross tires, and in my quest to find an aggressive tubular tread, ended racing on some vintage rubber that was mighty skinny. They looked like dirt bike tires from the 60's, im not lying. They grabbed the ground well, but I couldnt run the low pressures that are the whole point of buying pretentious tubular tires, bouncing around on rocky or rooty sections was not too much fun.

This year, after riding D2R2 on road racing tires and doing a good amount of trail riding on my own, Im not nearly as stressed. I was able to climb some nice steep gravel roads in deerfield on slicks, so i dont feel an aggressive tread is as important this year. Fangos were available and decently priced on the last team order, so Fangos are what I got (BTW 34mm fangos are HUGE!) I am currently scouring ebay for a cheap set of campy compatable clincher "B" wheels to give me some more options, but at the moment the Edge 1.38s will get a lot of use so the tires had better work pretty well all the time.

I have been a disciple of taping tires since last season. I know that gluing is delightfully "baroque" as the bikesnob put it. But I like the fact that I can put a new tire on in a half hour, rather than 3 days. And to everyone who says that im playing with fire, I submit the photos below. That small bit of unseated tubular tire is as much as i could get up after 20 minutes and a thumb blister. These tires have been taped on for one road season. So, the tape is plenty sticky enough.

I think that glueing tires must fall in with leg shaving. We do it because that is "how it is done". Now im not saying there is a better option for shaving legs, that technology is still waiting for some daring young inventor to make his fortune. But it seems that tubular tape is much more idiot proof than glueing and, in my experience, just as reliable. I dont tape because I cant glue, I actually CAN glue tire up, and still prefer the tape. Maybe im just an early adopter, sadly its just an advantage when it comes to my sanity, and not performance enhancing. Though if I do win any races maybe i will credit the tape and see if anyone converts...

20 minutes later...the tire remains and my thumbs hurt.