They race cross out west?

Boy do they!

As the several avid followers of this blog will no doubt know, New England Cross is the O.G. (Original Gansta for all you white folk). Everything else tries to be us. I guess....

I did a Bay Area Super Prestige last week and have to say that different is kinda neat sometimes. It seems like riding out west its own thing. I mean there is a reason that In its history the Handmade Show has always been out west, and in San Jose for 2 or 3 years. Bay Area likes to bike, and they race like they cook, mixing all kinds of crazy stuff in.

Here are some observations from BASP #2, Coyote Point!

-Mountain bikes are ok. Im fairly certain that several top 20 riders in the cat C were on MTB's. The course was soft and slow so i dont think it hurt, and was clearly laid out by mountain riders. Lotsa stuff that made a roadie like me nervous about my tire sliding around was getting bombed by guys on heavy bikes with 52mm tires. I sorta hoped to see some Monster cross rigs, but maybe all those guys are racing elites, or else a myth. The course had a really fast off camber dirt descent with looseness and gravel and roots. The kind of thing that all the masters preride and call shenanigans on in NE, but no one complained about it and i didnt see anyone die on it either. ALso a lot of climbing, I shoulda plotted it but when you come from thinking that Providence is a race with a lot of climbing, its shocking to hit a couple hundred feet of climbing each lap.

-No-one shoulders! I was so proud of my moves! I was racing the new igleheart and the front triangle is much easier to fit my arm through, plus i had been practicing the "throw to the shoulder" i kept seeing in the elite race. But no-one was impressed! The rest of the field was content to just push their bikes. There were some long (like 20 second) runs, and they were close together. It was definately worth it to pick the bike up. At least i was bad ass in someones photos.

-No USAC means no helmets. I dont know if this was random or what. But in my last lap i found myself lapping a rider wearing a ballcap. at least it was a trek ballcap, but still. He may have been warming up (like an ass) but he moved over like a lapped rider and was riding at that hard but slow pace of lapped riders, so im guessing he is also the type who rides a motorcycle and pulls over when he enters a state with no helmet law, just to take his off and strut his "freedom to choose". seriously WTF!

-Tailgate! there was a designated team tent area next to reg and the finish line. At most races we are one fo the few teams with a tent and a cooler. I saw a dozen teams with grills, beers snack tables and soignoirs. Maybe not all of that, but a mini city sprung up and it was pretty cool to see so many teams encamping for the day.

-prereg and results are good things! we come to expect that results get posted within 20 minutes of a race ending and that reg is quick. but these things are luxuries not known around the world! My race was 140 starters. I was told that they have been so overwhelmed this year with racers that they tried to use chips to get results, like at triathalons. This weekend they brought in 2 teams of officials just to score races, and they still took an hour and a half to get things up. All day there was a line at reg because everyone was day of. Its nuts!

Overall the vibe was chill, the air was warm and the race was right on the water. Beach and everything. If you can get there early enough to lineup for reg, its totally worth trying to hit one of these races.

a race happened in Kalifornia...

Here's a race report;

There were 3 CB kits, including me, racing in other catagories. Thayne
and a guy named Brad (who had helped kip remodel the shop a while
back). I showed up early since there is no pre-reg out west ( unless
you placed top 20 the week before and earned a call up). I had plenty
of time to ride the course and then warm up while the combined
juniors/C women/ masters 55+/ junior girls raced. I got a partial lap
in before staging, which was helpful but cost me a couple rows on
staging. I pulled a Mashburn-esque move and showed into the top third
of the 140 riders in the cat C race and waited for the gun.

The course stared on a long soft climb. I mean long! We were over a
minute in when we hit the flat paved finishing section. So many
riders meant a lot of passing, but also that the leaders put a lot of
time into us pretty quickly. Most of the course was very technical,
bur weirdly so. Soft earth covered by strips of bark and leaves. It
made for some very tentative riding by the roadies in the pack,
including myself in parts.

I was able to do a lot of passing, especially on the 2 long loamy
run-ups. I am proud to say that I can shoulder my new Igleheart like a
pro, while a lot of the guys I passed were pushing or sorta suitcasing
their bikes. After the two runs we hit some flat power sections and
then the ironicly named "TRP brake zone" which was a long s shaped
sandpit that wasn't ridable for the early races. More running and
another soft bumpy grass section meant that when we finally hit the
pavement before a fast dirt descent, I heard a lot of free wheels
behind me. I heard a spectator counting places say 26 near the end of
lap one.

The rest of the race was pretty open till the last lap I was catching
people one or two at a time. Usually passing on the power sections or
by running early on the runups. One the last lap I started catching
lapped traffic pretty hard. Every one was pretty good at giving up
the line if you yelled at them. But it definately helped out some
guys I had just passed. Noons came around me and I finished pretty
strong (for me). Once results went up I realized I'd gotten 14th.

Tyler says that waspretty good. But I think I should have staged
better. Most of the race was againsn the course, it was really tricky
and the mountain bikes did well. There were definately people I could
beat who placed better than I did. I gotta say that as different as
it was,( no USAC rules lots running, dudes without helmets, a
feedzone...) it was a blast and I'm glad I had my Igleheart built as a
breakaway so I can race my "A bike" even when traveling. Bay area
super prestige is legit! There is even a lit night race in San Fran
in a couple weeks.

Unfortunately I couldn't hang out with Thayne. They do the B men last,
with the single speeds, I guess to build crowds for the elites. But
we couldn't hang around that late to see him. But it was cool to see
CB colors and a couple green iglehearts racing. Also I saw a fan in a
PVB (designed by Pedal Powered) shirt yelling and chasing a racer in the masters race.