End of an Era?

Lowell was going to be my last shot at winning anything this year. I have been getting steadily better and better results. Some of that is due to fitness and some of it is due to folks upgrading to the big kids race out of the top 5 of the cat 4. When Robert told me he had upgraded to 3's the week before lowell i was glad i had set Baystate as the deadline. Back when we were all camping out on bikereg I figured late November was a good time to aim for the upgrade to cat 3, and I called my shots, like babe ruth, with my race reg. I had figured on NoHo/Plymouth/Lowell as my best shot at winning something, based on fitness and early results. But Swine Flu kept me from racing Noho (Sadness!) and not checking drive time/recovering from swine flu kept me from getting any results at plymouth. (though i did get the experience of rolling a tubular, running a lap, and getting lapped in the 3/4 at plymouth north...fun?)

SO Lowell was the last shot unless i was willing to write the super embarassing email "so I regged as a 3, but i really want to race against the 17 cat 4's I see on bike reg, so can i switch..." Yeah that would be the most lame. I was serious enough that I made sure to preride the course while we were staking in on saturday, I actually glued tires on instead of taping them, and I made an effort do a trainer warmup. The callup for CB due to co promoting was a bonus. Lowell is the right amount of technical for me, enough that my "better than the average roadie" skills can keep me ahead of folks (the ruts in the Lowellberg forest didnt show up until later in the day. And there is a enough power sections that I can keep a gap on the MTBers.

We started, Me and Billy and 2 HUPsters (Mark and ?) got the hole shot at the "ring around the tree" and I was pretty content with that. Billy is a fast wheel, usually better than I on the road and I was content to sit on wheels with him and HUP. We shed some chasers at Spaits's "spiral of Death" and into the runnup the 3 of us had a gap. Around the back 9 we were moving pretty good, with me third wheel. Billy hasnt raced much cross though and on a sneaky left hander next to the tree before the course starts switchbacking back down the hillside, we bit it hard. Mark was right on his wheel, tried to dodge, but went down on top of him. I tried to shoot the hap between mark and the tree, but it closed up. And we were caught. I figure Billy would be up again and was mostly bummed that we had blown our groups lead. Marc got going right behind me and made a pass on the hillside. Billy never showed up. Somewhere in that first lap I made a pass on marc, I think it was before the woods, but i cant say. I think it was in the woods, I think i was first onto the track...

It was bizzarre to ride off the front. Through the middle two laps, I was focused on not being stupid, I felt slow on the technical sections, but was driving it in the drops on the straights. I dont know what the time gap was, but I had quite a bit of daylight in those 2 laps. That course is fun, but riding it in the lead, with something to lose, adds a weird element of gravity to all your decisions..."brakes on this turn or not?"" high line over the exposed root or low?" Its easy to race from second place, its tough to not know whats coming.

On the 4th lap all the BS 30 minute cat 4 races+swine flu training camp started catching up with me. I felt the bonk coming and saw the gap shrinking. I had been riding the second runnup all race and on the last lap Mark was running it right behind me. I pulled ahead into the woods and kept him off my wheel. I know I have a "climber sprint" and I tried to open a gap early to protect the lead. I went hard around the barrell into the first short stretch next to the cinder track. I was bouncing off of roots in the quick loop through the woods before shooting back onto the cinders, and I just went hard for that half lap. I felt Mark coming at the backstop and heard him at the pit when he came around me, about 50 meters from the line. It worked well enough to keep 3rd and 4th place behind me, but not enough to win. Still pretty cool!

I wrote an email on monday and got this response...

USA Cycling Response from Diane Fortini:
Seth,

I have approved your cross upgrade to cat 3. You may print your authorization to ride from your account page to use as confirmation of the upgrade until your receive a cat 3 CX sticker for your license. If you will be racing in Sterling this weekend at the Baystate Cross Race I will be officiating and can give you a sticker there.



Happy Thanksgiving,

Diane Fortini


Yay back row! Ive missed you!