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!

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.