Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The sun finally made an appearance this afternoon. Blue Hill looked pretty inviting as the sun sunk into the west, illuminating the steep face of the hill that looks out past the cube farm and over Route 128.



The Lowell CX results were posted, and my name is somehow missing. Since they broke out the 35+ and 45+ results, but did not list any times, I'm left wondering exactly where I finished. I know I was one spot ahead of Jeff P. from Cyclonauts, but he was in the 35's. I was behind Leeberg from Gearworks, and also immediately behind and NEBC rider, but I'm not sure if it's the guy listed in the 35's or the one in the 45's. So I must have been somewhere between 16th and 19th in the 45's. Either that or they found a reason to DQ me (three steps forward in the pit without a bike? I don't think so, as there was no official in the pit and I was hidden behind the support van at the time of the alleged incident that only I know took place). Besides, usually they list DQs on the sheet. Oh well.

The course was excellent, very old school, yet without anything that wouldn't be acceptable at a top notch pro race. I wish this one fell earlier in the season when I still had a bit of fitness, as this is my kind of course. There were lots of good pedaling sections. Just for the hell of it, I started the race on my Yo Eddy. I got a much better than usual start after banging bars with some guy all the way into the backside of the running track. After the stone steps, I ended up just a bit more than halfway back through the field. On the MTB, riding the "run up" climb was quite easy, even with the mess that occurred on the first lap. On the downhill switchbacks, this bike was totally secure, even with 1.7 inch tires. The first lap I didn't lose too many spots, and even passed a few here and there. Then on the next lap I came upon JD riding his single speed. I passed him on the flat before the big climb, but then as I turned onto it, he comes flying by me. Apparently he was resting on the flat so that he could wind it up and carry speed into the hill. I rode in a group with him and some other guys the rest of the lap, but then one of my knee warmers slid down to my ankle. Knowing this was sure to snag the chainring, I pulled it off while we were on the track, but that took me longer than expected and I lost the group. That was the beginning of the end.

I blew myself up trying to catch them, and as I sucked wind to try and recover, Jimmy O'mara (BOB baby!) caught and passed me. I followed wild Jim, but when he bunny-hopped the stone steps I heard the hiss of his pinched rear tube. Of course, he kept riding hard (crazed ex-motocrosser) and I focused on trying to pass him on the inside, anticipating the inevitable slide out. This ended up totally messing me up, and I misjudged (actually forgot) where a corner was and slid to a near stop. After finally clearing my teammate/menace, I again blew myself to smithereens trying to regain the lost ground.

About this time, I was hearing "four to go" over the PA. That didn't seem correct, as we had already done four laps, and were 33 minutes into it. I wasn't sure if it were a 45 minute or a 50 minute. That was when I decided to switch to the cross bike on the next lap. I took the bike out of the pit, and right away I could feel how much easier it was to gain speed. The MTB would be faster in a one lap race, but the amount of power it took to keep it going was way higher. Of course, the cross bike wasn't on rails in the corners like the MTB, and compared to the one-finger V brakes on the Yo, the cross bike may as well have no brakes at all. The Frogleg cantilevers on there are a copy of ancient Mafac technology, and they are fucking useless.

After a few encounters with the tape, I lost yet more spots. Mercifully, (that word comes up a lot in cross race reports), the lap counter said two to go, and we would only do seven laps, not eight. I saved a bit to make a run at the three guys close in front of me, but when I wound it up on the track at the end, so did they, and I caught nobody. Gewilli even might have been able to have a go at me if he'd got a better start.

During this race I realized that continuing on this season was futile. My body was telling me all the wrong things during this race. The edge is now dull, and I couldn't go hard for more than half a lap without blowing up, and then it would take me forever to recover. Just a few weeks ago this was not the case. So that is it for me.

This was also my last race in the yellow, red, and blue clown suit of Team BOB. No, I'm not changing teams, but we have secured three new sponsors for the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons and will thus be racing in completely new kits next year. You'll just have to wait for the press release to see our new colors. This was a very big deal put together by Feltslave, with an exciting new product from a non cycling industry title sponsor. The product will hit the supermarket shelves this January, so make sure you buy tons of it. Thanks for reading!