Slim Pickens

Not much racing available on the calendar for me the next few weeks. Yeah, sure, I could go to Exeter tomorrow night and do fifty laps of the town square with all the slow masters who hang on to the back of the fast guys half their age, but that would be a waste of $30 and an early release (huh-huh) from work. Of course I'm not doing Fitchburg, as there is no 45+, it requires two days off work that I can't schedule, and because I never was able to do shit on those courses anyway. Some of the teammates are going to PA to race at the Ed Peters Omnium, but I'm not sure I have the industrial nor financial fortitude to spend two days in the van and some ghetto motel with those guys. I'll probably wind up in the feed zone at Fitchburg Saturday anyway.

Complicating matters is my knee getting cranky again after racing at Ninigret on Saturday. At least the racing went OK. I made it home in one piece, which is a bit of a surprise after on course antics of some of my peers. The usually smooth 45+ race featured numerous riders meandering around the course like they were talking on cell phones or something. I guess I'll blame it on Ninigret, as the flat parcours brings out the not so fit, resulting in huge disparity of abilities within the group. The ever present ocean winds across the twisting layout leaves some of these guys hapless and hopeless, diving across the road for wheels to draft, or suddenly blowing up and practically stopping when they can't find one. I can't keep all the whats and whens straight, but after initiating an early break that went several laps before dieing of natural causes, I stayed out of sight and out of mind until the last few laps. By then Skip Foley had a decent but tenuous solo going, and the front of the field in his wake was pretty splintered. With two to go I mounted my charge, hoping any form of grouppetto would completely shatter and leave it all to strength in the wind. On the front stretch taking two to go I headed up on the windy side where it was wide open, only to get taken WAAAAYYYY onto the grass by a crazy push left. One match burned, zero forward progress... Down the far end, coming onto the tailwind backstretch, the inside closes down before I can clear the front and again I get parked. At least it was expected there. I'm not down yet, I get clear on the backside, and start to fly through all the shattered remnants of the last chase group, hoping to get to the few strongmen who remain. Wrong. Going into the second to last turn at great speed, one of the expodee's decides that he is done, and pulls a massive inside to outside move right into my path. I unleashed a verbal tirade as I check up and lose momentum, and he yells that he was "just trying to get out of the way." Good job...

I tried to wind it up again, but entering the front stretch I realize I'm getting gassed and there is still a lap and a quarter to go. I'm about to pack it in, but I hear Duano yelling from behind, "go, go, I need help." Luckily I was still rolling and with renewed purpose in life I made a good charge down the brutal headwind stretch with Duane in tow. I got us up to a small group at the far end of the course, and I hesitated behind them in hopes of grabbing a few seconds recovery before making a last gasp attempt to launch Duano down the backstretch. I guess he felt he could not afford to wait, and he went right around in pursuit of Skip, and there might have been one or two others in the airspace behind him too. I sat up and said to myself shit, that is a LONG way to go for a sprinter like Duane, and I knew he had not gotten a free ride up to my wheel either. Down the backstretch I sat watching an amazing display of him blowing through everyone who was left, and almost reeling in Skip at the line. He got second. DS may not look too fit, but when he is motivated, he can turn it on. That's why he's our team leader.

We then jumped in the 35+ race. At least this was a lot smoother. Of course, Markie was in there, and early on he started a break with Jonny Bold, Bill Yabroudy, and two others. This was all the horsepower they needed. Just after they went, I did my best for a lap or two to contain the break, but it was hopeless. We then just sat in and waited to sprint for the minor placings. On the two to go lap it was much the same deal, some guys strung out ahead of the dwindling bunch. I got up next to Duane and asked what he wanted to do, and he told me to attack the field right now. OK. I went and got up as far the second group on the road, which was Adam Sternfeld, a Benidorm rider who had been out there himself for a few laps, and one other guy. Getting to them wasn't all that hard, but I was pretty gassed, so I thought it best to just sit on them and try to kill it, hoping Duane was able to ride the chase behind me. It worked, and on the mini straight before the final, the cavalry came up, so I looked back to try to pick up Duane for a leadout, but he was back further than I expected. Not to worry, as he knows the Ninigret sprint well and purposely stayed back because of the headwind. He still worked his way though to the front but got piped at the line, taking 7th. I just rolled in.

Combined with Wompatuck and Blue Hills, these two races gave me a nice load of intensity for the week. My knee got stiff and started clicking again though, so I canceled my planned long day in the saddle Sunday and instead stripped the Slim Chance down to the bare frame. It needed some love. Now I have to decide how I want to build it back up. I also pieced the cross bike back together, but got stuck trying to find a front derailleur that would shift the 38/47 combo with a DA STI lever. No go. The old one had sort of worked, but it overshifted and the adjustment screws were hosed. I just wanted to make the bike ridable, so I finally capitulated and swapped it to 39/52, which shifted fine with a cheap Sora FD. Not even sure what I am doing with this thing. Anyone want to by a 58 cm cross bike, formerly raced by a multi-time national champion? Thanks for reading.

Update - Hey, Check it out! Bobke Strut has a pic today of Bart Bowen riding an identical cross bike. (same team as the guy I bought mine from)

Also, I forgot to say, NBX came through at their race with not only free Gatorade water bottles (the nice ones), full with Gatorade, but a BBQ too, where I feasted on four burgers. What can I say, I was short on cash so I loaded up while watching JB1 get caught just before the line in a valiant last lap solo effort against JB2, (or his lookalike, I though this guy was on a Cervelo but the results say it's not Josef) who took 6th or so, and all the other cat 3s. I also found time for some small talk with Murat after the 35+.