Lowlight: Any time you're crossing the Lenny too early to see the sunrise, things mustn't going so swell.
Highlight: Gloucester is such a big event, they added lanes to the highway just for the occasion.
Highlight: The obligatory Gloucester Harbor shot. Notice the weather was absolutely fucking glorious. You can even click this one for a higher-res version.
Lowlight: Despite the awesome weather, it was still chilly enough at 5:30 am to make riding in the Geo with no heat a bit unpleasant.
Highlight: I already found some Gloucester photos on flickr. There are many others of the elites too, but this is about me. These say "all rights reserved" (sheesh) but I'm linking to one anyway (thank you to D. McEwan for posting these. Please visit their Flickr page).
So the report. I was doing the 3/4 masters. While I've managed to avoid getting lapped in the "A" Masters the last few times I've raced, I haven't scored any stellar results either, and with a cx age of 48, you can hardly call me a 'bagger for doing the B's. Colin's handicapper had me at something like 8th for this event, but half the field were unrated too, so call it 16th. Optimistic as it turns out. BTW, do not confuse Colin R with Colin K, aka "The Belgian Strongman." Back to highlights and lowlights...
Highlight: I got to the event extremely early, snagging a prime parking spot. In fact, I completed two full warmup laps myself before doing a third with everyone's favorite military action figure, Eric Marro, aka "the Cronoman." You have to get up pretty damn early to get to a cx race before the Cronoman...
Highlight: Chatting with the aforementioned Belgian Strongman before the start of my race. I also got to catch up with Scotty, Garabed, and several others.
Lowlight: Watching Trackrich struggle with his f'd up bike during the Cat 4 race. He dropped his chain while in fourth place, right in front of my viewing spot. BTW Rich, only eleven riders passed you while you greased up your fingers. Unfortunately, the "supplements" Rich has been on must really work, as he snapped the chain like a twig with his bare fingers. Then he got to run a 5k to get his pit bike. I think going backwards would have been the better play. Not sure if this is a DQ or not, but what the hell?
Highlight: Decent starting spot in the middle of the field. Well wish visit from Gewill when they gave us 30 seconds to the start.
Lowlight: Parlayed my mid-pack starting spot into a mid-back-of-pack spot by the time we hit the seawall autobahn. Things got worse when a Bike Link guy did a spectacular high speed endo. He nearly became an extra for The Perfect Storm in a close encounter with the harbor. His bike, however, continued another 20 meters on its own, blocking the right side as well.
Highlight/Lowlight: This was not the only crash. Lucky for me, my intrepid competitors were hurling themselves to the ground in great numbers at every opportunity. By the end of the first lap, the Cronoman called out to me that I was in 35th, exactly where I started. At this point there were many other riders with apparently no sense of pace totally blown and wobbling around the course in their lowest gear, in a fashion normally reserved for the post-sprint end of the race. WTF? Oh well, easy spots to move up.
Highlight: I was moving up nicely.
Lowlight: Bobbled in the sand on the 3rd lap, and nearly blew getting back up to speed. It took me an entire lap to get back up to the guy I was about to overtake prior to f-ing things up. Worse, there was a group of about six riders just ahead of him ripe for the taking, but losing an entire lap's worth of forward progress did not help my cause.
Highlight: Getting back up there and taking a few more spots. I was racing hard with a guy who turned out to be the 55+ winner who had caught me from behind. At least it made me push myself hard at the end.
Lowlight: only 23rd/89 in the B field, 7th 45+.
Highlight: At least I'm not a 'bagger.
That's enough for now. Sunday was The Pinnacle Challenge. Short version teaser: Fetal Position. Thanks for reading.
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