Having received a few complaints about the lack of detail in my race reports (ok, more like gentle nudges acknowledging appreciation of the rare exceptions), today I'm going to try and recount the blow-by-blows from the weekend. As I didn't take any notes Saturday, per usual some of that data may have been overwritten, but let's go.
I had a decent week of training, meaning that I rode outdoors on the road twice, went to the gym twice, did a good run one day, and even got out for over an hour on the cx bike. Robin flew in for the weekend races, and Timmy hooked her up with a loaner bike, saving her a bundle in baggage fees. So we made some adjustments and went for a ride over at Stonehill on Friday to get it all dialed in. The 3/4 womens' race was early Saturday at 9:30, but mercifully the 4 men and 4 men 35+ were combined and their start pushed back to 8:30, so all we had to do in order to get in a decent pre-ride was to arrive by 8 am. Timmy and Garabed were just setting up the tent trailer when we parked, and the BOB base camp was established. Eric and Carrie got there a few minutes later, but Carrie decided she was too sick to race.
The course was mostly familiar to me. I was psyched that they had moved the barriers, giving a touch of flow to the "upper deck" part of the course. The bottom tier, down on the flat grass, was laid out better than ever. The trademark here are the fast, wide, sweeping turns, and I think they even added a few this year. The new start layout was superb. Granted, there were some mishaps in the steel-cage deathmatch section. I am of the mind that there are no dangerous courses, just dangerous riding, so I won't criticize. Once you got off the pavement there was still hundreds of meters of wide grass straightaways to sort out the order, so taking risks on the fenced pavement start was not necessary. At least there were no mishaps in my races.
Not that I didn't almost create one. Laying 28th in Verge points, I still got the 18th grid position for this race due to non-registrants, thus third row. At the start, once again I totally missed my pedal. Not once, not twice, more than that. I even slipped off and straddled the top tube, legs askew, all over the map on the run in to the curb hop. Nobody went down. Nobody even swore at me, even though my start was the holeshot equivalent of coming out of the men's room with my pants around my ankles and toilet paper hanging out of my ass. Eventually I got clipped in and put on a big surge along the grass. I felt good, probably because I'd taken advantage of the Saris demo trainers setup at the start/finish. I was pushing my warmup right until about thirty seconds before my callup.
I think I ran the sand the first lap, as I was still pretty deep in the group. After that I think I rode it once, but it was slower so I defaulted to running it. Anyway, it wasn't a huge factor IMHO. Back to the first lap, on the big runup I did not do so well, losing momentum. Up top I was ok, no passing, down the chute, over the tracks, and around the fast turns by the pit I was making up time for a change. This was my first race in a long, long time on a pure file tread front tire. I had a Vittoria XN? I think, no side knobs, inflated to around 30 psi. On the starting line I'd looked around and did not see ANYBODY else running files? But I was hooked up. These turns were the exact same as last year and I had that part of the course wired. I was running up on the back of people coming out of the turns.
The ride/runup, not so much. The Cronoman had convinced me that using the big ring in order to avoid torque spin was the way to go. He was right, so long as you came over the tracks jump and into the hill with some good speed. In traffic, that was not always happening. Up top I was good except for the fast left turn immediately after where the barriers used to be. With my tire I was impaired in the muddy spot coming onto the little paved path. After the race Garabed pointed out to me that you could pretty much go around it all and that is what I did on Sunday, much better. As it was, on Saturday I had to use my ample "roadie power" to close a little gap there. Ditto after the hairpin back onto the autobahn section. Luckily, with the smoothish front tire and roadie legs, my pavement speeds were a cut above my nearest rivals.
The turns off the autobahn and back down to the barriers did not create any problems for me. I felt fast and smooth here, much better than in years past. Not sure if it was the file front or just less acorns on the track. The barrier setup worked for me too. At most of the UCI races so far this year, I think the 40 cm barriers were more like 45 cm, with gaps underneath. Noho was sweet. In fact, the entire race organization and course were superb. I've had an axe to grind with Noho ever since they expanded to two days and bumped my favorite race, Farmington, off the calendar. This was the first year I (reluctantly) went for both days. I must admit they've won me over. JD was ALL OVER THE PLACE both days, working his friggin' ass off to keep the course in top shape. I was tired just watching him. How grueling does life at home have to be before you start working like that to relax on the weekends? Just kidding Meg...
I can't totally recall who/what/where I was competing directly against on Saturday. After the first lap, I started doing much better on the runup, as I was rolling pretty far up it, dismounting and shouldering all in one motion without losing forward momentum. This kind of smoothness saves bushels of energy and time. And I was killing people on the pavement (not in the Gewilli way, I mean going faster than them). But I was not losing much time anywhere else. The Cronoman was leading a large group just up the road. I battled hard and after three laps or so had almost just clawed my way onto the back. Out of the sand and into the sweeper that ran between the sandpit and the road, I sprinted for all I was worth, causing the back tire to lose its grip. The bike got completely sideways, but being a magician on a bike, I immediately went into AMA flattrack Jay Springsteen mode and did a classic feet up power slide to save it without missing a beat. Onto the back of the line and getting some draft for a change felt nice. I'd been getting up the steep chute no problem, but as I noted earlier, I was flying into the bottom of it, very easy to do when you're on your own. In the group (at the back of it), not so much, and I got messed up and had to check it at the bottom and did not make it. So after just half a lap of sitting on, I was back into a death chase.
By now we were inside one or two laps to go, and the group ahead exploded. I pushed hard, ran the sand like a sprinter, and with a few turns to go could see Keith Button (Noreast), a short distance ahead, with Kevin Callahan (Bike Link) and the Cronoman just beyond him. Keith looked vulnerable and I railed the last few turns to get his wheel before we hit the asphalt. He's even less of a sprinter than me and I rolled a huge gear past him to take 13th, 3:17 after the winner, my closest to the front of the year.
Since we were staying over to do the double on Sunday, we got to hang out in the camper, drink beer, eat well, and watch the elite races. Later all of us (sans Carrie and the Cronoman) retreated to the Red Roof Inn in Deerfield before heading out to "Wolfie's" for stuff like fried clams, reuben's, and angus burgers. Except for Garabed, who ate a salad... Sunday we went back to the venue even earlier. The Cronoman got there before 8am too, and Carrie felt better so she came ready to race. We did a three lap pre-ride. I took a few pics of the 3/4 womens' race before getting on the trainer. Once again I was 18th on the grid. This time I nailed the clip in for a change. I was moving up smoothly until the usual suspects who ride over their heads to the detriment of themselves and everyone near them came forth and started jamming in front, only to immediately create gaps.
I ran the sand every lap on day two. It was fast and reliable. On all the sweepers, I felt even faster than Saturday. The ride/runup did not go as nicely. Most laps I ended up running, which was just as fast or faster so long as you planned on it in advance, but the energy cost was much higher. But if you tried to ride and got knocked off, you'd lose big time and I got gapped off twice in this situation, both times costly on a course with so much drafting. The knuckleheads who race like it's the last lap messed me up a few times. This was a course where some cooperation in small group could draw you up to the next group, but Lynchie and Cunningham don't get it and continually undermined any chance of group success.
I made all the efforts that I had to in order to stay with the group and draft. We gained and lost riders at various times, but the makeup was the Cronoman (BOB), Cunningham (NEBC), McInnis (JRA), Ruiz (Keltic), Tarbox, Lynchie (Bike Link), and me. We got up to Nyberg (Benidorm) at one point. Keith Button (Noreast) and Chris Burke (Planet Bike) were with us some of the time. Timmy (BOB) and even Stevens (Gearworks) were within a few seconds of us too. The Cronoman likes to pull, but I was annoyed that he was giving McInnis a free ride, so I got in between them and let the gap open. This did force them to sprint around, but the gap closed quickly, Eric still led down the pavement, but now I was at the back. Someone didn't make the rideup, and I jumped off, but Brian made it up anyway and I was left working harder than I should have.
Cunningham, McInnis, Ruiz, and Tarbox got a gap on me, Marro, and Lynchie someplace in the final laps and we never caught back up to them. I ended up racing hard with Burke but got away from him at the barriers, catching Crono and Lynchie. Going into the sand I went around and attacked it hard running (see the pictures below). Eric came with me and Lynchie was gone. It was too late to catch anyone else, even though they were not far ahead. In the pic of me and Crono rounding the third from last turn, you can see Nyberg heading for the pavement. Eric came around me handily, which was good, as he needed the Verge points to maintain his front row grid spot in the final races, which I will be out of town for anyway.
There you have it. Sunday's finish had me 2:50 down on race winner John Mosher (Wheelworks), even better than Saturday, nearly halving the time gaps from the early season Verge races. How many words was this? Thanks for reading.
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