The Return of Dusty Hardpack

Yeah I raced the popular Sucker Brook CX for the first time. Along with the Canton Cup and Shedd Park, SB is one of the big "little" races. As somebody who suffered through the early years of New England cyclocross, personally I appreciate the structure and consistency of the Verge series. Non-series races are kind of like the old days, when you never really knew what to expect at a race. Promoter's ideas of what was good cyclocross varied a lot, and they still do today, but at least it's become better, probably due to the example set at the big series races. It will be interesting to see how things run at Gloucester and Providence this year now that they've gone renegade.

Sucker Brook scored high marks with an organized paddock area, a well marked and fenced course, and legit barriers. All of it was wide enough to pass, with only one stupid log obstacle, and a miserable sandpit (drivetrain companies must pay these guys off or something). Half the course was a tape maze, but it was very well laid out, fast, challenging without much awkwardness. I thought the barrier placement was pretty strange, about 20 meters after a very slow section, but it was helpful for me as I'm cautious on high speed barriers anyway. After the hurdles you entered the other half of the course, which was a featureless gravel road, the log, and the sand. There was a short paved section to the finish line. Laps were short, but still over seven minutes for me. I heard rumors of five minutes in the elite race.

The laps distance would have been fine, except since this was a small race they lumped the 35+, 45+, and 55+ all on the course at the same time. For some reason it was decided the 35+ would get a two minute head start on the 45+, then one minute to the 55+. Seemed a little crazy to me, as there were no severe bottlenecks on the first half of the course. But with three fields out there at once, I guess compromises need to be made. We had 44 starters in the 45+, I think. The other two fields were about the same, as this race is run by a 55+ guy and it's really popular with those dudes as a result.

Let's back up. Earlier in the week I'd thought about doing Loon. But I have been wicked tired, and lacking motivation to train. I have still been training, but it's been a struggle. Last weekend was a double race in VT, not to mention eight hours driving. Monday I rested a bit. Tuesday I did a hard, hilly trail run of over an hour. Wednesday I did some hard cross practice. Thursday I just rode on the road a little bit. Friday another hard trail run, this time rolling an ankle and getting a minor high sprain that didn't really start hurting until Sunday. But that was five hard efforts in seven days, and Saturday I was feeling it. Though I really needed a long road ride, it took me all morning to find the energy. I was glad I did not opt to race at Loon. He almost had me, but then a twitter pic of the ski slope crab grass scared me off. So Saturday afternoon I went out on my road bike, goal of 80k. Not much right? Well it felt like 180k. Took me over three hours. I did manage to get up Big Blue in 5:22 (this is on the 10kg Soma), averaging 408 watts for the best five minutes. Even at my present rotund 79kg, that is still half decent, and I don't know where that came from because the rest of the ride I was barely movin'.

Sunday at the race I tried to warmup well. My cx bike has not been out of the car all week. It is fifteen years old, and it looks it, in stark contrast to the sleek and spiffy machines 90% of the competition ride. But it keeps making it through the races, which is more than I can say for some... My HR wouldn't go above 135 in warmup, despite pushing up some hills. I put wheels in the pit and rode back to the line, where everyone had already lined up fifteen minutes early. So I'm back row. On the start I thought I did ok but I was still way at the back. Yes it was dusty. On a double back I saw team mate Billy C leading the race! Wow. He is riding well lately. I'd only done one pre-ride lap so I messed up a few times, and then lost some ground on the two big rollers before the barriers when the Woodsman bobbled in front of me.

I had good legs on the dirt road, but it was too dusty to see. Made it over the log and through the sandpit without incident, but it was pretty hard. On the pavement and gravel after that I passed several people. The next lap was better, but I still veered off course a few times as I did not know it well. Moved up more on the pavement again. Then the third time I came out of the sandpit feeling pretty blown. The problem with this course is that there was no recovery section. Just the pavement, which was uphill. So I did not move up that lap. At least in this race (the 45+) I personally did not see any bonehead moves like we usually do. All year things have been pretty good in that regard (watch me get waylaid this week). Maybe the separate master 4 races are helping keep out the riff-raff, so lay off the "special snowflake" shit please. Some guy raced me really hard for the log jump, with us leaning on each other big time, but it was great, just the way it should be. He did not yell at me to not chop him... he just pushed back.

The turns before the sandpit owned me. I would get up a lot of speed on the little straightaway preceding them, but the high bushes made it blind and twice I almost went right out of the chute. This and my relaxing on the pavement brought Chris Burke, Jim Mills, and Tom Stevens, three guys I'd passed earlier, right back up to my wheel. Then another guy starts pressuring me to go faster. Turns out it's Shah-Bow, back from a broken chain in the 35+. He ridicules my lines and passes me, so I follow him. My eyes don't pick up all the imperfections in the dirt surface, thus I went to school following this master of the tape maze. This drew me out clear of his team mate Burke; nice work. We pulled out maybe ten seconds, then took two to go at the line. Shortly thereafter the lead three from the 35+ passed us on the gravel road. Jerry nearly took Rob Hult out. Curtis grumbled about lap traffic. So now we're lapped, by the 35+ anyway, and I'm like "sweet, we're done." Going just hard enough to stay ahead of the following trio, I cross the line and Kinnen says "45+ one to go." This was after telling us five times that everyone finishes on the same lap. I looked over my shoulder and was like "screw you, I'm done" even though this would mean a score on the DNF Green Monster for me. Stevens et all kept going, also meaning I'd lose three hard-earned places. Yet I did not care. Luckily though, I think everyone who followed was of the same mind, and the officials changed their ruling and scored us as it should have been all along. So those guys did an extra lap for nothing, heh-heh. I ended up 17th, near as I can tell about three minutes behind the 45+ winner. Not great, but better than I expected.

So ends your weekly fodder. Maybe I'll have more about why I'm so tired later. Double race weekend coming up. Ugghh. Thanks for reading.

Gymkhana and Can Am

Or cyclocross and stupid car analogies. Something to spice up an otherwise totally boring mid-pack finish race report. With the pre-season opener at Quad Cross in Bedford in the books, this past weekend it was time to move on to the real deal and the first Verge series weekend, up in the hinterlands of Williston, VT. Personally I haven't been up there since this became a big race, and in fact have only raced at the sprawling Catamount Family Center a couple of times, once at a cross race maybe five years ago, and once in the dark neon ages of mountain biking. Were I not so lazy I'd scan a pic of me with an original white Camelback and pepperoni-forked Cannondale MTB. But I am lazy; no pic for you.

Willi was supposed to make the long-assed drive to VT with me, but at the last minute the idea of being trapped in a confined space for four hours with Nega-Coach before an important race weekend scared him off and he made other travel arrangements. No matter, as we probably couldn't fit him and all his shit in the XBox anyway. Instead I clicked the cruise control on and coasted along deserted I-89, getting to the venue totally painlessly.

Shah-bow had provided pre-race intelligence that the course was "totally non-technical easy grass with too much climbing" or something like that. Having been here before, I knew the course lay on a hillside, but last time it was deep cow-pasture grass with a single line worn in by mountain bikes. This year I was pleasantly surprised to find the serpentine layout mowed pretty tight (by Vermont standards anyway) probably three meters wide just about all the way around. There was still a line worn to the dirt where tires rolled much more easily, but being deep and narrow it wasn't always faster to try to stay in it, and the penalty for deviating from it was minor compared to the past. The course twisted and turned up and down the hill twice per nine-minute lap, climbing close to 60 meters vertical each time. Honestly it had plenty of turns, enough to confuse me to the point that there's no way I could draw an aerial of it even after racing there. The thing was that after last weeks's too tight, low-speed gymkhana jamboree at Quad, this was more like Can-Am at Road America. It wasn't the lack of turns that had underpowered sewing machine-motored riders whining, it was the ample fast sections. The turns were mostly fast, if you had the power to get to them with speed. If you had tea-cup racer power, well then sure, you could probably take most of it flat out.

Anyway, we had a bike race. The weather was awesome all weekend. The atmosphere at the venue was super-relaxed, probably because it was Vermont, and everyone was there for the weekend. Probably the best scene I've experienced at a race in a long time. Paul was there announcing (and racing) but he's still wise enough to keep me away from the mic after a few beers. They had a food/coffee truck too. So anyway, about 45 guys lined up for the 45+ race, and it started uphill. Everyone is on a totally decked-out cross bike these days, except me that is. Mine is now almost fifteen years old (I think, but can't be sure) and hurting in more ways than one. But it felt OK. I ran clinchers, an old green Michelin Mud on the front and a Mud2 on the back. Seemed OK, as there were no rocks on this course, so the chance of pinch flats was low. And I aired them up to the high 30's anyway, maybe more. Solobreak does not obsess over these things.

I did not get a call up and lined up at the back with the Mayor. On the whistle the pack took off up the hill fairly gently. I expected people to blow up, so I kind of took it easy, figuring that moving up would be much easier after a lap or two. But with the length of the lap, we would only be doing five total. I'm not going to write much about the race because all I remember is making steady forward progress, then going too hard on the "bmx jump" section and sort of blowing up, taking the third lap at more of a recovery pace, then picking up a few more spots as the end neared. On the last lap there was nobody in sight in front of me, but a Bikeman guy was stalking me from around ten seconds back. I rode a bit conservatively rather than risk crashing. The top 25 finishers get Verge series points, thus earning callups for the start of the remaining Verge series races this season. I could only recall passing 10-15 riders during the race, but could not be sure of my placing. So when the stalker reeled me in with 400 meters to go, we might have still been racing for "something." Which meant I had to sprint. Well, I managed to beat him, but it was for 29th, no points for you. All that work for nothing. My finish time was around 4:30 behind the winner, which was about average last year. On this course, which suited me, I would have hoped to do better. Last year I think I got as close as 2:10 at Noho.

Saturday night I stayed at Jerry's house with Soups, Curtis, Willi, and C-Burke. It was fun. I got to meet J's wife Sabine, who is WAY nicer than he is, and also got to see my little buddy Benji, who I hadn't bonded with since nearly running him over and killing him at Putney last year. We made friendly and now all is good, I think. Sunday with just a ten minute drive back to the race, I got lazy and took my time. When I got there I was pre-kitted, going for a dirt road ride to warm up. Man I felt like shit, but I forced myself to do some uphill tempo, then made it onto the new course layout for a pre-ride before staging. This course was very cool, shorter than Saturday at 7 minutes, but with perhaps the longest pedaling section in memory. All the way from the barriers at the low end of the course to the log run/ride at the high point was pedaling with little interruption. Which was one reason I chose to run the logs. Personally I felt the challenge there was far more physical than technical, and after blowing up Saturday on the BMX jump I did not want to repeat the mistake again. Coming off the long pedaling section, with a minute or so of false flat following the logs, in this case running seemed almost like recovery to me, and was just as fast. Maybe all my trail running was paying off.

Anyway, again I had to start last row. Then I wasn't paying attention and the race took off without me. Gewilli heckled me about my piss-poor start, but with the wide, open track and lots of climbing, this time I made quicker forward progress. Saturday I think I sat down too much on the climbs, not figuring out until late in the race that mixing in more standing was better. Sunday I stood more. On the second lap I passed the Cronoman when he flatted, soon finding myself in the midst of riders who had finished a minute or so ahead of me in the two races thus far this season. Good. Or better anyway. Eventually I found my spot in a group with Wayne Cunningham (NEBC) and Geoff McIntosh (NHCC) with nobody close behind nor visible ahead. This was maybe the third of six laps. I was faster than these guys on the climbs, especially the slight grade to the finish line. For some reason they were taking the last corner tight instead of rolling it, and I could easily launch out of it quicker doing it my way. So when my uphill attacks on them failed (as I'd inevitably slow down and get reeled in trying to recover) I decided to just stay with them and beat them in the sprint. There were a few places where they'd open small gaps with aggressive riding, but I was coming back pretty much at will. On the last lap though, maybe I eased too much or maybe they gassed it, but coming off the logs the gap got scary and by the barriers at the bottom of the slalom they had 5-10 seconds. But this was the long pedaling section. At the far south end of the course on the flat, fast turns, it was like they put the brakes on and I rolled right up to them. I was pretty blown, but there was still time. The last tight 180 before the finish had a little hump right at the apex, and I really had this one dialed. Coming out of it my prey were right in front of me, and I got in the big ring and clicked up a few cogs. Again they took the last 90 tight, so tight in fact that when I did my outside in they were going inside out, with me easily getting by before we even finished turning, taking the more tamped-down and direct route to the line. Already carrying more speed, I got to the line first. Yet there were an awful lot of finishers already assembled in the cool down area... Twenty five?

I was almost puking from my last half-lap effort, and I rolled around, got a jacket, and went out on the road for a ride. When results were finally posted I was 24th, with two precious Verge points! The fruits of labor! And only about 3:30 behind the winner this time, much more like it. Ok, that's enough, got to go now. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I didn't. Next time maybe pictures. Thanks for reading, sorry about the typos, I'll fix them later.

Back to school

First things first. I finally put the moon discs on the XBox. They don't fit quite right though. And I wish I got them painted body color. Going for the lakester look.

Almost fifteen years ago, at the first "blizzard" cross nationals in Leicester, MA, one half lap into the main event my left meniscus said "enough of this cross shit," dropping me to the ground in the middle of the snowy runup. I was done for the day, on my way to the OR for repairs. Since it was the off season, and I'd neglected to attend college in my youth (I was 34 at the time), to keep me busy during my convalescence I enrolled in a winter intersession course at Middlesex Community College. One thing lead to another and for the next seven years bike racing went on the back burner while I spent my time going to night school to earn a BS in IT (kind of an acronym for bullshit now that I look at it), eventually graduating from UMass Lowell in 2003, then returning to... bike racing. But the first seven or eight courses of my program were at MCC, and today I returned there, for, of all things, a bike race. You didn't think this paragraph was pointless, did you?

This was my first time at the Quad Cycles race, even though it's been running for a few years now. As I've written several times before, I don't take cross all uber seriously the way so many of my readers do. It's hard and it's competitive and it can be fun but c'mon, it's riding around playgrounds. Not like real races, which are of course held in abandoned office parks. So unseriously do I take cross that I'm pretty sure the bike I used today saw action at the 95 snow nats in Leicester, underneath the silver medalist. It's ancient and maybe I need to think about something newer...

Anyway, back to the event. The 35+, 45+, and 55+ would all be on the course together, starting a minute apart. I did not even ride yesterday, as I was messing with my car all day and doing domestic type shit. I did not ride Friday either, though I did do a trail run in semi-darkness and not fall, bonus. Today was my third time on the cross bike this season, as I've ridden it twice at the Wednesday night Wrentham training series, on gigantic oversize tires. We do short nine minute "races" there, and I've been quitting after three or four, just to get some intensity without overdoing things. BTW, this is far more than I did last year, when I think Gloucester was my first ride on the cx bike all season (except D2R2, where I rode it in 2009). So maybe I'm serious after all. But I still got there about thirty minutes before my start today. The Cronoman was all focused and shit on his trainer. Everyone else was already kitted up and riding around and I didn't even have a number yet. I got straightened out just in time for open course, and took a lap. Whoever laid the course out did an excellent job. There were a number of subtle niceties, such as a mix of "hard" and "recovery" sections, some tight, slow stuff, some faster turns and transitions onto and off of pavement that would have been treacherous in the wet, and a good overall flow. There were two dismounts per lap, and each was long enough to make it worth your while, and riding optional if you wanted. I opted to run everything. There were two good, long pavement sections, as well as a longish bumpy uphill on grass past the finish where you could power by weaker riders. The tight stuff was tricky without being too awkward, and not too much tape got knocked down. Very good job.

I lined up at the back of the 45+, as I'm treating this like a training race. As such, my plan was to not go out like a house of fire and get mixed up in the traffic jam. Many cx riders feel this is important, and they go 100% on the first two laps and then survive (or attempt to) the rest of the way. That doesn't work in any other form of racing, so I'm not sure why cross should be expected to be that much different. Sure, you lose a shitload of ground in the early bottlenecks if you're at the back, but if you're destined for a below median finish anyway, I don't think it makes much difference, and probably even hurts you to battle hard early on. At any rate, on the start I'm last, and going into the first gentle turn, anticipating the bottleneck, I still end up crashing into the back of Dave "the Mayor" Leeburg (Gearworks) because my brakes don't really work. And I fell. So now I'm not just last, but ten bike lengths off the back. I give chase, getting up to Dave, and in the twisty stuff I can see 55+ leader Paul Curley coming up fast from behind. There were plenty more bottlenecks on the course, so it wasn't balls-out the first lap, and I spent most of it getting heckled and heckling back with other riders, spectators, and even the officials getting in on the act.

At the first paved section I moved up a few spots. On the bumpy uphill past the finish I moved up a few more. I was doing OK in the turns, but not great. This bike is a bit big for me and I lose ground in the tight, slow, pinwheel stuff. Curley caught me and I locked on his wheel to really "go to school." It's not often you see the master out front riding his own race, as he normally follows others, only pouncing when he has to. But he was leading this one going away. I picked up some good lines but eventually he blew through some traffic and I lost him. The other 55+ guys never caught me. I'd passed Jim Mills (Cycle Lodge) during all this, but he came back around me in the tight stuff and ended up riding away. Very good job, and I think he ended up several spots ahead of me. My "fans" (zencycle, etc) still heckled me, but got almost encouraging as I was steadily moving forward. About halfway through I caught up to my mate Timmy, and coming back to the longest paved stretch there was one guy between us, but we were all together. After a little uphill out of a sand run, we hopped off a curb and down the main driveway. Gluing up tight in order to draft a bit and then move right by, the guy between us caught me by surprise, appearing to brake just before dropping off the curb. WTF? and for the second time today I found myself riding right into the back of someone, this time getting my front wheel right into his derailleur. The heavy contact knocked me off my bike, but the impact had slowed me enough that instead of falling I more or less did a spastic one-legged dismount, sort of rolling the entire time. I blew by the guy and got on Timmy but it put me deep in the red.

We had two to go at that point I think, and so I started trying to turn it on. The next group of riders was well ahead, but a gaggle of five or so were breathing down our necks. Not sure if they were 45 or 55, but I think at least two of them were 55+ second and third place. Then coming by the finish the chief scorer John Laupheimer says "Dave you're done." Huh? I had not been passed by the 35+ leader (i.e. overall race leader) yet, so I'm on the lead lap. Everyone ahead of me was still racing. I think Mark M (who won the 35+) may have been close behind me. Only 37 minutes had passed (5 laps for me) so I kept going. Nobody was chasing me from behind anymore. I did not catch anyone else, but I wanted the workout. Crossing the line next time I pleaded my case on the fly, but I have no idea how they scored it. Not that it really matters, as I think I was only ahead of 10-15 guys from the 45+ anyway (out of around 50 starters?). We'll see tomorrow when the results come up.

So there you have it. First race of the cx season under my belt. Checked out lodging for VT next weekend and it's ah, prohibitively expensive. I guess foliage rates already kicked in, as I'm not seeing anything for less that $200. I may have to bag out, or maybe see if someone wants to split the drive up for just one of the two days. I haven't done VT in years either. That's all folks, thanks for reading.

Walpole 10k Race Report

Road season ended early for me. It ends early for almost everyone now. Sure there was GMSR this weekend and there are a few crits in September still holding out against the encroachment of cyclocross, but I'm capitulating. For the fall season I will race 'cross, maybe not as seriously as some of you guys, but I'll be out there. My plan is to do most of the same races I did last year, maybe double up on a few more weekends, we'll see. And mix in some running races, as the calendar is full of good ones during harvest fair season. Not sure about du's, but if one comes up on a rare open date I'll consider it.

So I've been secretly running twice a week all summer, a first for me. You might remember my last running race was the Derry 16 miler back in January, and that did not end so well. In fact everything from the 8-mile mark onward was a mistake, as I started to experience some serious hip pain, but like an idiot I kept going. That pretty much tanked my winter running, but with rest the problem subsided and on the bike I had no issues, or no hip issues to be more precise. I focused on bike racing all spring, and raced every weekend from April until Memorial Day at the Killington Stage Race. Then I took a break, then started running easy, then working in weeknight time trials beginning in late June, moving to a bunch of crits in July and early August. That all went fairly well, and I either won primes or finished top 10 in every race all summer I think, with a few podiums. So the running did not hurt so much. I did stop running for the week of the Workingmans and then again the week before D2R2. I'm crazy but I'm not stupid.

I've had no issues with my hip thus far. Back in May, I met Patsy at CPTE in Nashua while working at my sponsor Goodale's Bike Shop on super sale day. Patsy had a booth for her business setup in the store and she worked with me a bit when we each had some down time during the day. She really knows her stuff and her diagnosis was that I have some mobility problems in my SI joint and this was leading me to have a right leg that is functionally longer than the left. I've written about this before. Well, this condition has probably existed in me as long as I've been an athlete, but nobody ever explained it to me like this before. I've always known I was severely out of balance laterally, but never knew what to do about it. This summer I've been doing some exercises Patsy recommended and so far they're helping. My hips and back feel "free-er" and I think it's helped my TT positioning as well as my pedaling (both right/left balance as well as better power at high cadences). I can't stress enough how strongly I feel that us old fucks need to devote a considerable portion of our available training time to "structural fitness." It's senseless to bang your head against the wall doing intervals if your training is leaving you hunched and limping. Just sayin'...

Of course I'm not running many miles. Like I said, just twice a week, really short, like 30 minutes at first. The past month I've stretched it out, but nearly all my runs have been in the Blue Hills, with about 50% of the time spent on rugged trails. Some are so steep that it's not even "running" in the traditional sense, as I need to make foot plants wherever I can, thus every stride is a different length. Not as repetitious as running on asphalt, but far more stressful from both hip flexor and cardiovascular standpoints. This is like intervals. I've run up the access road a few times too. Lately I'm up to about an hour, as that just fits in after work when I really don't have enough time for a decent ride at this time of year.

No speedwork or timed runs though, so going in to the Walpole race I had no idea what pace I'd be able to maintain. Last year I also did this as my first race of the fall, with nearly zero run training, and did a 42:50, 6:54 pace on the tough rolling course. So I hoped to do better than that, but that's all I knew. Before the race I stretched a lot, doing the usual dynamic stuff along with some other moves Patsy had showed me to loosen my SI joint, but I warmed up very little. Basically the same things I do for a training run. Lining up with my buddy T-Vo, I had no plans to stay with him as he's been running pretty decent lately. At the start I focused on good form and staying within myself, being conservative. I've had three LT tests in the past two years, one on a treadmill and two on a bike, and I've got a pretty good idea of where my thresholds are by HR. My run pacing used to suck, with fast starts and horrible declines, but I've learned a lot. First mile was 6:38, faster than expected, but my HR was only 140 and I felt good. Second mile goes down and then back up, and I was 6:41, 144, so far so good. Third mile has some downhill, hard to judge. It was 6:34 with my HR hovering right around my OBLA of 150 bpm, and I could push it up or dial it back at will. The fourth mile was tougher, with some little hills and a tight loop around a neighborhood. There is a 5k at this event too, and most runners did that, with only 180 people in the 10k, so I was in no-man's land. The 4th split at 6:49 so I hoped I was not falling apart. But I was still around 150 for an HR and with less than 15 minutes to go I figured I should start ramping it up. The fifth mile goes through the start area backward and then into a big downhill, with longer sight lines where I could see I was catching two guys. That was my fastest split at 6:26. The last mile passes through the center of town but it's almost all uphill. I may have started emptying the tank a little too early because with a half mile to go when I passed the second guy, I was already at 165 bpm, pretty close to max. With three minutes still to run, uphill... So yeah, the last mile was not that much fun, but I pulled it out in 6:31 before dieing significantly in the final .217 for an official time of 41:05.

That may be the most even set of splits I ever put up in a middle distance race. The 6:37 average pace was 17 seconds/mile faster than last year, but still about 25 s/m off the times I was putting up in 2007 and 2008 races. Last year I rallied to run sub-39 at both the Firefighters 10k in Dorchester and the Canton Fall Classic, both in October, and both on my schedule for this year. My goal is to do a bit better in those, with nothing longer than that in the plans at this time. Stop rolling your eyes Jonny, you need to rest up for cross. Thanks for reading.

Bob Furapples

In the brush with greatness department, Solobreak gets a photo-op at the top of Gonzo Pass with teammate Bob "Furapples" Hatfield, drummer for the legendary Boston punk band the F.U.'s, fresh off his This is Boston Not L.A. reunion gig in Revere.

Just a plain old bike ride Saturday. We originally had four riders lined up, but two bagged out. Hattie had been granted an all-day hall pass from his wife, and wasn't about to let his chance to ride in the mountains for the first time slip by. We headed up and parked in Campton. Our original plan was to loosely follow Dougie's White Mountains west route, but then double back down 112 instead of heading to Franconia. From there we'd climb over into Waterville via Tripoli Road and then back to the car. Looked like around 85 miles.

I rode my Soma, with 28 mm Paselas this time. Bobby doesn't race as much as me, so this would provide a suitable handicap. Plus it has a compact. I think he only had a 39x26 on his Madone. Gonzo Pass proved fun. It was windy on the descent due to the so-called hurricane which had just left town. Going up Route 25 west was straight into it. But we missed the turn for High Street; it had no sign. By the time we were sure of it we just decided to f-it and go the long way around. Bob had 23 mm road tires, and so the Long Pond Road gravel descent might not have been such a great idea anyway. We came out to Route 10, where you ride north along the Connecticut River and can look over into Vermont. The we headed back east on 116. There is not much going on in that area...



The Soma only had to wait for Hattie two minutes or so at the top of Tripoli road.

116 junctions back to 112 and it was basically a long, steady grind, albeit with a nice tailwind. Which also made it quite warm, borderline uncomfortable. 116 veers off left but we stayed the course on 112, hitting Kinsman Notch, which is all brand new asphalt, smooth as it gets. And it's the worst false-flat I've ever ridden on. It's not steep, but it almost appears downhill, an illusion created by the surrounding mountains. I am not going to claim it was fun. But bombing down the other side was a nice bonus, even if it is a pedal downhill. On my tires anyway, I only spun out my 50x11 in a few places.



Mr. Furapples powers over the top of the 7 mile, 1600 foot dirt climb.

After a water stop we hit Tripoli Road. It was nice and cool in there, almost chilly. It took me 38 minutes. Bob was not far behind. Now we're home free. A touch of rain spit on us going through Waterville Village but then it cleared and we were back at the cars in just under 6:00 ride time, 6:24 total. Only about 93 miles with a double back into Woodstock for water on the way back, but 6800 feet of climbing, 1/3 of it on dirt, and 20 mph headwinds on some long stretches, I think it was OK. Check out the map, do you think the route looks like a butterfly, or Krusty the Clown's haircut? I did not have a power meter but my Polar registered 4300 calories (versus 5100 for D2R2 at 9 hours). Based on my lab tests, the Polar numbers are probably at least 10% low. And I got to ride with a legend of punk. We're going to try to get him in more races next year. He's got the power, I just need to instill some manorexia in him and drop a few dress sizes from his cottage of wattage. And as you can see, my new BOB team issue jersey has visually slimming black side panels, so we'll get him into one of those too. Thanks for reading.

Bubble?

This will be a crappy post. It's been a week, and I have to write something. Unfortunately I don't have time to do this topic justice. Cutting to the chase, I wonder if the cyclocross bubble is about to burst. Like the stock market, the fortunes of a sport cannot rise forever. Look at NASCAR. A few years ago sponsors were fighting to get in, and events were sold out months in advance. Now they can't give tickets away for the big race coming up in New Hampshire. Sure, there are differences between cyclocross and NASCAR and the stock market. Cyclocross has not been heavily marketed or anything like that. But it sure has been growing, rapidly, for a few years now, with no signs of slowing down...

Let's look at history. Remember when mountain bike racing was the big game in town? What happened there? It's still around, but the days of 800 rider fields overflowing the venue parking lots are over, aren't they? Can't happen to cross you say, with the world's coming to Kentucky and all? I wonder. I'm seeing signs of "irrational exuberance" among promoters this year. There are A LOT of events on the calendar. Some are big "festival" events, in far away places, with paid admission. Others are small, first year events with $4000 prize lists. Then there are dozens of events that have existed for years in one form or another. Some got disappointing, or at least lower than historical, turnouts last year, probably due to the glut in events. Certainly there are more riders and rider/days to go around, but are there enough? I tend to doubt it. With a bubble, everything is wonderful and the tide is rising right up until it isn't. In a falling market, some promoters are going to get hurt, and someone is bound to lose their shirt. Don't let it be you. We're out of time. Give reasons why I'm wrong in the comments, please. Thanks for reading.