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.