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.
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