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.
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