No pretty pictures from this one. Maybe something will turn up. Canton is sort of the hometown cx race for me, being only six miles or so from home, and less than two from work. I like this race, but maybe I've looked at it with rose-colored glasses because it's close to home. Or maybe now that I've had a chance to get used to the structure and organization of the big races (I've done five doubles already this season!), the missing attention to detail at races like this one is starting to bug me. Don't get me wrong, I still like its long, fast course with lots of pavement, but for $30 (x 400 riders) I think a timing service for full results, proper staging, and MUCH better course security are warranted. Maybe next year.
This event also sports a 3/4 Master 45+ instead of the standard 1-4. Kind of weird. But good for me, I guess. The race predictor had me 16th for this one. I thought I could do better, especially since I actually rode my bike twice this week. To further my cause, I broke my rule about never working on my cx bike. Deciding that having brakes that could actually slow me down might somehow help me ride around the course faster, at 8 PM Friday night I commenced to install new Swiss Stop pads in my aging Froglegs. The rears went OK, but since I'm a perfectionist (just because I hate working on bikes doesn't mean I'm a half ass), and my kitchen lacks a bench grinder, hand-filing the cable housings and all that (like drinking a Corsendonk) pushed it out to around 10 pm by the time I started working on the fronts.
This proved to be a pain in the ass, and the alloy pad holder on one side just wouldn't adjust and stay put. So I went to take it apart, and SNAP. The P.O.S. was all seized, and now it's busted. Fuckin' aye. Up to the bike room, rummaging through the junk bins eventually yields a pair of LX MTB cantis, the low profile kind. Well they have to work. I know they are not good with drop bar levers, so I set them up with the pads WAAAAAYYYYY out, and low and behold, they seem to be OK. Maybe that would have been my photo. I finished everything up about 12:40. Fuck.
Saturday I got to the race at 0900, getting on the course before the first event. Part two of my plan was committing to run a file tread on the front. I've been training on it all week (a pure file, no side knobs) and had confidence. With all the pavement here, and the tight sidewalk, I felt giving something up on the grass would be more than offset by gains on the pavement. Of course, I did not have one glued up for the rear. This year's layout was faster and bumpier than in the past, but there were no deal breakers as far as changing my tire plan. I rode as fast as I could around the corners, testing them by pulling the foot out Tim Johnson style. BTW, I realize riding no gloves is all the rage this year, with the Nine Ball Diaries surely being responsible for this, no matter what anyone tells you. Well, I consider gloves important safety equipment, and I wear them all the time. Long fingers and short sleeves. Sue me. Putting the foot out though, watch Tim, he does that all the time too. So screw you.
I tried a Michelin Jet on the rear, but it was underinflated and I was sliding all over the place. For the race, I compromised and put my aging red "slicker than owl shit" Tufo on the back. My logic was that it's sort of like a file tread, not as knobby as my Fango anyway. And I'm not an embro guy either, having made it 25 years without using ANY lotions, oils, butt lube creams, etc, but I won a bottle of Freddy's Choice warming oil at the Rehoboth TT, and I've been slapping some of that shit on my legs for good luck. Hasn't hurt yet. And so ends my intensive prep for this race. I got all of two minutes on the trainer before realizing it was 10:45 and I'd better go hang out next to the starting line and prepare for the rumble/clusterphuck. But I ended up second row anyway. Whatever.
On the whistle I got out pretty decently. Maybe I'm racing in a slower crowd or something, but my starts seem to have improved. At least I'm getting close enough to the front that there's some room to move. This being a 3/4 race, with no 4 only masters category on top, probably had something to do with that. I went into the woods in around 10th. Even more encouraging, it was a very tight line and the leader was just ten bike lengths ahead. This is something I'm not used to. But it would not last.
Down the sidewalk and over the barriers, so far so good. Into the twisties I was still on John Grenier's (Fuji) wheel, but then on the second 180, about halfway through, I dug in the left pedal and immediately ate shit. Luckily Chip and the other two guys close behind me went around rather than over me. I got up quickly, with only the three of them getting by, but I'd jambed my thumb really bad in the fall (but didn't break it, thank you full gloves). And of course crashing and scrambling up generally pushes one closer to his limits. I did not get back to the line of riders in time to draft on the running track, or the autobahn straight that comes later. Actually I don't think I got a second of draft off of anyone after the first half lap.
So this would not be the race of my life. The laps were fairly long, so we expected to do only four, and that was how it worked out. I worked back up to Chip and company on the pavement, but then the Paul Weiss (Portland Velo) caught me from behind. The next three laps would end up being a battle between me and him, as gaps opened in front and behind us. Tom Stevens told Paul from the sidelines he was 13th, which made me 14th. I tried hard to drop him on the second lap, but he was firm, and he passed me going through the short barriers. On the third lap I just stayed behind him as best I could, trying not to make any mistakes. I was kind of torn about chasing after the next guy (Doug Aspinall (Joes) I think, and focusing on beating Paul. I chose the latter, staying back until the end of the sidewalk section, then attacking up the little rise into the short barriers. Getting through there well, I charged around the gravel corral, but in the twisties he was coming back. I did NOT want to tow him around the track, so I attacked HARD on the short bumpy straight into the hairpin that led back toward the runup. I held several bike lengths lead and nailed the clip in and screwed down the track before he got a chance to catch the draft. Aspinall looked like he was coming back to me but on the homestretch he disappeared and even got scored ahead of Geoff McIntosh, so maybe he caught him. Anyway, I got 13th.
Afterward I cooled down and watched the 35+, and Mary came by with her two new puppies to spectate, but I was still on the trainer and never got a chance to chat. My man Dee from way back also came to spectate, as well as Il Brucie, and we took time to heckle the twin towers Gewilli and Trackrich mercilessly before high-tailing to Napper Tandy's for some post-race nourishment. Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment