Noho Report

From a racing standpoint, this past weekend's two races at Look Park in Northampton were more of the same for me. Nice weather, strong fields, finishes in or near the 20s. With the accuracy of the race predictor you gotta wonder why we even run the race. For Saturday it had me around 30th out of 82 pre-reg'd riders in the 45+. The ever important (if you listen to the pundits) starting grid would be arranged by Verge points, and I was assigned bib #32, narrowly making it into the fourth row of eight riders. Everyone behind us was lined up by order of registration.

The start chute was on grass. I wanted the edge, but being the last one called for this row, I ended up on the right. This was not so good but my start was nonetheless OK. Maybe my starts have gotten better, or maybe having everyone lined up in rough order of how well they've been doing just makes things more, well, orderly. After the first chicane we dumped on to the pavement and I tried to make my way left. I'd scouted a wide line through the muck at the end of the road. The runup was a cluster as always, but I think I managed well enough.

[Insert long story about all the silly details of the middle of the race here]

OK, there were a few things of note that I remember. It took until 3/4 of the way through the first lap for Soups to pass me. Not sure what was up with that. I was up in a group with Helicopter Matt Domnarski (Horst-Benidorm), who has been beating me this year, and Evil McKneivel (JRA) was not far ahead either, and these facts led me to believe I might be having a good race. The ever-present Derek Griggs (KHS) was right there too, along with a Noreast rider who turned out to be Charles Bourdages. He was worse of a bull-in-a-china-shop than me on the tight sections, but could throw out mad power on the straights. At one point Brian came out of the pit right into our battle, but I don't remember if I ever passed him. He soon rode away. Matt was leading our group most of the time. Once early on he was spinning a tiny gear the size of a teacup like the Marinara Boy Basso, making me think his shifter was broken or something, so I tried to pass. He fought back to the death, which I found weird, as we were headed for the pavement into the wind. Fine with me. There was no pressure from behind, and I did not think we'd be catching the guys up ahead (translation: I was close enough to my limit to be content sitting on).

Oddly enough, on the tight sections, the hurdles, and the runup I was having no issues staying in contact. I was running the sandpits, as riding it was not a high percentage play. So, cutting to the last lap, into the big runup those guys seemed to slow prematurely. I don't know why. I slipped by at the last second, and bolted up the left side of the hill. On top I rode as hard as I dared. Not looking back, as far as I know Derek came with me but the others fell back. In the last few turns Griggs passed me, and I followed around the last baseball diamond roundabout. Coming back to the pavement, a last minute check revealed I was still in the little ring. Through the last chicane I did a lot of shifter paddling, getting up to the 46 and over to the middle of the cassette. I think Derek may have been in his small ring all the way to the pavement, because when we got there he hesitated a second before standing up. I had already started my jump and went by him on the right to finish 19th, just 2:50 down on the winner.

At first I was very excited by this result, having broke the "three minute barrier" as well as beating the race predictor by more than ten places. However, I later learned that 15 of of 82 registrants had no-showed! So there were only 67 starters. Three good guys had crashed in front of us on the first lap too. With one out of six not starting, that would put my place on the race predictor closer to 24th. Subtract the crash victims and that makes par around 21st. And, time gaps at Noho are always small for some reason. More on that later. So not really a breakthrough, but a solid race.

Solid enough for me to be satisfied the pressure was off, and sit around the camper pounding beers with Timmy, Garabed, and a string of socialites who came by all afternoon. We stayed till the end, watching all the races, both heckling and encouraging. Timmy made chicken thighs with mushroom sauce that he served over spaghetti squash. This was living. Then we stayed over in nearby Greenfield as guests of man-about-town Jay McDonald (NCC) and his girlfriend Rachel, taking in a few more beverages at the People's Pint. Seems everyone has a story about losing race focus Saturday evening, and we were no different. Nothing too major though. I had a sweet potato and mushroom burrito and two pints of Farmer Brown Ale.

[Insert Sunday race story here, nearly the same as Saturday]

Maybe not exactly the same. The course was similar, but different. What sets the Noho layouts apart are that the turns down on the grass are all fast. There is none of the stop and go tight shit, even up top. The low tier is the fun part though, with almost everything being either a constant or increasing radius turn, which means non-awkward and high exit speeds. I had more trouble up top than on Saturday though, which required me to chase back on more in the fast parts. Once again it was me and Derek. Matt was further ahead. Andy Durham (CCB) let a huge gap open on the first lap, and so I made a slightly sketchy pass, leading him to return the favor and then some with a full-contact move in the fast gravel turn. Then he slowed down. I don't get it, as if he'd just let me by we'd have closed the gap to the rapidly disappearing train up ahead. By the time I got around him for good Matt and company had ten seconds. Sunday's legs weren't what Saturday's were, and I never really got on comfortably. Eventually Derek came around me and filled in the gap, but then he dropped his chain at the top of the runup (yes we were running it at this point in the day, when it was still quite loose, though Matt rode it successfully almost every time). In the end I crossed behind Matt in 24th, just 2:14 down on the leaders this time.

On Saturday, everyone who finished ahead of me had a bib number lower than mine, meaning they started ahead or beside me. On Sunday more of the same, except for Jimmy English (Svelte) who was wearing #76 meaning he started DFL. That is some ride. As for the small time gaps, I think it's just a fast course with no real bottlenecks, and the leaders tend to play cat and mouse due to the drafting nature of the layouts. So again a solid ride, but more or less a par performance. We hit the beer tent after for FREE and EXCELLENT High and Mighty Stout, capping the weekend off nicely. No pictures, what can I say, we relaxed and had fun. Thanks for reading.