Sun, Dust and Cross

I neglected the much needed lawn mowing on Saturday to work on my bike after crashing it earlier in the day. I put on the original handlebars, trued the front wheel and then noticed my hanger was slightly bent and now shifting into the spokes. I fixed it the best I could with my limited skills and called it a night.

Sunday morning, my wife Gretchen and I packed up the Subaru and headed down with our dog Beulah to Bedford for another inaugural cross race this time hosted by Quad cycles at Middlesex Community college.

Course Features:

• Single barrier followed by
• a steep run up, more like hiking than running
• tricky bumpy descent that took its share of victims
• fast set of barriers where the ground was just rough enough to cause concern
  
• lots of pure power areas followed by 180s
  

I did not get to the start line early enough to get a front row spot, but when you can put out more watts than Granite City Electric it does not matter. I had faith in my Tommeke like power to get me through this cat 4 pack fodder [/sarcasm off]

The one thing I did do well was react and take the correct line on the 2nd turn after the pavement, this put me in about 4th or so. I spent much of the first few laps trying to keep up with fellow Hupper Josh, ECVer Cory, and Casey from Harborside in my sights. Random Observation: Trailing Casey B. I noticed he dismounts on the drivetrain (right) side.

Above: Hup United all up in this frame

So we raced around 5 times and it was hard. I got passed by a NEBC rider who ended up winning and another ECV rider who took 5th. I ended up 6th out of 40 plus racers so that was a decent result for me.

One to Grow On: take the extra 2 seconds to make sure you are clipped in before hitting a bumpy descent. I lost a chain one time because my bike was bouncing around like a bucking bronco beneath me. Not being clipped in and getting tossed around on the saddle is a recipe for dropped chain stew. Ron Steers caught this particular descent and yelled out "RODEO" I laughed while managing to wrangle my bike under control, Whoa Nelly! One bad thing about racing in the Cat 4s is that you don't get to see how the more advanced riders actually handle the course at race speed until after you've raced (But I just take those lemons and make lemonade next weekend). They don't rush the sections where major time can be lost. Hopefully next time I can stop panicking on these technical parts of the course, and relax a bit, which will probably save many seconds.

Above: The season's first big run-up

Shoulda Coulda Woulda moments: the previous day's bent hanger fracked my shifting up, lots of ghost shifting and some serious clunking action when it was my chance to capitalized on the 5th place riders slide out on one of the 180s. I was not at all confident with the drivetrain. I need to sign my wife up for a Park Tool class so she can be my mechanic. I've read "the role of a mechanic" to her from the Simon Burney cross book a few times but she has yet to pick up on my suggestive hints. Get a clue Gretchen, Gosh! Disclaimer: She really is super awesome and such a supportive wife with all my cyclocross and Brazillian jiu-jitsu craziness.

POST Race Nutrition: I loaded up a plate from Saturday night's leftovers of Turkey breast, cream cheese mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Paired it up with a delicious Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale to really ring in the New England Autumn. The Pumpkin beer score so far this year is Smuttynose over Dogfish Head's Punkin ale. But if you are near Cambridge then you just need to get yourself to Cambridge Brewing for the always super Great Pumpkin Ale.