Tuesday Night Fights

It's a good thing the Tuesday night series is almost over because I'm running out of Tuesday Night _____ post names. This one is pretty accurate though -- this was the most contentious Tuesday nighter I've been to yet.

The conditions were bizarre -- it was 34 and raining, with a half inch of new snow on top. I had my old Madshus Hypersonic wet base super-rilled skis with HF10, which I was expecting to be smokin' fast, and they turned out to be barely ok. There were spots where they would catch from the suction and I would stumble -- and these are rilled skate skis with flouros on them!

Now that the high school season is over we had some new faces, although Luke was not among them. At the pre-race meeting Andy, the guy in charge, warned the high schoolers that this was an "adult race" so they should "not break anyone's poles." Unfortunately these words caught the ear of the irony gods, who repaid Andy mightily for this statement during the race.

Lap 1: John (not a high school skier) steps on Andy's pole, taking it right off. Much cursing ensues. Andy eventually gets a new pole from someone.
Lap 3: Andy gets taken down by John (still not a high schooler) on one of the hairpins.
Lap 4: Andy gets taken down by Frank (also not a high school skier) on Mt. Weston.

Maybe this is only funny to me.

So, the race went off in the usual silly fashion. After a brisk first lap we settled in and no one wanted to do any work. We pussy-footed around for a few laps, with a lead group of 7-10 people (and Bret Bedard well ahead, of course). Coming through for lap 3 I pulled into the lead, I was sick of overrunning people on the downhills, worrying about poles in my face, and getting stepped on. So I led for a bit. Of course when I decided I didn't want to lead anymore, the folks behind me were being absurdly tactical and refused to come by, no matter how much I stood up and moved over on downhills.

This kind of racing is pretty annoying to me, which is why I don't think I'll ever enjoy racing road bikes.

Finally, starting the bell lap, someone comes through and the race starts in earnest. Andy takes the lead with two high school kids behind him, but going into Mt. Weston they up the pace further and go to the front. Frank and Andy take each other down, as previously mentioned, and I am behind them because I am incredibly stupid. The high school kids get a gap, and gun it.

I make a move on the last climb to make up two places, then get one of the high school kids (who is blowing up big time) on the final straight and even get all the way up to challenge Frank for third -- I get a few inches ahead and then ski throw for the big cone that I think is the finish line. It turns out the clock five yards after that was the official finish line.

I tried to lodge a protest with FIS but it turns out they don't deal with this kind of thing. Strange, huh?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Man. These races are sounding more and more insane. I'll be amazed if you don't report someone's serious injury before the end of the series.

The FIS couldn't hear your protest because they were too busy making v-boards with hacksaws and plywood. It's a project code-named "Saarinen Left."
Luke S said…
Sorry I didn't show, I raced twice over the weekend, and was pretty exhausted. I'm sort of surprised Chris and Isaac raced, to be honest. Chris is a great skier, only a few places off of JO's as a first year J1. Good job beating Isaac though, he's not far behind.

I'll be in the mix next week, never you worry.

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