NECX Champs Race Report


NECX Champs Bar Cam from colin reuter on Vimeo.

I had to support the NECX Champs on principle, because I am always in favor of things that involve more cyclocross in the world. And not just because I make ONES of dollars on a cyclocross results website!

Ice Weasels holeshotter/beer-drinker Jeremy Durrin was asking me about the bar cam midweek so I ended up putting it on his bike. I appreciated the result, mainly because he talked about stuff being on camera the entire time, rode waaay to hard to try to make the front group, then exploded so bad that I caught him and ended up finally seeing myself on camera.

But I get ahead of myself. For some weird reason I ended up staged on the front row (Verge points? I guess? I was seeded higher than THE WILICHOSKI so there must be some mistake) and nailed the clip-in. Four pedal strokes in I realize that there is only one person next to me, Adam Myerson. Which means I am definitely going to have to get the holeshot, if only only to say I got it in Adam's final pro race of his career.

(Of course he would've totally let me have it, since he rides "smart," but that's beside the point, shut up!)

So I smashed it, like, way too hard, gapped everyone, blew myself up, realized that I was riding with only about 18psi in the front tire, couldn't corner to save my life, and eventually finished 17th/19 at the end of the race.

I did hold a spot in the top 5 for the first five minutes of the race so I claim I did NOT Shopengarten it. I was on my way to executing a somewhat-plausible "recovery slide" out of the top five when Jonny Bold of all people crashed on the barriers and I stepped all over his bike. Untangling the mess rocketed me back to 15th and the buffer was gone! I chased the group I should've been in for a lap, gave up, and dedicated the rest of the race to riding the flyover.

At the end, I caught a totally blown Durrin and we rode around for a while. He agreed to a final-straightaway drag race, but then started cramping so bad on the last lap that I had to ride away just to keep a hard-charging Matt Domnarski from catching us. And those were the only two people I beat!

If this pic was taken a few seconds later you would be able to enjoy the "shit-eating grin because I have a totally pointless holeshot" face. [photo credit: Michael Foley]

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