Eco Cross Race Report



Dammit!  I posted this video to vimeo on Monday and then totally forgot to give it any kind of race report justice or bloggage.  GO GO GO!

So for the first time in my life I had Veteran's Day off (thanks Steve) and there was a HOLIDAY BIKE RACE to attend.  Awesome!  The fact that it was 90 minutes away and the 1/2/3 race started at 10am was but a minor hurdle... until I set my alarm for 5:45.  What am I, a Cat 4?

I met up with Jeff Elie in Medford and we rocked down to the cape to resume our mediocre elite rider vs elite mediocre rider battle from Canton.  The course was jungle cross at it's "best," super short laps, tons of effective singletrack, weirdly tight 180s -- basically Ice Weasels 1.0 -- but it doesn't matter because TWENTY FIVE dudes are here at 10am to race bikes on a FRIDAY!

The race itself was pretty straightforward, as jungle-cross basically turns into a time trial for an hour.  Mark the Shark was going super slow on lap one so I freaked out and passed him.  He did not freak out at any point in time, but he did MERCILESSLY CRUSH MY SOUL on lap three once he was properly warmed up.

Old pro power is even scarier than old man power.

I got an early jump on Das Wilcox and held him at 10 seconds behind me for the first 20 minutes or so.  Unfortuantely, I'm a fader and he's a surger, so this was bound to fall apart at some time.  I had the standard bad-lap-because-the-lap-cards-say-8 and he blew by me in standard Wilcoxish fashion.

I was able to rally somewhat, mainly due to the prospect of not one, but TWO fading Keough's coming backward.  But then Nick crashed out before I could get to him, and Jesse crashed out spectacularly (see 7:00 into the video), and next thing I know I've got no one ahead of me but ye olde Wilcox.

Dammit.

I kept heckling Dave to wait for me (thanks, out-and-back sections) but a 15-second gap is so much harder to close than it looks... and Dave wasn't waiting.  I think?  In any case, I was over a minute up on Jeff (AHEM!) so I had the option to mail it in... but instead I buried myself in the vain hope of Wilcox'ing the Wilcox.  Which of course didn't work, but at least it kept him honest.

I rolled across the line in 7th, eight seconds down on Dave.  And it turns out that they paid the top six!  Which saved me the trouble of "finding the prize money" so I could rush home.  Perfect....

Comments

Duphily said…
So you ready for ski season or what? We need to find a Sunday race this winter so we can go mano-o-mano for old times sake. Also, I need to figure out this Birkie situation.
11/19/2011 8:16 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sam Anderson Cheats at Mountain Bike Racing

Image
Note that this is NOT the 24 Hours of Great Glen   Race Report. 24HOGG delivered another AMAZING race weekend that reminded me how much I love this event and why it keeps going strong in its 19th year, long after the 24-hour craze of the 90s has faded.  I will be back in 2015, and you should be too! ---- update:  I made a second post  that answers some questions and has some more info. The only individual prizes you can get at a team 24 hour race are the "Fastest Lap" and "Fastest Night Lap" prizes. If you're a serious racer (which most people at this race AREN'T), you pay attention to this stuff. Back when I used to do the race on the Back Bay Team, we'd fight over who got to ride 2nd because it was the "hot lap spot" -- the first rider on the course who didn't have to do the Le Mans start. This was better than going 3rd or 4th on your team because lapped traffic quickly started appearing -- your best bet at taking "fastest
Read more

Do-It-Yourself March Cycling Blog Post

So, are you a cyclist? Do you have a blog? If you answered "yes" to both of these questions, I hope you've already written your March Training Blog Post . You know what I'm talking about. To make it easier for those of you who haven't yet written the required cycling-blogger March Training Post , here is a handy template. Just cut and paste the text and then choose whichever option from the brackets [option1|option2], or add in the details [something vague] for whatever fits your training more accurately, and BAM, blog post DONE! Early Spring Training Post Template Just a [quick|surprisingly detailed] update about how training is going this year, in case any of the [joke about small number of readers] care. This week I've done [15 hours|30 hours] in the saddle, [getting up at 4 am|returning after 8pm] each time. It's been pretty chilly out there-- 5 below [celsius|fahrenheit] when I [started|finished] yesterday, but I'm toughing it out because
Read more

US Cyclocross Nationals Travesty Report: Junior Girls

Image
Note:  if you're a USA Cycling representative or Austin 2015 representative, and want to add a comment, rebuttal, fact, or perspective to this discussion, feel free to email me at colin.reuter@gmail.com and I'll post it here verbatim.  I fully accept that I wasn't there and don't know every issue that may have contributed to the decisions that were made.  There may be an explanation for these events that I am not aware of, and if so, I would love to hear it. Important Facts Update and Hyperbole Correction - The Junior Girls 15-16 race was supposed to be 30 minutes long, so the 7 girls who made it 2 laps were not "pulled" from the race, they were removed from the course after the finished their race.  Without firsthand testimony it's impossible to know how clear they were on their race duration being 2 laps shorter than the boys race happening simultaneously -- based on Turner Ramsey's quote to Cyclocross Magazine, it was certainly not a straightforwa
Read more