Providence Cyclocross Festival

[rusto]

Day 1

Switched into the Masters 45+ earlier this week after seeing all the photos of the chubby Masters at the back of the pack last week at Gloucester. There were no chubby Masters that I could see today. I also woke up with terrible hay fever: lots of runny nose & sneezing. I was talked out of taking Benadryl (aka, "sleeping pills").

Start of the race, I jumped well and passed a bunch of guys on the way up the the curb at the top and passed a few more here and there on turns for the rest of lap 1. Lap 2, I felt good and was driving the bike well. I really felt like the course suited my abilities well, except for the start/finish which killed me every time. Had one hiccup on lap 2 at the top of the course where I went wide on a turn, snagged a coupla stakes worth of tape and dragged it a ways.

Laps 3, 4, 5 found me bleeding all the places I had gained - and more - back. Paul Curley passed me 1/2 way through lap 3 (55+ started behind us 30 seconds). Laps 4 and 5 had my right quad threatening to cramp anytime I hinted at getting out of the saddle. I was thirsty beyond belief. Of course, they permitted water handups in the pits for the very next race.

Despite the failure of my motor, I really felt like I was handling the bike very well.

Lap 4, I had two minor mechanicals. The first happened when I did a hard remount after the first set of wooden steps and somehow my chain jumped all the way down the cassette and jammed between the smallest cog and the seatstay. Off bike, yank chain (hehe), 3-5 ppl go by, remount and try to stay in contact.

Just a short time later on that lap, I knew I was well cooked and people were coming up on me fast. When one guy was on my tail, I told him to just call which side he wanted to pass on so he could get by without incident. This was on the short chicane that led down behind the "temple". He said "left" so I moved more to the right and the idiot DID NOT PASS! It was a perfect place to go by, don't know why he didn't.

I called back to him, "You lost your chance!" and moved back into the lane but when I looked down, my RD did not look at all right: I thought I had pulled a "Wawersik" and was out of the race.

As I got off my bike, a spectator pointed out it was only a stick. I yanked the stick out and got going again. Of course, by this time the idiot had long since passed me along with a few others. From then on, shifting was dodgy but then everything in my bike/body combination was.

Last lap, I knew that since I started in the 8th row or so, that the risk of being pulled was high, so I kept pushing. Next time by the pits, an official was just starting to raise his arm as I went by and when I looked back, he had pulled the riders behind me. So, at this point, I was "last".

Just after the final set of steps, I saw someone ahead of me that I seemed to be closing in on. I heckled, "You don't want to be last! Don't let me pass you! Here I come!!"

Just then Diane appeared and pulled him off the course: he was warming up and not in my race.

As I approached to final turn back onto the pavement, there WAS somebody still in the race ahead of me halfway up the start/finish hill. What the hell, I got in the drops, sprinted a bit and coasted by him to finished 2nd to last.

Later, when I checked crossresults, I was the FIRST person they did not give a time to. Ugh.

-----------------

UPDATE: I'm actually pretty damn sure I WASN'T lapped: I remember hearing the announcer call the finish as I was on my last lap.

[onegeardoug]

Day 1 & Day 2 were virtually identical for me. Day 1 had a fast dry course with enough turns to be interesting, but not enough for me to take advantage of roadies that can't drive. Typically, Providence has lots of technical features & turns, but not this year. Mostly fast straights with wide sweeping turns.

Diane announced at the start that it was hot enough to allow hand-ups in the pit. Thanks. Since I'm already on the start line...how am I supposed to do anything about it at this point??

I had a 2nd row call-up and a great start into 16th or 17th. I raced here for the first lap, then the intential "pack slide" began. I sat on wheel after wheel, trying to allow others to tow me around the course. I eventually settled in behind a guy in a Smart-Stop/Mock Orange Bike kit. I let him do almost all of the work for many, many laps. At one point, with 3 to go I think, another rider came around with good speed so I jumped onto his wheel. I couldn't hang for long though, so settled in behind M.O.B again. With 1 to go, I told him that others were catching up and I came through for a brief pull. He came around me a few seconds later and totally put me into the pain cave. I had been on the rivet for so long, and my throat was so dry. I didn't think that my level of suffering could increase. It did though. M.O.B got a gap of 1 or 2 bike-lengths, and I was digging as hard as I could just to stay in contact. The final lap was one of the most painful that I've endured. I was dangling 10 feet behind M.O.B. with Jeff Gelt from Central Wheel giving chase. I knew that if I could stay with M.O.B. for as long as possible, that I could likely hold my spot. The 3 of us were scored with the same time, but it was at least 2-3 seconds to MOB and I held off Jeff to finish in 21st. I was completely wrecked, though. My throat was so raw that it felt like some took a belt sander to it. On the way back to the car, my left hamstring cramped so bad that I had to stop for over 10 minutes to stretch it out.

Turns out M.O.B. is the owner of the shop from North Carolina. I warmed up with him on Day 2, turning laps around the park cuz it was too hot to ride the trainer.

Day 2's course was even less interesting and even more of a grass crit...which I didn't think was possible. It was even hotter, so I warmed up with a bottle of electrolytes, and put a bottle cage on my bike with a bottle for the race. I drank almost all of it during the race. My race was essentially identical to Day 1: 3rd row call-up, great start, pack-slide. Today I chased Kyle Smith from Embro, with M.O.B. dangling a few places behind us. A few racers came through us and the group swelled to 5 racers, but I didn't care. I was happy to have wheels to sit on. On the bell lap, these 4 racers dropped me to race for 18th. I was several meters behind in my own private hell trying to keep John Meerse away, which I did. Finished in 22nd, and knew that it was probably better than I deserved.

On my cool-down, I found the frozen lemonade guy over by the swan boat ride. Money! Lowered my core temp, and quenched my insatiable thirst.

The 3's looked like a complete suffer-fest. Several MRC racers looked like they got eaten by the bear... "Eat the bear" I yelled. I don't think it helped.

[atomkin]

Day 2: It was very hot out, 87 degrees in Oct., seriously? It was hot enough out that I put a bottle cage on the bike, after seeing that I wouldn't have to shoulder it. I was smart enough to wait in the shade before my race, while they were staging, knowing that I was going to be near the back anyway. I lined up a little ahead of Mike Cook, and David Patnaude, it was good seeing some other MRC guys with me in the 3's. The start quickly became a total nightmare, I had gotten a good jump and was steadily moving up through the pack as we moved up the pavement, when I got pinched by some riders stopping for seemingly no reason. I jumped the curb, and fought to make up some of the spots I lost, but then another rider went down ahead of me, taking out several riders with him. I had to hit the brakes hard and swerve quickly to keep from being tangled up myself. This was all before I even got onto the dirt. At this point I was probably close to 110 out of 138 riders. I just put my head down, and worked on picking guys off one at a time. The course wasn't my favorite, being super fast, but I was actually making up places through the barriers, and on the finishing straight each lap. I was having fun at the beer garden area, jumping off the lip of the uphill section, and getting "rad". I was feeling pretty good about how I was moving up, but then on the second to last lap, I got put into the snow fencing on the off camber section before the barriers, after calling, "left side" twice to the rider I was passing. I jammed my index, and middle finger into a wood post, and couldn't bend them for the last lap. It turns out that the guy who did it used to work with me at REI, and I don't think he did it maliciously, but I was pretty ticked at the time. I Managed to pass Todd P., and the young Keough on the pavement, but then completely blew a turn because I couldn't use my left hand to brake, and they got away from me. I managed a 89th place finish, but I can't help but wonder how it would have gone if I had a clean start. Thankfully nothing was broken with my hand and fingers, a big thanks to Dr. Jay for checking out my hand after the race.

[pace21]

Yup OGD, I was one of those bear-food-guys. Oooo boy, what a lesson that was out there today. My strategy going in was to make a move on the initial straight, because I knew my 77th start position was not where I wanted to finish. The initial straight afforded much opportunity to move up, and I did, although I think I took it too far. I went from 77th to I'm guessing 20th by the first real turn onto the dirt. This presented me with 2 problems. 1) I burned about 7 matches to make it happen, and 2) I was trying to follow wheels that were out of my league. With that though, the first 1.5 maybe 2 laps went quite well. I followed wheels where I could and only a handful of guys got around. I was probably top 30 at the end of 2 when all heck broke loose. The engine room was dark, the calves started cramping, and the next 30 minutes were a war inside my head not to pull over and stop pedaling. Literally. I will say though that I got a kick out of Doug's encouragement as each successive lap ticked by. He had a good knack for tailoring his encouragement to the "reality of the situation" Well done.

I really really wanted to see 1 to go when I saw the 2 to go sign, and that second to last lap had me so deep I almost wanted to get lapped. Bah. I bled probably 15 spots on that lap. The last lap had me convinced I could bury it for another 10 minutes, so I did and I only lost maybe 5 spots on that lap. I gapped a few guys in the roller coaster section and then buried it on the uphill section leading out of the roller coaster. Unfortunately I dug a little too deep on that uphill and that was that, a couple more guys got me before the barriers and I foolishly sprinted for the one remaining spot that was in reach. Then I had to immediately boogy over to the kid's race to watch my son so I didn't get any cool down and basically collapsed in the grass with my heart rate at 190 after my redline sprint. Good times. My wife thought I was dying (I'm only half joking...)

I ended up 56/129 which is far better than I thought during the race. After some reflection I think I'll try a new strategy at the next big-field Verge race. Give up on trying to get a Verge point -- if I think and hope I want to finish 35th to 40th, then dang it that's where I should slot in on the first lap. None of this burying-the-start-and-blowing-up-10-minutes-later business. I think if I had slotted in 56th on the start I could have probably finished in that spot, or maybe even higher, and it definitely would have been less traumatic. Oh well, live and learn.

Or..... I could have raced the 35+, where I definitely could have finished 56th (there were 55 finishers )

[rusto]

RE: "reality of the situation" encouragement - At one point, Stefan called out to me, late in my race, "Come on! You signed up for this!"

[onegeardoug]

The engine room was dark, the calves started cramping, and the next 30 minutes were a war inside my head not to pull over and stop pedaling.

I missed your first 2 laps, so I first saw you in about 30th and going backwards. The pained look on your face said it all! At least I got you to smile at one point!

[swawersik]

After seeing and reading the pain caused by the heat, I was happy to have raced earlier in the day. Doug, especially, was a hurting sack at the end of his day 1 race, where, by sheer force of will he stuck with the MOB guy like a bad habit. I was very impressed.

Day 1

After all my troubles with mis-staging, I was thrilled to be lined up where I should be. This may represent the first time a cross racer was ever happy to line up in the 5th row. Whistle blows, I didn't get a great start, but good enough, and at least the guys in front of me were not going slow. A few spaces opened up, and by the time we hit the finish line truss, I was threading my way forward. Had to brake hard at the turn onto the grass, but squeezed through a hole (and avoided the sound of crashing bikes behind me).

The experience of moving up at Gloucester helped me now, as I made up several places in each of the first turns by taking the outside line, avoiding the elbowing, cursing, and sound of crunching bikes on the inside of the turns. By the time we hit the swoopy section, I knew I was having a great day. By the end of the lap, I was in a group of 7, all with much lower numbers than mine, suggesting I'd moved up nicely. To my surprise, I was not losing this group in the corners, and, in fact, was having to be careful to avoid coming into the rear wheel in front of me on the turns. I'm not sure, but I think this must be what it feels like to drive your bike well.

The chink in my armor was on the paved uphill and the gravel straightaway by the pond - the power sections - where I kept getting gapped (realized afterwards I should've been in the big ring!). The first two laps, I was able to climb back on in the corners, but on lap 3, with Marc Tatar driving the group (that guy can put out some watts!), a gap opened up between the group and the Danbury Audi guy in front of me. I got around Audi guy, but never managed to close to the front 3. So now we were 3, and could see but not catch the Tatar group ahead. We did catch 2 others, and on the last lap we were 5. Then 4 when Bike Barn bit it going into the 180 turn by the pits, then 3 when another guy bobbled the steep rocky section at the far part of the course. Going through the steps, I passed Parke Rhoads when he got tangled with the other guy on the remount, and got ready to try to outsprint the guy in front of me on the pavement. Parke had managed to stay on my wheel, though, and beat me to the line by inches.

I finished 23rd/90, by far my best result ever (the only times I'd placed that well previously was by having a front row start due to "fastest finger" staging, then packsliding into the mid 20's). But I really didn't even care that much what the number was. I knew I'd raced really well without just getting lucky. I went home really happy.

Day 2

I was still buzzed from yesterday, but could also feel the effects of 5 races in 11 days. So my goal here was to race well enough to prove to myself that yesterday wasn't just a fluke.

Got a decent start, and began to thread my way through the pack, when the sound of a crash started on the right. You could tell who the roadies were, as as soon as the sound came, they reacted first to move left slightly to go around. There were plenty of people who couldn't avoid the wreckage, though, as I could see flying bikes and bodies in my peripheral vision as I went by. The crash served to line the pack out over the finish hill, and we were strung out going into the long false flat pavement that was the "hole shot" (such as it was). I'd made a decision to start in the small ring, then bang it to the big as we came through the hole shot, and this was a good thing. Unlike yesterday, I now had the power to hold wheels and even move up a couple of places. At the same time, things were strung out enough by the time we hit the dirt that I knew there would be no easy poaching of spots like on day 1. A side note: I made the mistake of dropping back down to the small ring before hitting the dirt, as I hadn't pre-ridden the first dirt turns in the big, and was worried about being overgeared coming out of them. This was not a problem, but what was a problem was not being in the big ring on the subsequent straight gravel section by the pond. The lesson: think about gearing during warm up, and take a longer view than a few turns. Once I stayed in the big ring, I might have been a bit slower getting back to speed on the turns, but I more than made it up on the power section.

Again, I made up a some spots on lap 1 with good handling (for the record, though, I did not say "great handling"), including getting around one of my nemeses who shall remain nameless, but has come to really piss me off with his combination of poor driving and overly aggressive style. By mid-lap 2, I was 20m behind the group in front of me (Marc Tatar, again), not losing ground, but not gaining either. I also had a big group (6-8) behind me. I kept opening the gap to them on the power sections, then losing ground a bit on the twistier sections (especially the two-step run-up by the reg tent, which I never really executed smoothly). By lap 4, I'd finally reeled in Tatar and one other guy, who'd fallen back from the other two in the group ahead. We got hung up behind a lapped rider, who despite our polite (for racing) requests to get out of the way, managed to slow us down considerably, take out Marc, then slow me down again so the other guy got away. So now I was alone again, with the big group nipping at my heels. I managed to hold them off with the exception of one guy, Chris Dornbach, who bridged to me the last time through the twisty section. I tried to gap him again in the last few sweeping turns, but couldn't lose him, and he came around me on the off camber section before the barriers. I tried to remember everything Adam taught us about barrier technique as I dismounted, then flew through the barriers, passing Chris and exiting with a bike length or two in hand. I mentally yelled "Adam F-ing Myerson!" as I took the turn onto the pavement and gassed it up the hill, sprinting like a madman for... 27th place. Not as good as yesterday, but enough to convince me I didn't just get lucky.

Had a great weekend. Thanks to everyone for yelling for/at me during the race. This really helps, and I try to return the favor as often as I can

RE: "reality of the situation" encouragement - At one point, Stefan called out to me, late in my race, "Come on! You signed up for this!"

even if the pragmatic German in me rears it's head occasionally

[Doran Abel]

Sat - Congrats to Paul and Stephan for nice rides in the Cat 4 35+ race - sorry I couldn't stay around to cheer for everyone else

for me - I've come to like this course, it's a challenge, my legs felt good, handled the bike reasonably well-didn't crash, that doesn't mean I wasn't my usual slow self though in the mid 60's (started 74th) - blame it on first Cx race of the season and my conservative starts/results

for my son - he did pretty well in the 10-14 juniors - 10th place, a ways back, but he just turned 11 about a month ago; fell once on the uphill after the punchbowls, but got in the full two laps (this year) to qualify and get some Verge points something I'll never do - made a nice move remounting his bike after the uphill manmade stairs/barriers (not the concrete ones)

hoping we can both make the Fairgrounds next Sun.

[tsavage]

Not really a race report but a status report from a proud dad!

After PVD, MRC now has three kids with Verge points!

William, in his first U15 race, scored 12th for 18 pts.
Royce Abel has 22 points.

Anna has accumulated 51 points in only 4 of the 7 races, sits 12th of 38 and is the FIRST girl.
So unofficially she is the U15 Girls Verge leader.

[pdebitetto]

Well, It’s a bit late but I thought I would post something short about my racing adventure this past weekend and thank everyone for the congrats at finishing 3rd. I still can't believe it. After 5 years in the sport I finally have worked my way towards the front of the Cat-4 races and this past Sunday finally for the first time ever, got to stand on the POH-DEEE-UMMMMM and wave to the crowd....ok, not so much a crowd, more like my friend Eli Levine (HUP United) that I asked to stand there and take a picture of me with my iPhone because no one else was around and I felt this event had to be documented... In any event, it was still a great feeling

To be honest, this weekend did not go according to plan in the least, which proves once again (despite claims by the crossresults predictor) you just can’t predict how cross racing will go. I learned a few valuable lessons this weekend that I’ll pass on in case it can help others. First, let’s rewind to the Sat race. This was supposed to be my better race of the weekend since I was rested and felt great after a can-opener workout on Friday. However I made a few key mistakes that morning such as not leaving enough time for a proper warm-up, and not hydrating well enough before the race, and on a day like Sat where temps were near 80F that was huge. However the biggest mistake, in retrospect, was ATTITUDE or in my case, the lack thereof… For some reason, I was extremely nervous about the race on Sat, and as it turns out, all that nervous energy was counterproductive. I was too concerned about how the race would unfold, about not crashing, and how I might place instead of focusing on the race itself . In the end I finished 14th on Sat which was perfectly nominal for me. However, I was sorely disappointed in myself. The reason, which took me a while to admit to myself, was that deep down I knew I had not given it my all; instead I rode too conservatively and too scared to really lay it all out there. I decided that was a feeling I did not want to re-experience. I wasn’t even sure I was going to go back on Sunday but later decided I would go provided I make one major change; above all and no matter what happens during the race, I was determined to lay it all out there so that later I could enjoy that beer knowing that I had nothing more to give. Part of the new focus also included the following realization: “THE HELL with RESULTS, just focus on one thing only, "GOING AS FAST AS I CAN AROUND THAT DAMN COURSE" which included never looking back during the race or even when sitting on the starting line (ok, I did look back once near the end of the race to see if I really had a chance of holding on to third in the final sprint...). With this different attitude I found that much of the pre-race stress from Sat melted away because really, bike racing should be relatively simple; just ride your bike as hard as you can for 40-50 minutes and oh, by the way, have a ton of fun while doing it…

[jraguin]

Great job all! A few things I noticed:
Big props to Russ to stepping up to the "big boy" race and fighting it out.
Doug, you are a stud. Just a stud.
Stefan, great racing. I have been feeling like you are better than the results you have been getting and this past weekend was proof of that.
Kids: Nice job to everyone's kids as well!
Paul, good job, a 14th and a 3rd means time to upgrade Paul!!!!

I wish I could have done the race as it sounded fun.