Gloucester Day 1

[mat s.]

Hi guys, this is my first report so please bear with me. Despite the forecast for gloomy weather, I was feeling pretty optimistic about the racing. Coming off a great result at Midnight Ride, my confidence was pretty high. (Predictor started me around 35th and I managed to finish in 18th place) Not too bad considering it was the 4th race of my first cx season. Anyway, back to Gloucester. The Midnight result bumped me up from a 90-something start position to 65 or so. No complaints there! Any chance to pass through the road block that is the first corner of a cross race a few seconds earlier is much appreciated. My only gripe is the call-ups that were done one-by-one. Standing still in the rain and wind is not high on the list for a guy from Hawaii. The start was much smoother then I anticipated. It seems the hill did a good job of thinning the crowd a bit, but I found myself wishing it was a bit steeper. I'm 5'5" and 120lb. I like hills.

I managed two laps during preride before I got too cold. I settled into a groove pretty quickly once we moved past the twisty off-camber turns and focused on reeling in rider one at a time. Things were unfolding well and I managed to remain upright on the twisty stuff before blasting away on the flats. I think we had done two laps, and I like to think I was somewhere in the low 40's position wise. Coming through the finish area I saw the 2 lap to go sign. Aside from the fact that my nose decided to block itself up entirely, my legs and body felt great. The mud and rain was a lot more fun that I expected and the only thing bothering me was the constant stream of snot hanging out on my upper lip. The long sleeves on my lovely new MRC skinsuit are fantastic nose wipers.

Nearing the start line, I jumped out of the saddle. My plan was to smash the pedals as hard as possible, pulling back as many people as possible and then trying to fend them off on the last lap. Or maybe I just wanted to make myself look faster than I actually am. Apparently I was going too fast for my own good. I took that first corner on the pavement pretty tight, and heard an interesting sound from my rear wheel, followed by a bit of rear wheel washing out. It took me a few seconds of soft pedaling to realize that I had just rolled a tire. Ah, so thats what a burping tire sound like, I thought. I rolled downhill towards the first barrier step obstacle and shouldered my steed. Then I proceeded to embark on the walk of shame while watching everyone I had passed go moseying by. Got to the pit and snagged a wheel from the cool guys at the Shimano truck. By then there was no way of a remotely acceptable result but I decided to see if I could finish up. I'd like to maintain a big fat zero on my DNF record for as long as possible. Caught a handful of guys, and even had a nice little sprint for the finish with two others. Hooray for 73rd place sprints!

Things to take away? Don't take corners too hot. 30psi worked well for me in the days conditions and I'll definitely stick to it. Maybe it was a mildly stormy weekend, but I loved the conditions. Getting a taste of the New England cross weather was one of my best experiences on a bike to date. Am I weird because I hope for more of this craptasticly awesome weather? I've got Night Weasels and both days of Providence coming up next. The guys I met at Midnight Ride advised me to avoid Night Weasels at all costs. Against my better judgement and their collective advice, I'm gonna go anyway. I'm graduating this December, and who knows when I'll be running through a pile of mud and cold, festering cow pies next.

Hope everyone else had an awesome weekend at Gloucester.
-mathew

[swawersik]

the only thing bothering me was the constant stream of snot hanging out on my upper lip.

Welcome to my world, especially if you add "and chin" to that sentence.

Am I weird because I hope for more of this craptasticly awesome weather?

Nope, you're a cx racer.

My Day 1: Uncharacteristically, pretty much the only thing I remember from this race is running the whole off-camber pinwheel section. I made up a ton of spots here, though I did pay a bit of a price, 'cause I was pretty gassed afterwards. As a consequence, I put my bike down a little too hard after the second time through the beer tent and partially unshipped my chain. Thanks to a chain drop protector, getting it back on was a quick fix, but I lost the group I was in, which was frustrating, as it included Prekaski (I'll get you one of these days!). From there, I just leaned into the pain and tried to drive the bike well, and the result was what I feel like was my best race to date. Apparently, I need to shut off my brain and send all that excess energy to my legs. Yeah, 73rd place is nothing to write home about, but I was starting on the 12th row, and it beat the Predictor by 25 spots. So there.

My Day 2: A steady rain all morning made the course into a mud bog. Most races ended up doing only 3 laps. I'd not slept well because my daughter spent much of the night throwing up, and my one warm up lap was such a slog that I chose not to go out again before the 35+ race. I almost decided to not even race, but the rain let up right before our start, so I lined up. And had a spectacular first half lap. I made a point to take all the turns wide, ran boggy places where I could see there was traffic, and made great headway moving up. Then I crashed hard on a greasy off camber, knocking the wind out of my sails. I then proceeded to hit trees, rocks, other riders, stakes, tape, and anything else I could find for about 1.5 laps until I got my shit together and rode a respectable final lap, though I never felt like I got my rhythm back. That was not my finest 45 minutes on a bike.

'Cross, she is a fickle mistress.

[Bruce]

That tire should not roll especially with your weight. Is it a tubular? If not 30 Psi is pretty low depending on the tire-wheel combo. If it is tubular was it glued properly? But that is what a team is for. Check with the Guys.

[taudep]

...it included Prekaski (I'll get you one of these days!)

Haaa.....my form is only going to get better! It's one of the advantages I have on all you other older dudes who did a long road season!

Signed,
Fresh Legs with lots of bullets in theme

Edit: I should add, what a fun race course on Sunday. With all the mud I was laughing like a 12 year old. It seems now that for two years in a row, Gloucester has become more of a driver's course than the wide open grass crit it used to be. It's now moving into my favorite course after Noho.

[onegeardoug]

Day 1: This was my first M45+ race, so I wasn't sure how competitive I'd be with the "older fast guys". We joke about "single speed points doping" artificially lowering your crossresults score, so I wasn't sure if my starting position was legitimate relative to those guys or not. Regardless, I was seeded 14th, so I started on the second row. With the stairs and then the muddy cork-screw, I knew that I wanted a fast start to get ahead of the scrum. I managed an excellent start and was still passing people as we crested the pavement hill, and was 4th onto the dirt/mud...allowing me to get through the first obstacles cleanly. I slid back a few spots on the first lap, and settled into the first chase group. I stayed essentially in this spot the entire race; within sight of the leaders but relegated to back of the first chase group. I think 5th - 9th were basically riding together, and I had delusions of riding through this group and into “the money”. This delusion faded as my legs grew tired. I was definitely very comfortable in the turns and mud, closing gaps that formed on the straights. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the top end that some of these guys have. The bell came early (IMO) as we only did 4 laps. I came out of the sand the final time and had a guy on my wheel and several guys just in front of me. I thought I could outsprint at least 1 or 2 of them, but instead I got pipped from behind to finish 8th. 5th place was only 4 seconds ahead of me, though, so I was definitely in the mix for the money. Regardless of my lousy sprint, I’m VERY happy with this result.

Day 2: Very similar story, except more muddy and more wet. Again, I wanted a good start so I could blow through the first grassy section and get to the muddy run-up from the shore without a scrum in front of me. Again, I succeeded in sprinting into 4th or 5th over the crest of the pavement and carried that position all the way to the run-up. Sunday’s course was definitely more challenging, particularly because of the mud, which is only means good things for me. Two corkscrews with thick sloppy mud, which I ran everytime, passing people as I did. I made 2 mistakes: On the little muddy rise by the stone building, I lost traction and floundered my dismount…ending up with the bike between my legs and no choice but to “Fred Flinstone” up the rest of the hill. Real pro! A few dozen meters later, on the soupy muddy descent just before the lead-in to the beach run, I plummeted into a crater that contained a rock, which I hit very hard. My front tire went flat immediately. This was on lap 2, of what turned out to be a 3 lap race. I came out of the beach and decided to just keep going. Whoever said you can’t ride a flat clincher doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I had a belly full of anger at this point, mostly because of bad luck when I was riding so well. I got on the bike after the beach and drilled it, actually passing a guy along the long straight. The bike handled better than I thought through the field of turns, but I was dead tired by the time I got to the pit. I was in 8th or 9th when I flatted, and probably 21st when I came out of the pit with a DuraAce front wheel. I passed a few guys, got the bell, passed a few more guys on the final lap and finished 17th. (Someone can explain USAC official math to me at some point; 11 minute lap times x 3 laps = a 45 minute race!) The funny thing is, I told my wife on Saturday night that I should just stay home because there’s no way that I could do better than my Saturday result. Things could only be worse… I was happy with my effort, but would have enjoyed another top 10 finish.

As always, Gloucester doesn’t disappoint. Great course, great venue, and even great weather! So glad that I came into it with pretty good fitness. Thanks to all that cheered me on.

Note: As I was racing on Sunday, some woman who was marshalling said to the other marshall, “The new MRC kits look pretty cool.” This was about 10 seconds before my Fred and flat.

[jraguin]

Doug, you are an absolute beast on a CX bike.

[Jacob]

Riding a front flat in the mud is stoopid skillz.