MRCCX

[JeremyC]

Wow what a great day, as usual! Perfect weather, great course, exciting races and a little home brew. Good times all around.

First let me thank and congratulate everyone to the organizers and volunteers. Russ killed it as usual. Mark B. made registration boring and easy (this is a good thing). Pare made a sick course that was somehow better than ever with the same terrain to work with. (After racing PVD and the crazy tricked out course it was fun to race on a more natural layout). Busick did everything, and also lent me an emergency wheel (see below). Smudger spoke in Scottish tongues. And tons of other volunteers AND sponsors we're awesome, including Todd Savage and the Cannondale "yutes" who organized the kids race among everything else throughout the day (too bad one of those little bastards beat me in the race, see below).

On to the race, CAT 4/5 with 110+ guys. For the record I'm not a Sandbagger, there are WAY bigger sandbaggers in this category, but most of them didn't show up thankfully. As usual volunteers got a front row start, which included Me, Sweeney, Teves, one of the Frosts (Toby?), and some Cannondale kids. Teves was talking crap beforehand, so there was a little extra motivation. The whole shot was really fast, upwards of 30MPH. Quickly dropped to 8th but kept on the gas and moved into 3rd, then to 2nd as we passed through the finish line. From there I was bobbing between 2nd and 4th, with 2 of the kids from CDale and 1 GLV guy. One of the CD kids crashed and now I was in 3rd with 1 lap to go with the leaders riding away slowly but surely. With 1/2 a lap to go there were 2 chasers gaining on me and I was having some internal conversations about this being my last race, hold on for the podium, don't be a pu$$y, you'll hate yourself later, I think I left the microwave on, etc etc. On one side of the course PJ was screaming at me, on the other side Smudger, Pare and Ken Chadwick were all giving me really helpful updates ("You're gonna lose the podium if you don't go faster!"). After the last barrier the 2 guys were literally 20 feet back. From there on I was basically sprinting every chance I had trying desperately to hold them off. I TT'd down the final straightaway, railed the corners and sprinted over the line in total exhaustion. This was the hardest 27 minutes of my life (ok that doesn't sound that hard but trust me). 3rd place and happy to start the off season. (There will be a video I'll post later)

[Mkidd3]

Great day of racing! Everyone I talked to had a smile on their face and couldn't say enough great things about the event. Congrats and Kudos to everyone who worked their tails off to make this race happen!! The only thing I'm bummed about was not being able to at least ride the course once. I guess I'll have to settle with watching Cratty's video.... Well done and thanks everyone!

[JeremyC]

The kindler, gentler version of the video (thanks Russ):

https://youtu.be/TYPeu78k58E

[Smudger]

Nice job with the vid and the race Cratty. Love the Bauhaus sound track.

Very short race report from 40+ for me:

Front row.
Backwards from the start.
Ride over idiot who impales himself on a stake in the sand pit but get tangled up in his bike up loose more spots.
Manage to finish the 1st lap before getting caught by the 50+.
Only good thing was that I was missing from the results

[rusto]

Congrats on the podium, Jeremy. Pretty sure we had at least one more on the day but I won't spoil the chance for the individuals involved to post their own stories.

Here's the TY that went out last night to everyone who registered (and holy crap, I didn't mention Mark Bernard who was MAGNIFICENT orchestrating pre-reg and registration, creating cheat sheets for the minions under his watch and so much more. I'm sorry Mark, you were great!) :

The Minuteman Road Club would like to extend our congratulations to the winners at yesterday's Minuteman Road Club CX p/b Landry's Bicycles (we hope you enjoyed your apple pies from Bolton Orchards) and our appreciation to EVERYONE who came out to race.

What an amazing day we had, we're so glad you came to share it with us!

We are grateful for the hard work and dedication of our volunteers (both MRC members and the greater NECX community) who cheerfully set up the course on a beautiful fall morning (when they could have been elsewhere picking apples), marshaling the course before or after their race, surviving the onslaught of eager racers at the registration table or waaaay out of sight of the racecourse handling the parking scrum, and finally, staying for hours afterwards to removed almost all evidence that a bike race had just taken place.

And hopefully those of you who also raced before/after you volunteered benefitted from your FRONT ROW CALLUP!

PJ McQuade, you did a great job of recruiting, organizing and setting our volunteers to task, thank you!

I wish I could have given each and every one of your minions a huge hug for your help!

Once again the course design team of Chris x Chris (Chris^2?) drew up a properly challenging course with interesting new features (LAWGS!). Thanks!

Many thanks to John "Smudger" Smith who not only coordinated the podium ceremonies with his inimitable charm and grace but put up with me repeatedly asking where he was only to find him standing right behind me.

Thank you to Anna Savage who, after winning the Women's Junior 123 race, undertook the task of herding nearly 30 under 9 "Little Belgians" around their own race course and then sheparding them AND their parents through a long podium ceremony where each kid got to stand on the top step for photos!

My sincere appreciation goes out to all those people who asked "How high?" when I told them to "Jump!" I am grateful for all of you being extensions of my arms, legs and brain for the day!

Thanks to our race sponsors:

Landry's Bicycles for on site wrenching and generous gift card prizes to our racers
Sports & Physical Therapy Associates for funding our bib numbers
Harpoon Brewery for donating prizes to the Single Speed podium winners

Special thanks to the Happy Taco for quieting the many growling stomachs of both the racers and spectators.

Thank you to Bicycle Support by Mark for keeping the racers who needed wheel swaps and in-race mechanical support going.

Thanks to JD Bilodeau for again handling the scoring so calmly as both myself and the officials hovered over his every move.

Thank you to Rose Darden, of The Bolton Fairgrounds, for granting us access to their terrific venue!

Thanks to Christopher Whynot, Lancaster EMT, who was on duty to attend to the medical needs of our competitors!

And to Katie Busick for taking terrific photos:

https://katiebusick.smugmug.com/Minuteman-CX/
EXTRA SPECIAL thanks to my daughter, Grace, who was my expert bib number checker and race entry form collator as we assembled the books for registration. I am so grateful for your help!

We are looking forward to hearing about what your experience was like yesterday and using that feedback to take #minutemancx another notch higher next year!

Most kindly,

Russ Campbell, Minuteman Road Club

[rusto]

Just sent this email out the racers:

I can't believe I forgot to single out for thanks MRC's Mark Bernard, who ran our registration table. Please forgive me, Mark!

Mark did so much preparation before the race to ease the burden on our reg table minions and to give a good first impression to those who came to race - he generated cheat sheets with easy to read instructions, gathered little "reg hacks" from other organizers to help get one-day licensees and day-of registrants through the process more quickly, and so much more.

He remained calm in the face of a couple of situations where I know other people would have melted down and he was extremely patient with his somewhat manic race director.

Thank you Mark!

Russ Campbell, MRC CX Race Director

[KTeves]

Lined up with Cratty for the cat 4/5 in the front row and was hoping to hold onto a top 15 or maybe 10 finish even though this was only my 2nd CX race based upon what I thought was a promising start at Providence last w/e. There I started at the back of somewhere around 130 and managed to finished 59, but was going backwards from the start on this one. As Cratty mentioned the race for the whole shot was VERY fast and I found myself dropping to somewhere around 15-20th I'd guess by the time we crossed the finish line. I knew at that point I was in for some suffering. From that point on I was bleeding positions on the power sections—I was gassed. Average HR for the race was 170 BPM (zone 5a). On lap 2 while rounding the corner around the telephone pole in wood chips section my front wheel washed out, my brake lever caught the pole and I nearly did a face plant into it. I held on best I could for 40th. I wholly concur with Cratty—it was freaking hard!


THANK YOU to everyone that put in their time and effort make this event possible.—You all did an incredible job!

[pcollins]

This was the hardest 27 minutes of my life (ok that doesn't sound that hard but trust me).

The Cat 4 (beginner) women raced almost twice as long as you did.

But seriously, congrats on the podium Cratty!

[pcollins]

P/1/2/3
I started front and center between PJ and Pare and had a great start and was 2nd wheel at the holeshot. For the first few laps I was with Adam Myerson, which felt totally surreal and intimidating. I guess I picked my lines well enough, because he was content to sit on my wheel until the most technical section (logs/barrier) where he would lead. Keough caught us, attacked shortly after and Myerson made me close the gap. He noticed I couldn’t hold Keough’s speed through the corners so he passed me and took off with Keough. I was solo chasing for a while until I crashed and Rowell and Butler caught me shortly after. Rowell and I traded turns while Butler was barely hanging on. The last lap was the most exciting and painful finish I’ve ever been part of. I was leading our group of 3 until the downhill before the logs, where Rowell passed me, he rode the logs, I ran (I finally realized that I sucked at riding them). Rowell went head over heels attempting to hop the barrier, I ran past him, botched the remount, and somehow came out onto the pavement with a small gap. I looked back and thought about sitting up for a sprint, but I decided to just drill it to the finish and not look back anymore. I just managed to hold them off and finished 4th. I don’t think I’ve ever pushed myself that hard in a CX race before, but it was worth all the pain because I pulled off one of my best results at my team’s event with my family in attendance. I got to chat with Myerson after the race which was awesome. I even got in an upper body workout tearing down the course afterwards.
Thanks to everyone who made this race possible.

[KTeves]

Pat, the race for 4th between you and the other two was pretty awesome. That was a gutsy performance. It looked like it hurt when you crossed the finish line. Congrats!

[pace21]

Good call on not sitting up for a sprint. When in doubt lead it out. And the finish didnt facilitate coming around someone.

You had me at "Myerson was on my wheel" lol

Well done Patrick.

[Tfrost]

Congrats to everyone that raced. Thanks to everyone who volunteered. It felt very organized and the course was fantastic. My only gripe was I think the 4/5 race was too short.

4/5 - shortened up
I lined up on the front and felt pretty good. Certainly a fast start but seemed more manageable than starting in the back. Top ten through the finish line and picked off a few on the first hill and was in 5th going into the early downhill. Was a spot or two behind Jeremy who looked really focused. I’m thinking this is going to be a good race, but I left my file tread on the back and the wheel went out on me three times in the first lap. Mentally my race was over, fell back a few more spots, didn't realize it was only three laps total, ended up in 32nd. Scott Sweeney passed me and looked really strong on the last lap. Overall not too bad and better than I probably would have finished if I started with my cross points.

[Smudger]

Good call on not sitting up for a sprint. When in doubt lead it out. And the finish didnt facilitate coming around someone.

You had me at "Myerson was on my wheel" lol

Couple of nuggets to add to these points from a spectators view point:

1. Patrick has Danny Hart sized balls when it comes to racing CX. 1st lap and he's not happy to be hanging with the elite of the P1,2,3 field he attacks Cal Giant, Myerson and Keough. Thought that would be the end of him but not PC

2. Not only was Myerson on his wheel. When Patrick pulled him through the finish line on the 2nd lap he elbow flicked him and would you believe Myerson of all people responded and pulled through!!!! Best visual of the day by far. Wish I had it on video.

3. When Patrick thought about sitting up for the sprint Rowell was full on attacking Butler but they got tangled up and Rowell was lucky not to go down. I was screaming at Patrick to keep sprinting. Fortunately it was only a nano-second lapse in an otherwise outstanding race.

[cbusick]

Katie and Maddie's pictures of MRC racers on dropbox free for the taking.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6ubgkc129j6o ... 1sV3a?dl=0