Minuteman Road Club

Decided to try and emulate Sully and screw up a great position at Orchard Cross today.

Thanks to Cross results staging I got a front row start in the cat 3/4 35+. Start was downhill with a raging tail wind into a sweeping grassy right. Good start off the line slot into 2nd wheel going into the hole shot,BAM, I go down hard. I never saw it coming at all. It thought I was actually through the corner.( Looking at the line I took on subsequent laps there was a little off camber hole I just didn't see)"Rider down" the whole field swarms round me including Chris who amazingly manages to miss me when he was on my wheel. Pick my bike up and dance out he way of others and amazingly everything seems to be working. Jump an DFL and start working my way back. Pushing hard and a guy in front stacks it in front of me and I ride into him and go down again hard onto gravel this time. Keep pushing and catch up to Dave P and then Steen on lap 2. Thought I could squeeze inside Steen in one of the switchbacks and go down again this time wrapping the chain round the rear mech. Pick it out and amazingly the bike still works. Chase back some more and pass Steen heading up to the barriers. Manage to keep it upright from here. Pick off a couple more and get close to Chris and 2 others towards the end of the last lap but couldn't get close enough to make a pass attempt. Think I finished 10th.

Well organised race but the course, for me, was like taking a hayride. Very bumpy, lots of different surface conditions and difficult to get into a rythmn

To think that you crashed twice and I still couldn't suck your wheel...
Leads me to conclude that your F'n strong Smudger!
Nice riding today! We don't get to choose the course. We just have to beat it and anyone in our way.
I loved the grit and flow to the orchard and would come back next year.
Yeah Bikes!

Sometimes a fun course can make all the suffering worth it.

Unlike Smudger I absolutely loved the course. It was all at once flowy, hilly, varied, and a blast to ride fast. I put it right behind Providence day 2 on my list of favorites.

To the racing -- day of reg equals back row start. Luckily there were only 32 guys in our race so back row was still fourth row. I lined up all the way left, and Tim Savage was right in front of me. Tim asked if I wanted to go left or right, so I said "left, thanks" and he scooted a couple feet right, opening up a nice gap since there was no one in that slot in the second row either. 5-4-3-2-1, and we're off, I sprint up the left side and come around the outside of the sweeping downhill right hander, a spot or 2 behind Smudger, maybe 6th overall and BAM, a pile of twisted Scotsman suddenly in front of me. Massive application of brakes, my first thought is don't kill my teammate, I roll to the outside and around the fruckus, and now sit in 5th wheel. Pick off a couple guys on the first big 'ol downhill, and now in 3rd spot. I gradually work my way backwards as people that I know all too well start getting by me (the 'cross community is pretty small actually!). One guy that got by was the guy that won Gloucester day one, so I knew it would be a good wheel to follow -- Must. Follow. That. Wheel. but saying it and doing it are two different things. I hung with him for half a lap until we hit the runup (god I hate runups) where he gapped me and I never caught back on. The guy who got second at that same Gloucester race also got by me (go figure). Went back and forth with an IF guy for the last 1.5 laps, eventually getting around him with half a lap to go, then sprinted from half a lap out (not really but that's what it felt like) since IF guy, Smudger, and another guy were not too far back. In the end I think it was 6th or 7th place.

I also think I figured out the equation.... if Smudger crashes 3 or more times, I beat him. If Smudger crashes 2 or fewer times, he beats me. Kinda like a crash-point spread at 2.5

Regarding the run up: It was steep and you really had little to no speed going in. Once it sorta flattened out there were make shift stair like mini barriers so, you had to keep running (ugh...).
Well this guy figured out, or had freakish legs to ride it. I hope this link works, borrowed it from Colin...
If you were at the Orchard you know this was not an easy thing to do.

http://on.fb.me/aK0qvy

That is freaking amazing. The vid doesn't do it justice cause he's so smooth . The 1st section was steep and very loose for our race. Does look a little more packed down here but still hugely impressive.