Minuteman Road Club

I lined up in the front row, again, many of the usual suspects. However, Mike Rowell did the Elite race...and had to hurry to the line to make the SS start. A few other Elites doubled up, too. We saved their front row starting positions for them. On the whistle, Hole-shot Abel went flying out in front and led throught the first several turns. I was right on his wheel and was feeling good. I passed him before the stairs/run-up and continued to lead until the fireroad. Curtis and Matt Myette passed me before the big left-hander, and we all rode the horse jump. Cruising up to the sand, I was in 3rd place.

After his race, Chris Pare advised me to ride hard to the apex of the turn in the sand, and then to run. "It was way faster." A few years ago in the 3's, I was sitting 3rd wheel on Chandler Delinks as we entered the sand on the first lap. Before I could dismount, he decelerated so quickly that I ran right into the back of his bike and and jammed my brake caliper into my rim so hard that the pad went into the spokes. So....I knew that I wanted a clear shot going into the sand and I suspected that I'd have an advantage there.

So, approaching the sand on the first lap, Curtis is 20 feet out front and I'm on Matt's wheel. I got on the gas and passed Matt just as we exited the woods, and I exploded into the sand. Curtis rode the entire sandpit, winning the Boloco 6-burrito prime. However, running it was way faster, and I was 10 feet in front of him approaching the exit. 30 foot differential by running! We were side-by-side after my "casual" remount and I jumped on his wheel. I stuck to his wheel like glue for the entire second lap, letting little gaps go on the straights and closing them in the turns. When we got to the sand, I exploded through the sand again and had a 20 foot gap on the other side.

So, as I crossed the line after 2, I had a bit of a gap on Curtis and a significant gap to 3rd & 4th. There was 3 on the cards. (Short race!) I decided to press my advantage and kept the gas on. I maintained the gap all the way until the barriers; but then got caught on the fireroad. Curtis is awefully strong on the straightaways! By the time we go through the big left-hand turn, Curtis had dragged Matt and Mike Rowell past me. So I'm 4th wheel over the horse jump; we all J-hopped it. We crossed the line as a group, and stayed that way for the entire 3rd lap. I stayed in fourth, not working on anything except staying on the wheel in front of me. As we cross the line again, with 2 to go, I'm thinking "Holy $hyte! I'm racing for the win!"

MIke Rowell attacked just before the stairs, and had a few seconds gap. I knew this was likely "the move", but I'm kinda barely hanging on in 4th. Through the sand again, Boivin dropped his chain; Matt & I weren't waiting. Curtis miraculously only lost a few seconds, and was only 20 feet behind us as we crossed the line. Mike was within reach so I decided to race the for the win; I passed Matt and drilled it. He stayed on my wheel and then came around at the barriers, also racing for the win. He led me all the way around the back section to the sand.

So, I'm in 3rd with Curtis only a few seconds behind. Mike Rowell is only leading by about 20 feet and Matt is right in front of me. We're the top four within just a few seconds of each other. I decided to make my move into the sand and not leave it to the sprint. Matt moved right and slowed a bit, just as I accelerated to pass on the left and explode through the sand. I came out the other side with a gap on Matt, and this proved to be my "winning move". I continued to drill it to the line, but didn't have to sprint. 5 seconds separated the top 4; Mike, then me, and Curtis outsprinting Matt for the last spot on the podium and 6-pack of beer.

By far, one of the most exciting and most rewarding cross races I've been in. Mike Rowell is clearly on fire. But I'm very happy with my race and result.

!!!

Nice YOB! Win the next one.

Sweeter

Nice Doug!
My race wasn't as much fun. I made a lot of mistakes, that after the fact I remembered people warning me about.

I wasn't ready for how aggressive the start was compared to Quad Cross, and lost about 20 spots early.
I spent 2 laps fighting my way back up through the pack to get back to where I started. Then my front tire folded and I washed out on one of the off-camber rights.
It had a slow leak, and I had to nurse it around the course to the pit watching everyone that I'd spent two laps passing go by. (I was suspicious that it was low before that, and I would have saved a lot of time if I'd gone into the first pit entrance) I grabbed a neutral wheel and took off again, but was off by more than 1:30 on that lap.

I'll chock it up as a good learning experience?

-Chris

Doug: Congrats! I'm always impressed with your ability to race and to rapidly get yourself back in shape.

And in the spirit of Chris' post, I'm going to condense my race report into mistakes I made and what I learned from them.

Mistake 1: After finding a good forward moving wheel and moving up nicely on the pavement, I got bogged down in a sandy patch of the first dirt section, sending me back into the heart of the scrum. Why it happened: on 2 of my 3 preride laps, I got on the course just after that sandy patch, so I never really noticed it. What I learned: pay attention to the WHOLE course during preride.

Mistake 2: Had shifting problems throughout the race. Eventually had to resort to "shift down two, then back one" to keep the chain from skipping under load. This kept me from being able to jump out of corners and I lost some places during the first two laps because of it. Why it happened: The barrel adjuster on my rear derailleur appears to have been set just a little too far out, so it had some play. I suspect the cable housing got bumped a bit as I was putting on/taking off the bike from the trainer during warmup, and this messed up the cable tension. What I learned: Check everything on the bike, then double check it. Leave nothing to chance.

Mistake 3: A little rocky section right before the log berm kicked my ass all day. I couldn't find a good line through it and hit at least one large sized rock - killing my momentum - every time. I tried standing through this section to get better "float" but never figured it out. Why it happened/What I learned: I got nothing. Anyone else who knows what I'm talking about and figured out a decent solution, please let me know.

Mistake 4: The sand pit. I knew riding to the corner, dismounting, and running the rest of the way was fastest. But every time I dismounted in the sand, it felt like I lost all momentum and came to a halt. Why it happened/What I learned Again, any suggestions would be appreciated.

In all, I was happy with the race I rode. I finally feel like the big things are coming around, so I can start thinking about the small stuff.

BTW- Kudos to everyone for their solid races. Especially to Sweeney who had a killer start and rode strong in the group ahead of mine all day.

swawersik wrote:Mistake 3: A little rocky section right before the log berm kicked my ass all day. I couldn't find a good line through it and hit at least one large sized rock - killing my momentum - every time. I tried standing through this section to get better "float" but never figured it out. Why it happened/What I learned: I got nothing. Anyone else who knows what I'm talking about and figured out a decent solution, please let me know.

In my race, the section before the horse jump was "attack zone". On the SS, we had been intermittently pedaling then coasting all the way down the fireroad to the turn, then drilling it up the rocky section before setting up for the jump. At least 3 out of 5 laps, I was clinging to a wheel in front of me, more worried about loosing the gap then hitting a rock. I noticed the rocks, only because it was rougher and more painful, but not because it slowed me down. Perhaps we were more rested because of the forced coasting on the descent. Perhaps it's as Yogi Berra said, "half of this game is 90% mental".

In looking for alternate lines in my preride, I noticed the left side was pretty smooth even though it wasn't as well travelled and looked rougher. I used it on lap 1 to make a pass so I could have a clean approach to the horse jump, but after that I just used it on every lap. I guess the message is looks can be deceiving.

Some pictures from the 3/4 35+ race
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62121616@N ... 624027104/