Minuteman Road Club

I'm now officially old. I did my first 50+ today. Started ok. Managed to avoid the pileup around the head-on crash but then a volunteer decided that it would be good to reposition a stake (in the hairpin after the sand pit) while the bulk of the field was coming through. He pulled out the stake and put it in my front wheel. I went over the bars. Bike went sideways. Rear wheel shifted in the dropouts. I hurriedly released the skewer, reset the wheel, tightened up and took off. About 10 riders passed me while I was wrestling with the bike and I ran on anger from there on trying to get those spots back. But the wheel apparently wasn't set right. I did about 5 laps with the brake rubbing on the tire. I ruined the sidewall of a Grifo. This also explains why it wouldn't shift properly most of the race.
Pretty disappointed with the final result but considering the circumstances, I raced better than I have in a while.
Still not back to full speed but getting closer.
#fasterinmy50s

Figured I'd share a quick recap of my cat5 35+ race, plus one funny incident.

Rode a bit more this summer compared to last so my form was better than normal. I ended up finishing 13/47 which is great for me and it's mostly because I won the hole shot and did well in the bends (tried to maintain in the power sections).

Coming around to finish the 3rd lap I remember thinking, I'm DONE. But then I prepared myself mentally that I might just hear that godforsaken "one-lap-to-go-bell". And so I did, loud and clear. Okay shit, I'm hurting which means everyone behind me is dying, keep pushing!

4th lap almost over, I hear our friend Chris Pare asking this guy (who shot the video) and whom I'd just caught in the sand trap if he was "pre-riding" at 32:57:
https://youtu.be/Bt1tb91u1RQ?t=1976

Mind you I'm dying at this point, but Pare unintentionally motivated me to drop this guy at 33:07. You just can't make this stuff up.

Cheers!

"Are you pre-riding" definitely ranks up there on the list of best heckle along with yelling "WORK TOGETHER" to a lone rider off the back.

#unintentionalheckle

I did turn to the guy next to me after and said "I guess that could be kind of an insult, huh?". It would have been WAY worse if I hopped on the course and rode around with the guy before saying "oh I thought you were just preriding".

How can there be a head-on crash in a CX race? Unless someone made a wrong turn or was riding the course backwards?

michaelcole wrote: ↑Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:58 pm Managed to avoid the pileup around the head-on crash but then ....

I had a front row seat and it was ugly. The course wrapped back on itself which is generally fine but a few things were at play:

1) There was only 1 layer of tape (i.e. no separation between lanes)
2) The section in question was at the end of the holeshot so at full sprint
3) The 40+ and 50+ started 1 minute apart and the section in question was 1 minute into the lap for the leaders of the 40+

Someone in the 50+ came into the holeshot with a head of steam around the outside and either accidentally or deliberately stretched the tape and was a full bike width past the tape. The front of the 40+ (I was maybe 10th-12th) was still hammering 1 minute into our race. I swerved sideways and baaaarely missed the guy but he went head on into the guy right behind me. I'd guess we were probably going 12-15mph at the time and the 50+ start was probably closer to 20mph so at minimum it was a 30mph relative velocity. It was a hell of a loud crack and subsequent gasp from the bystanders. It was also the reason I got gapped off from "my group" and never really caught back on. The rest of my race went well though and I was able to pedal hard and be basically mistake free till the end which is something that hasn't happened in a few years so all in all happy. Finished 12th.