I have absolutely done Lemans starts. Total chaos. Picture 40-50 guys running into trailhead carrying their bikes out of a sand pit. Lots of bars getting hooked together. The only saving feature was you typically weren't moving very fast and you were on foot.

Setting our alarms to register? Typically there was no pre-registartion other than by snail mail.

whirlyBird-cx, Bensalem PA, 12Oct2013
hbolick, race report:

masters45+, 45min likely(5)laps, start10am, position76th/90, 67dF damp, overcast.

course: 2.2mi, mostly flat, grassy course, w/patches of tarmac, cinnabun/spiral of death, an 18" barrier/off-camber hill U-turn& 18" running barrier lift, chicane/tree-turn& the key to final race placement(s) @the start: a 0.25mi flat, grassy, (5)turn pro-log!

so, arrived early w/sir patrick gerhan(sir, was1st@BearMt!), pre-rode the course (3)laps +one after the awesome!!! cat4/5 race w/KCC's sirPatrick, julesR, marcB, jeffW, nelsonM,&davidSanossian; adjusted air pressure to 30psi (me @145lbs), noted that is course slippery, as i fell @tree-turn by the pre-reg area,

a brief consult w/jimFeehan in the parking lot&a re-ThHAnk you 2him! for lending a wheel last weekend! jim warmed-up on his trainer.

lined-up -,deep in the pack! 76th position &noted johnMalcomson a couple rows ahead &curiously daveStokes a couple rows behind.

my plan - for this 3rd race w-end, 2keep team mates in sight &move up 4a mid-pack finish; the start was a full-bumbing sprint for most to the 1st right hand turn, my call-up placement had me wedged in on the left side of the course NOT a very advantageous position to move-up @the start, given the 1st sweeping lefthand U turn, on approach to turn 1 saw johnM had already moved-up several spots, there was plenty of bumping in the Big field, i held my position and recalculated to 'move-up as field stretched out in 1st&second laps,' made progress on the 1st lap by 3-4 places had advanced 10-12 positions, when i slipped &went down in the chicane just before tree-turn &lost back 2-3positions, that was some-what expected as riders slowed &there was still plenty of traffic, i made-up ALL three spots plus a couple by the back-side cinnabun-spiral(rig. bell ding, ding), then @5th turn after passing behind the pit area i slid-out AGAIN! arrrgggg! in a simple but 'fast' 90d grassy turn, i popped back up having lost another 4-5positions, through the running lift, the off-camber lift, hill traverse,&the past front side of the pits, i picked-up pace freshened with the ringing encouragements from KCC Teammates (@the obstacle area) in my ears, i moved-up a couple more places, marked a few riders, who i seemed to have passed several times before &who looked quite strong, caught sight of johnM late on lap2& tried to catch-up, managed to meet him by the spiral on lap3& caught a wheel for short ride on thebback-side straights, then, passed, him, &he passed me back, and so on for about a lap, i went down again @the chicane by the tree-turn, and so it went, w/GREAT! encouragement from KCC's ea.Lap @the challenging &sometimes hilarious obstacles area, finally, the bell lap&dear john malcolmson, passes me for good, as well as HellO! daveSterns, who comes by convincingly in the last third of the last lap along w/4others&painfully (2) of which pipping me right at the line! w/me in my 'full-out-sprint' ouch! 2what-ever ego i had managed to disapate: (8)spots lost on the last lap! i fell (6)times in all and just managing to avoid being lapped by the leaders.

so, this course was FUN! challenging but NOT pain-ful like Independence-cx, rather, a more 'skills'&energy management course. i finished 47th/90+starters, @46:06 (winner 39:11), so-it-goes.

note1 2nubie's: 'positioning' on the bike@speed in grassy turns; i suspect, i was too far forward in 3 of my6 falls &too hot into the turns(me being convinced that i can pass in turns...not yet!), must practice @race speeds!

course is highly recommended; event v. v. nice Super to have so many teammates around! good food Great coffee!
fun&funny spectating, especially, the mud-pit/hill traverse! (btw, i did ride it all (5)laps:-)

shout-out(s) to great riding by ALL &especially, dave Stokes 4th mstr55+; julesRoazen 5th, sir patrickGheran 8th racing in that netherworld between leaders&chase group in the 4/5's; ericRagot's persistent progress in-spite of multiple mechanicals in 35+; &michaelPerlberg's strong ridding for 13th in 2/3/4's.

-harryB;-)

@Stokes someone in your field was wearing a GoPro!

Bump

there was mud

Eric was 9th or 10th, Marc 25th ish in the 35+ eric took the hole shot and marc also had a start close to the top 10

Couldn't tell where Jim or stokes finished due to fields overlapping

I was 14th in the 2/3/4, Todd was low 20s, Nelson in top 40. Dan a little bit back from there.

I don't know much about the early races.

Update:

Jeff A, Wes, Harry, Ryan all had good fun in the 4/5s. Think Jeff A was top KCC finisher in 23rd. I'm missing some...don't be mad. I'm just not good for all the details right now.

45+ race Eloy had has best race all season. He finished in front of A LOT of people.

35+ Ragot did take 9th after leading early. I faded, fell down a bunch, and just got beat by dudes better/stronger than me. 22nd in the end. Which, I don't know is okay I guess. I'll have to see the numbers. Weird dynamic. Small field of about 40 starters. Back row-ish start. But as Mike pointed out, I had a good start and was in the mix early. So no excuses. I have to get better. Much better. Sigh. Work to do, work to do son.

55+ field Stokes didn't have mud tires and paid for it on a course that was MUDDY. Jim takes over the title of Mr. Consistent with 8th.

2/3/4 race was blown to bits and all over the place.

Bike wash station was a literal dribble as the one hose had 3 extensions plus was extremely leaky at two points along the way from the source hook-up. Kind of not great. But with some extra time, I still managed to get the goop off. Also, bathroom had hot water trough style sinks. Which made doing the "homeless shower" thing kind of not that inconvenient and still effective. Got most of the mud out of my kit before it had a chance to dry. SUHWEET.

Good food truckage. One for waffles and another for savory interesting sandwiches which were not ridiculously expensive. Put it this way, my cheapness usually helps me stay on the low calorie diet at these races, but I popped for a fancy $7 fried chicken sandwich that was tasty and worth the calories.

Terrible announcer. More like cheerleader, made no effort to narrate the race. He seems like a nice dude who I've seen at a few MAC races, but if he is scheduled for our race, I officially request to be the announcer for the weekend.

FWIW I know the players across multiple categories, I used to even be the stadium announcer for my high school football team. I know my voice is kind of annoying, but still, I know how to do the job.

I blame the announcer for my bad day at the races. I don't know whether he is nice or not, but he should never be given a microphone. I seem to remember another race last year at which the announcer was actually heckling riders over the loud speaker. I found it really inappropriate and really annoying. If I have a chance, I may lodge a complaint.

I don't know whether it was the non-mud tires or some inner ear problem, but I couldn't steer my bike around those muddy corners to save my life. I gave up after a couple of laps and just tried to enjoy myself.

Also Dan Strika out there in the 45+ field. Ripping it up as usual!

Jeeez. I don't think I've ever heard anything like this - he must have been truly wretched.

dstokes said:

I blame the announcer for my bad day at the races. I don't know whether he is nice or not, but he should never be given a microphone. I seem to remember another race last year at which the announcer was actually 

David...I started doing some "exercises" to help me with my inner ear/balance/vertigo issues. They were getting really bad and really frequent around Green Mountain SR time. Since then, much improved. I'll send you the links if you are interested.

The announcer shit the bed big time. Just yelling out names and stuff. No race commentary, nada.

I had a last row start today and finished 45 out of the 100+ starters in the 4/5s, which was about as good as I could have hoped for, I guess. Given my late reg my main goals were to have fun -- cuz I wasn't going to realistically win -- finish in the top half of the field, and stay upright in the mud. I accomplished all three. Tomorrow I have Cooper River and bigger ambitions. But seriously, the mud was awesome.

Boy-oh-boy, fun sloppy grassy mud. One of the best mud experiences in a long time.

Bump. Saturday. MAC series.

Marc Bertucco #23 in MAC 35+......Whirlybird Call Up!

^HOLESHOTUCCO!

Who is going tomorrow? Anybody want to take a case of Sixpoint with them for celebrating?

Jim and I will be there. He's driving, so he'll have to chime in. Free beer is not something to be taken lighty.

--- I forget but isn't Bryn Athyn College a dry campus?

I think it might be dry...but please bring beer because my wife was recently complaining how no one heckles and no one randomly hands her beers at cross races anymore. She won't be there tomorrow, but I suspect she'll enjoy my post-race tales more if she's sip'n on a six point.

Whirlybird report.

Jim Nelson and I lined up for the 45+

Less technical course of the season, except when you are taking those wide turns on grass, 26psi, at full on 24+mph actually anything becomes technical. 

There was one log, mostly rideable, but I bobbled on it and put my foot down, didn't loose more than a second, but feel like it cost me 3 or 4 spots -- UGH -- finished 32nd. Much better than crossresults predicted but about 5 spots lower than I feel should have.

Gotta love cyclocross, because it will push me hardcore for those spots.

Have to learn to trust and know I have it: I can hop that log clear, I can rail those corners 25+mph, I can kill it. 

Now let's go race bikes and let's do this. 

--------------

Jim N. looked solid, cheering me on on the sections we could see each other. Marc and Jim F. looked pro -- well, Marc would look pro in a skinsuit, those are 5 seconds right there, buddy -- they both had great races.

^Marc would look pro in a Jersey that wasn't 4 seasons out of date
#hugs

Marc would look pro on a bike that wasn't rocking 1990s technology. 

All the ways that Marc could look pro:

1) skinsuit
2) a skinsuit with current sponsors
3) a bike that was built after 2010
4) socks that he didn't have to cut the little pom-pom off the back.

(we kid out of love)

Jules said:

^Marc would look pro in a Jersey that wasn't 4 seasons out of date
#hugs

You should have seen the jersey I thought about wearing.

Today I had a couple of focus points. Namely, my start and my remounts. And when I saw the course, I was like, yeah, boy...I'm going to draft Roger Aspholm's ass around the course until I can't pedal anymore. It was that kind of course, it was that kind of day. Or should have been.

I see that Jeff White was like 15th or something in the 4s. Nice work! And If he posts something about loving this course and then still professes to hate Nittany then...well, someone's going to get a "WTF dope slap."

Thanks to the cheering and time checks from Jim and Eloy during my race. It was really motivating and appreciated. Eloy is right though; no matter how "easy" a course appears to be, "full on 24+ mph anything becomes technical."

I got a reasonable start. Was focus and going full redline. Wishing I payed a little more attention to the warm-up as I'm having a borderline asthma attack here. Oh well. One of these days I'll put all the pieces together. Slotted in the 6th or 8th wheel down the first descent. Ended getting chopped in the first 180 by the dude I beat by 3 minutes last week. Hit the climbs and I was okay, but not great. Still recovering from the opening sprint if I'm honest.

And then I see the Roger group of 6 or 8 starting to split off the front. I'm desperate. They are entering a LONG stretch of prime drafting territory, and I need to be there. NOW. And so I carved through a corner at "way too fast" (is that a speed?) and hold the distinction of being the only joker of the day to break tape/stakes on what might have been the easiest corner of the race.

Fuck me. Seriously, can someone just smack the idiot out of me?

And so I'm untangling myself from course tape and making sure that I got the stake unweaved from the pot-holder loom that my legs and bike had become.

And then it was all about the chase. I did what I could, passed a few guys, came within 15 seconds of 10th and 7 seconds of 11th but ultimately had to settle for 12th. Which normally would be a good result, but when there are like 15 guys in your field, not exactly all that impressive. Plus, if I don't screw up that turn, I make it to the Roger group and give myself about 2 laps riding with them/him before there overall superiority of horsepower and handling skills dispatch of me. But then, I'm racing for like 8th place.

But that's not what happened. And I have no one to blame but myself. But that's cross. Like I said earlier, maybe one of these days I'll put it all together and nail a really good result. Or not. At least I'll keep trying. Starting tomorrow. Marty Cross.

Also, haven't seen the results posted, but a quick glance and memory from looking at the results sheet on site leads me to think every KCC who raced, scored individual MAC points. Which means, I'm more hopeful that we scored some team points too. Great job everyone!

Spoke a bit with Roger Aspholm today at Marty Cross. He reports that this year's Whirlybird course was very European. Just not muddy. He enjoyed it too.

Jim by Kevin Dillard: