I'm registered for both days of the Westwood Velo races. As with Granogue, I have my son registered as well. He may end up racing both, one, or neither of the days depending on his soccer schedule. Any days he does not go I should have space for two additional riders and bikes. I should know better a week or two prior to the races and will re-post then.

Just started a separate thread for SICX which conflicts with the 1st day of Westwood. Last year the Westwood course beat the shit out of me. Sorta glad that I the scheduling conflict forces me to only torture myself on Sunday...

I raced the Cat IV 40+ field at Harriman today. I won't bore with the details, other than to say that I utterly wasted a front row call up (which got me to the dirt section near the front) by cracking almost immediately, and leaving me to eventually finishing 12th.....out of 13! The Roger Aspholm designed course was challenging, made more so by the thick mud that covered perhaps 50% of the course. I cant figure out where it came from, but this was crazy sticky peanut butter mud.. strengthened by long strands of grass and weeds (sort of like carbon fiber=thread + resin)... on a day that I expected to be pretty dry. This mud was only bested in my experience by the mud at the Mercer Cup '07, or was it '08? Needless to say, I had the wrong tires, wrong attitude, and wrong set of lungs today. Anyway, if you're headed up there tomorrow (Patrick and anyone else)-- as i think I am -- I understand the course will change a little. I'm not sure what to make of the mud or whether it will make a encore performance tomorrow. Definitely have some mud ready tires on hand in case it does. A spare bike wouldn't be bad either, if that's the way you roll.

P.S. Congratulations to all of the Kissena Cross Crusade the fine results at Staten Island today.

@Neilx

Epic mud. Ugh.

Hope day two went better for you. Decided to get some miles under my belt today. Next weekend I will do the double at Supercross.

Will you be there?

I was there but didn't end up racing today. The mud looked slightly better but still pretty heavy duty.

I saw the first two laps of Todd M. in the B race. Todd looked great.

Also saw M. Bertucco, Sarah, and Penny... but was forced to leave not prior to the start of his race.

Would love to hear how it went for those guys.

Not sure I can make MAC Saturday. If I can, I will try to work the race and perhaps race as well. Sunday, unfortunately I have to be out in NJ for in law stuff but am planning on racing at Sussex because I won't be able to make it to L.I.

Good luck...

If yesterday's $6 waffle-n-dinge was the best $6 I spent all year, then the $5.25 in quarters I spent at the do-it-yourself car wash on a power washing wand (that was fierce enough to have cleaned the yeti-like hair that has grown thick since the end of "shaving season" off my skinny legs) is a close second. In yesterday's report, Neil did a pretty good job of describing the mud at Harriman...however, I would like to add that what I removed with a stick after the Category 4 race was subsequently used to build a small Adobe village where I took a little nap after what was among the hardest 33 minute race of my career.

Rather than my usual blow-by-blow exposition, I think I'll share a few thoughts, musings and observations about my latest cross adventure.

*Suggesting that we let all the West Point Army dudes take the first row because it's Veteran's Day Weekend, earned me chuckles and weird looks. I was serious though.

*Karma is sick of me bragging about what a great runner I am, because I have never had to run as long and as hard as I did today. There was one stretch that was effectively 400 meters of running, then about 50 meters of riding, the 3 meters of running, then some riding, then more running and running and running. In mud. How deep was that mud? Well in spots it was easily 6-8 inches. I'm not exaggerating.

*People really freak out when you are having an asthma attack running to get past them. I'm sort of used to the obnoxiously loud wheezing and know exactly how hard I can push it before a trip to the hospital is in order, but I got some priceless looks as I chased down and passed the guy in 3rd place about 1.5 laps into our too short 3 lap race.

*Karma is sick of me bragging about how I can control my asthma, because after that effort I was cooked pretty good and when two guys passed me later on in the race, I just couldn't power up to them.

*My wife tells me that she most enjoyed watching me run with my bike today, which is where, coincidentally, I was hurting the most, which makes me wonder if my wife actually likes to see me all in medieval suffering mode!

*I learn things from Adam Myerson's post/pre-race interviews. He talks often about his starts, how he's racing for 15th at a big domestic UCI race and so that really changes how he approaches a given race. Today, because of the small field, and the fact that I knew that ultimately, it would be a question of pure power that decided how this race finished, I didn't go bat-shit crazy at the start. I let it unfold a bit in front of me, and through the opening "upper deck" portion, I was about 9th or 10th wheel. I made my moves, made my passes, and that's all great. Unfortunately, I'm not Adam Myerson racing in a big UCI event for 15th. I'm Marc Bertucco, trying like hell to get my first win in the cat 4s. And what I realized most definitively today, was that my calm, gradual approach is good to get me into top 5, top 10 or top 15 (depending on size/quality of field), but while I'm working my way through traffic, the top 3 or 5 or whatever guys are gaining too much ground for me to bring back once I'm racing where I should be...because...

*Even though I'm only a Cat 4, the top guys in my races, on any given weekend day are really quite strong and skilled. Sarah assures me that the winner was a notch above us in terms of power and smoothness, but she wasn't all that impressed with 2nd, 3rd and 4th. (An extra lap would have been perfect, because around the time I hit the finishing paved stretch, I was feeling somewhat recovered and ready for another hard push after the 4th placed rider...I'll never know for sure though)

*Kissena dudes are good dudes to hang around, chit-chat and drink beer with. I missed out on the quality beer drinking time this weekend, but enjoyed the chit chats.

*Big thanks to Todd McLoughlin and Neil Ross for the course advice, plus Todd hanging around to cheer me on after his own race was done. Much, much appreciated!

In the end, I could only score a 5th in a smallish field of 30 or so riders. But, I'm happy to say, other than a different tactical approach in the opening lap, and handling skills improvement (as always), I really could not have raced harder--and in the end, that's sort of what counts the most.

good work, marcus bertucus

i always enjoy your race reports, but i have to say: the bullet-format takeaway points are extremely digestable

how did todd do?

Todd...I think finished 13th...I counted him in 10th at one point, but he may have lost a few spots after then. Bullet points...noted. Will try for more edible reports in the future.

Nice race Marc. The adobe description is an apt one. Sorry we didn't get to see/hear you ride-run/wheeze.

I was 14th, also in a smallish field of about 30 riders. The race was um... hard. Getting through the mud, which really was 50% of the course, was slow, unpleasant business. I lost count of how many times I hopped off my bike each lap, but it was a lot. I'll sound like Mr. Obvious here, but the key was to keep the speed as high as possible. Aside from pedaling harder, the best way to do that was to stay off the brakes and to start running before getting too bogged down. I did that well for part of the race and not well for the rest. The result was a mid-pack finish.

I had pretty good start. I was probably 10th going into the hole shot and a few spots further forward going into the first run. I somehow lost a few spots on the run, but gained them back shortly thereafter. After two laps I was in 10th. I was hurting though, and I was getting sloppy, which, combined, made me slow. My third lap was pretty poor. I crashed twice, stopped once to un-gunk my brakes and rode too many sections that were faster to run. Most of this was caused by being really, really tired, but there were a few things I could have done better. At the end of lap three I was in 14th, and 13th was long gone. My fourth lap was better, but all I did was claw back some time on 12th and 13th.

I'm very jealous of Marc's DIY car wash. After I hit "Add your comments" on this, I'm going out to DIY wash my car with a bucket, a rag and a dust-buster. Nice.

Todd

Very nice race; I know exactly what you mean re: going full-mental-meltdown from the gun vs riding with a bit of poise... The more I do this crazy Awesomesauce sport, the more I fear the first is a pre-requisite for the top step...

^ yeah

i've done two cat3 races - it seems that the winners are combining good luck, excellent skills and the ability to ride 5% harder than me for a long time

former kissena Dave Trimble (an expert-level MTBer and fine CXer) once told me that the key to cross is "riding the first lap like it is the only lap, then figuring out someway to hold on for another 35 minutes"

ugh

i think secret is racing enough cross so that the technical/strategic decisions become second nature and can be done on auto-pilot while you're drooling

"freak out" seems to be the operative strategy for the first lap, followed by "hold on for dear life" and "try not to vomit into the headwind"...

@ Marc,


turns out I know the guy you finished 1 spot ahead of on Sunday. He is a very strong runner and cyclist. He's won a handful of time trials throughout the spring and has been moving up as he gets the hang of cross. Anyway... I'm glad you beat him.