Not the Schumacher line through the trees ,please 

Thanks @John!

(night Weasels is next)

Bump. It's back folks and as if you aren't excited enough about Holy Week, let's take a look at who from KCC is taking in the first of the three CX races that make up the week of holy.

Jeff White; Master's 35+ Cat 4/5
Eloy, Patrick and Jules; Master's 45+
Marc; Master's 35+

I'm not entirely sure that I'm ok with this trade: "In with Marc version Fast, out with Hotlist race reports."

Just saying...

Jules, is your gloucester video from above "public?" I have a friend who likes to send me dashboard videos of how terrible cross is in Chicago, and I usually respond with, come out for Holy Week. He might enjoy the video, but won't send the link if you wanted to keep it private.

Oh, just got to the end, and now I see that it was "unlisted." Where's the rest? I mean you won that day! You won GLOUCESTER! Tell me you don't have that video saved for now and forever.

Marc Bertucco said:

Oh, just got to the end, and now I see that it was "unlisted." Where's the rest? I mean you won that day! You won GLOUCESTER! Tell me you don't have that video saved for now and forever.

Battery on the GOPRO died. Yes it was tragic, but if I had to choose between not winning and getting video or winning and getting none... I'll take the win.

This photo however still makes me laugh.

hey how much climbing is there in this Gloucester thing? i.e. will 42-27 or 42-28 be too high?

Eloy, Organizers have promised a new course, but traditionally speaking, I don't think of this as a climbers course.

The pavement start is a 3-5% rise for about 300 meters and can definitely be a good place to make up time on less fit/fast competitors. In the longer master's races, guys will definitely be hurting/resting here. 

Also in the past there have been a series of "up the hill, down the hill" u-turns, and usually one tricky single track muddy/rocky 3-4 pedal stroke rise. A few years back we had a run-up. Other than that it's pretty gradual. In fact, this is one of the few course where I find I've used my big ring. There's usually been quite a long gravelly 3% descent leading into standard fare "twisty-turneys" through the grass.

As far as your specific gear question, maybe Jules has a better sense. Honestly, I don't even know what the gearing on my cross bike is...

Thanks, sounds like I'll be ok -- climbs would have to be granogue like for me to be over geared.

eloy said:

hey how much climbing is there in this Gloucester thing? i.e. will 42-27 or 42-28 be too high?

consider a 2X.

mugwump said:

eloy said:

hey how much climbing is there in this Gloucester thing? i.e. will 42-27 or 42-28 be too high?

consider a 2X

Thanks, but that's out of the question. Will be sticking to 1x.

The question: is 42x28 good or should I trade to 40x28?

Eloy, bring one of each and you'll have plenty of time to swap them after you pre-ride.

FWIW, my awesome wife took a vacation day on Friday, so we plan on getting to the park in the afternoon so I can pre-ride. Exact time unsure, but if y'all want to try and coordinate, we can exchange numbers here. I think I have Jules' already.

347.225.1058

Planning on leaving Brooklyn 10ish am on Friday. Doubt I'll pre-ride before Saturday.

40T just in case

What's nice about this runup is that it comes at the END of the lap. Unlike say the race ending runup at CycleSmart. What's not nice about this runup is that I can already feel the bruises from shouldering my bike.

Marc Bertucco said:

What's nice about this runup is that it comes at the END of the lap. Unlike say the race ending runup at CycleSmart. What's not nice about this runup is that I can already feel the bruises from shouldering my bike.

I'm thinking about the smashed shins myself. That's gonna be ugly.

Pre-race report; all roads leading out of NYC towards Boston are total carnage.

Jules said:

Pre-race report; all roads leading out of NYC towards Boston are total carnage.

Hopefully all Gloucester racers made it here. Sarah and I left Manhattan at 10:30 and were fine, no traffic, although I could see where it was going to get nasty.

Got to the course around 3pm-ish. Ryan Trebon was already warming up. Suited up and checked out the course. Wow. Bumpy, rocky, devious. Even the grassy bits are filled with wheel eating dips and shark fin rocks the size of cantaloupes. It's going to be big gear slog.

The run up is going to be "interesting." During the civilized pre-ride, I was able to ride about 1/3 of the way, then chose to dismount (because you have to eventually, and it's ALWAYS better to dismount on your own terms) and ran the rest. But during the race. Coming down fast gravely sketchy broken pavement onto a hard 110 degree left turn? Yikes.

Some positives about the course include nice wide run out sections coming off fast descents onto opposite direction off camber uphill turns. Those with balls of steel will get lots of free speed here. The rest of us will brake way too much. I got better at these bits my last few laps, but the rocky bumpy grass/gravel/dirt keeps it interesting.

Overall, this course feels harder than years past. Grumble.

As I was leaving Patrick arrived, Myerson, Durrins, Crystal Anthony and others were warming up. Chabanov was there too.

We made it. Bikes, tools, kids cameras and guitars. Feel a bit like Beverly Hillbillies. Can't wait!

It's 7am, hopefully Jeff is out there warming up, sneaking in a few laps before his 8:45 start. The rest of us should be eating breakfast. Good luck today gents.

Patrick, Jules and I lined up for the 10:30 am master race so did a couple of current and former national champions.

Patrick and Jules looked great. I kinda struggled cause this shit is hard. Awesome fun but shit is hard.

Photo by Jess  
looking forward to more tomorrow.

also, let's bring back the blue belly skinsuits!

I struggled too; never found the gear that let me explode out of corners - but #outofshape so to be expected. Felt like I was having a good race (for starting 2nd from the back row) until the last lap when I inexplicably decided to start cornering like a drunken muppet; dumped it twice in the last half of the last lap. Second time I dropped my chain and Patrick came by... I gave it all but couldn't catch him before the end.

FWIW this race did feel a bit like Saving Private Ryan; never saw so many guys running/walking with the remains of their bikes. Saw a guy snap his chain in front of me too.

Whitey looked the hotness - flat cost him dearly. Ditto Garrigan who is riding a gold (seriously) FTB this season.

Love this sport, but I miss the days of fighting for the top ten.

eloy said:

also, let's bring back the blue belly skinsuits!

Can I "AGREE" with this statement more than I already do? No. I cannot.

In other news. Great racing by all. The results might not necessarily reflect it in a traditional sense, but the fact of the matter is that Gloucester boasts the most challenging, difficult fields we'll face all year. And the conditions...I swear, racing in mud is easier than the loose dirt stones, boulders etc.

That said, Jeff White, racing the 4/5 35+ field, got a flat tire and STILL finished a cracking 18th place. Best KCC placing of the day, by far. He'll be a force to contend with by the Club Championships.

Eloy, Jules and Patrick all looked rock solid. I couldn't catch as much of their race as I would have liked as I was warming up for my 35+ race. I did notice one particularly smooth/slick pass Jules made somewhere in the middle of his race. And Patrick and Eloy always had their "never say die" faces on all day long. Their 45+ field was unbelievably deep with insanely good riders. Ex pros, ex National Champions, no big whup, right? haha.

The only thing that was remarkable, literally, the only thing worth sharing about my race was that despite pre-riding the course yesterday and getting in some nice laps before my start today, I STILL managed to go slower through many of the "free speed" grassy descent/turns than I did in practice. Hrumpf. Must fix that. Post haste.

And watching the pro races? Unbelievably exciting race action in both the men's and women's events. So, so good. So many battles. Never a foregone conclusion.