while I don't have a large family to contend with, and can't even imagine all the related complexities... gotta confess I wondered a little bit of the same.

Kinda long expensive trip for two days of potential "can't even finish, needed a pit bike" DNFs. 

However, forecasts are generally more dire than reality. It is not raining now. So, play it a bit by ear..., right now, plan is to head out, have a blast, and make the most of it.

Last year my two best races were in muddy rain. Also, last Sunday was my worst race this year, and somehow the one I enjoyed the most. Who knows what this weekend will bring.

Jules said:

Rain is sounding pretty dire. Are there odds this gets flooded out?
I'm not super excited right now about taking my family on 10 hours of rainstorm driving right now...

I'm not super excited right now about 4 "slip-n-slide" flyovers.

Marc Bertucco said:

Jules said:

Rain is sounding pretty dire. Are there odds this gets flooded out?
I'm not super excited right now about taking my family on 10 hours of rainstorm driving right now...

I'm not super excited right now about 4 "slip-n-slide" flyovers.

Maybe I'm an idiot but the flyovers don't bother me. 8-10 hours on rainy highways do.

Having to do an out & back to AZ this week isn't helping my motivation. Hoping a good night's sleep Wed will cure all that.

Jules. It is gonna be awesome. It won't take more than 3:30 hours each way. Four flyovers!!!

Two words. Hurricane Landfall.
this sucks

Just noticed a "fun fact" about the 35+ field at Providence. Since they don't have a 45+ field, all the top 45+ guys from Gloucester are racing the 35+ field. This will certainly ensure that it is the highest quality Master's field we race all year.

@Marc Bertucco yup. other than nationals this will be the strongest US amateur field of 2015 -- and we are in it.

btw @Jules -- the forecast includes plenty of rain up to friday/sat morning, but sunday is already looking close to last year. Tropical storm Joaquin is not currently expected to reach providence at any time. 

#letsdothisbitches #fourflyoversperlap

pancakes!!



run ups!!

mud tires



I am excite. #overpostingsorrynotsorry

Chancakes!

Jeff and Jules, you guys still planning on the CX Madison on Friday? Good luck!

Hell yes. 

Live Results, Bros
http://www.livelynxresults.com/

anybody else want to do the madison?  i could perhaps be convinced, although my race tomorrow is at 7:30 AM

full disclosure: you don't want me as your madison partner if your goal is to win.  fitness not there.

Sharing a pro tip from a FB friend up in Providence 
If you're relying on your phone app for your racing license, take a screen shot of it as the venue has no wifi and bad LTE/4G coverage

Rick Perner said:

Sharing a pro tip from a FB friend up in Providence 
If you're relying on your phone app for your racing license, take a screen shot of it as the venue has no wifi and bad LTE/4G coverage

This is funny/sad to me. Roger Williams Park is in an extremely urban/residential area. We're not talking Bear Mountain. But yeah, good reminder for those of you who smartphone.

I had no trouble with reception. The issue is when 700000000000 people show up at once.

GREAT times today with Whitey and Garrigan. Brendan that unholy fuckery by the lake is just a no-brakes white knuckle rocket.

Marc is going into apoplexy when he pre rides tomorrow. They're definitely going for World Cup level difficulty.

the mud is amazing, the flyovers are going to break some hearts and probably some rims.

I got (in no particular order)

handslung from whitey
heckled by Tim Johnson
pitted (pre race) by garrigan
passed by britlee
and stitched up by Lisa

SO MUCH HOTNESS

Oh, and this little bastard will heal.

Day 2: Hotness Continues

not so much mud today but a 140 strong 2/3 field made for an agonizing fist lap (11+ minutes) followed by some surprisingly consistent times for me. Not much to report specifically but the difference between at 42 minute race and a 52 minute race is huge.

So many stories. Getting ready to watch men's elites.

Day 2 Definitely Hotness. 

Made a couple of mistakes, didn't finish close to my potential. But frankly, can't possibly care. This was by far the best cyclocross course I have ever raced. It was magic. 

I am so honestly looking forward to tomorrow. Can not wait.

Marc looked hot.

photo by Jill

Photos by Jess:



later took a couple of photos of the women's race

Keith Garrison, my neighbor, took 8th in the 2/3s. It's just a matter of time before that dude gets snagged by Richard Sachs or somebody else who races less stylie but faster carbon bikes

Bitter-sweet day for me today. After our solid warm-up, Eloy and I got called up in the way, way back. I was 12th row, he was a couple behind me. Didn't exactly get in too many hot laps for warm up, but there was a fair amount of wide grass/road available before the major pinch points.

This year's Providence course was exceptional. Challenging, without being ridiculous. Okay there was one or two weird artificially slow turns that could have been fixed. But, speaking as a guy who, on a good day, gives himself a C+/B- on CX bike handling skills, I was pleased with this year's revise. Anyway, back to the action.

Mud was tacking up nicely, but still plenty of slippery bits to keep you honest in the corners. Most importantly, I was motivated. Gloucester was kind of a downer for me, and so I spent the week thinking about what I needed to do to bring back the joy. The big thing is that I need to claw my way closer to the front. And I'm not going to do that by whining and simply wishing I could line up behind Al Donahue and Todd Bowden and Roger Aspholm. I'm going to do it by beating my call-up, and lowering those crossresults points little by little, race by race. I'm not the guy who can start DFL and finish in the top 30. Never have been, never will be. But...

...I'm the guy who pecks away at it, gets a little better, little by little until finally I'm where I want to be. So it may take me all season to get there, but dammit, I'm getting there.

My start was solid. Hit some nice lines through the turns that moved me up well, powered on the flats, made up some gaps that were starting to form. Running relatively high pressure of 35lbs in my rear clincher helped me run faster on the straights. Of course, was a little too slow in the corners as a result probably.

Out of the single track, down the "Death Drop 2000" section, over the first flyover, I made it through some tricky turns and was charging hard and low on a straight off camber section. My muds were gripping well, and I was passing dudes FAST. But then it happened.

As I was passing one guy, he slips down (or I bumped up?) and we got locked together and went FULL speed into orange snow fencing. There were like 3 spectators who caught us and probably prevented some serious and nasty damage to bike and body. As I slowly tried to stand up, I realized that my left foot/ankle was literally in between the spokes of the other guy's front wheel. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did.

I said to him, "Okay, slow down, I don't want to break your spokes." And we both carefully extracted ourselves from each other.

Around this time, Eloy flies past and shouts some words of encouragement. I'm back on the bike now and start to ramp up the pace again. Coming back from a wreck like this, I had to be careful. If I just go crazy, I risk blowing up and needing a whole lap to recover. And so I gently squeeze the throttle. I still need to move fast. Every second I'm behind, is another missed opportunity to pass guys.

The rest of my race is pretty okay. I botched a few lines/turns all on my own, but mostly I was pretty solid and ended up in 70th place out of 95 finishers. I can't wait until tomorrow. There was much wind today, and if there is no more rain, the course will be perfectly tacked up for RAILING those corners.

In other news, it seems the Elite men and women had to do the run-up on the first lap. Unlike most of us amateurs.

The truly hilarious part is listening to Myerson tweet-plain about it. Irony alert. His Northampton race has a similar traffic jam/race ending situation on a run up that comes early in the lap.

Ok, so my quick report; lined up at the very back - the first lap was silly slow passing crashes, walking or plodding up the first flyover... Before the action began.

i was happy enough passing guys concentrating on my form, etc until about the 40 minute mark when my back was really too sore to hammer.

i finished it out losing my place to Rog in a corner I was too chicken to rail and too tired to attacknout of. (I'd passed him on the power sections earlier)

afterward as Lisa tried to drive away with me sitting shelled in the passenger seat I reached down to the floor of the car and ALL MY ABDOMINAL MUSCLES CRAMPED!

i screeched and frantically tried to straighten myself up - fumbled frantically for the seatbelt and then the door lock before leaping out of the moving car in order to stand upright in the middle of the road with my chest puffed out and my arms thrown back wearing nothing but my skin suit, race shoes and a touqe with a pompom on top.

I've never seen Lisa laugh so hard.

Rolled a tub in warmup.
Got a spare wheel from SRAM.
Started at the back.
Flatted the spare just after the pits. Rode a lap on the flat, pitted, rode some more.
Dropped my cookie hand up. Felt despair, kept pedaling.
HOTNESS

I've never had so much fun finishing 70th+!! I love you cyclocross. Now I'm going to bed at 845 for the second night in a row.