Day 1 race report: ouch

Results, Bro's--https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2014-2788

Great racing by all today. And having watched my fair share of pro racing this season, I have to say that our Elite field races, were exciting and packed full of action.

Wanted to let everyone know that one of the principles from event title sponsor Rockland County, was onsite, and he was snapping pics and generally being very enthusiastic about the event. And, I kid you not, he's already talking about stepping up for next year.

All of you are asleep now, but hopefully we'll have plenty of volunteers to help us get through the day tomorrow. The course is DIALED in (did you see the Adam Myerson invue?), now we just gotta make sure that registration, podiums, prize money handout goes smoothly tomorrow. A number of key folks can't make it tomorrow so we're going to need others to step up.

Also course tear-down. It's pretty much pitch black at 5pm out there in the sticks of Rockland County. Last race is done at 4. PLEASE, PLEASE come and help us clean and tear down. Bring headlamps and flashlights and sturdy work gloves if you have any of that stuff.

Every so often I need a good heckle. No " you got this type of stuff"....but more "get your ass moving" type of stuff. So if you see me racing please oblige ( assuming there is not a good crowd next to you who would get a bad idea for the next guy).

Saturday was the best course I've raced all year. It just was awesome.

Saturday was so awesome, why have i been staying away so long

Hey race fans! NEED PICTURES FOR

1) Our FB banner page (I currently have last year's women's podium). Would like to rotate in day 1 and day 2s elite men's and women's podiums.

2) To give to our title sponsor, Rockland County so that they can use for their promotional efforts. Can be any racing action, but ideally would have some of that sweet "Rockland County" banner action in the background.

3) For CXmagazine.com. I'm writing an article (providing my son naps today) free for nothing, so if you don't mind sharing some of your art with the world for free...

PLEASE SEND TO ME DIRECTLY, (smallish files okay, just for interweb use)

marcbertucco@yahoo.com

Thanks for your help.

#thisjobwillneverend #justwanttosleep

PS Never mind on the CXmagazine part of it. Looks like they got someone else to report on it. Phew?

Mark Taylor said:

Saturday was so awesome, why have i been staying away so long

Yeah, seriously!

Ask Vlad. If you're not sure where he is, I think someone saw him building a studio apartment  on turn two at Floyd Bennet Field.

#kittens

Super fun weekend.  Lots of work, but also lots of fun.  I didn't race Saturday, but managed to line up for the club championship and the 2/3/4 race on Sunday. 

The club championship was good.  JP, Patrick and I rode together out front for the first 1.5 laps.  I got a gap the second time up the run-up and kept it going from there.  I won, JP was second and I believe Patrick was third.  Good times.   

The 2/3/4, despite a super call-up (thanks Mike), was just too much Super for me.  I started well (thanks mostly to the front row start), rode ok for a little while and then faded, finishing somewhere in the mid-20's.  I'd like to think my last lap was pretty good though.  At least, I finally managed to avoid driving straight into the green fence heading into the infield.  Small victories.   

Clean-up was hard, but we had a good group knocking things out.  

All hail the new Kissena Cyclocross Club Champ!

Here's the course on day 2 for those who didn't get a chance to go up there.

Todd McLoughlin said:

Clean-up was hard, but we had a good group knocking things out.  

Fueled by leftover cold Wafels (no dinges), Redbull and a game of "Martins Finger Chopper" (an Atari classic, right?) where our weapons were orange barricade fencing feet that were clearly made of some otherworldy super-dense metal....#whatcouldgowrong?

And just in case you missed it. Kissena's own double secret long-time crosser, who doesn't know about the forum as far as I know, and is also one of the CX team's biggest fans, Dan Strika is "featured" in the day 1 highlight package from dirtwire.tv

http://dirtwire.tv/2014/11/womens-highlihgts/

David Yang said:

All hail the new Kissena Cyclocross Club Champ!

And not for nothing, but Todd, I think is the only one besides Myles who worked the race on Thursday, Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday (of which the final 6 hours were spent, "crossfitting" iron fences).

Marc Bertucco said:

  ... the final 6 hours were spent, "crossfitting" iron fences.

Crossfit is def not for me.  I'm sore all over.  I feel like I aged 50 years over the weekend.

The cold waffles were delicious.

Marc Bertucco said:

 

... the final 6 hours were spent, "crossfitting" iron fences.

Crossfit is def not for me.  I'm sore all over.  I feel like I aged 50 years over the weekend.

The cold waffles were delicious.

Holly hell. I didn't even race... i can't imagine what you feel like. So sore.

This Saturday penned another illustrious chapter in my tale of cyclocross domination. It all began with my prerace strategy, registering late and starting in the last row.  I was careful to arrive 3 hours beforehand like Marc suggested.  Race begins and I moved up about one spot and hopped the first curb without issue.  Drunk on my success, I rammed full force into the second curb without even thinking of shifting my weight off the front wheel.  Pinch flatted about 45 seconds after starting the race.  

Interesting interview. Top CX pro racer all season. Rocks it day 1, spanked (relatively, speaking of course, for him) on day 2, and is befuddled. Claims day 1 "wasn't that hard of a race." Then a few sentences later, "I don't even know if I'm going to be able to walk up the stairs tonight....could be a fluke day, I don't know..."

Someone, someday, will help him make the connection.

http://dirtwire.tv/2014/11/cameron/

"Two days of Myles" is just too much for one of the country's top pros.

Brendan Rigby said:

This Saturday penned another illustrious chapter in my tale of cyclocross domination. It all began with my prerace strategy, registering late and starting in the last row.  I was careful to arrive 3 hours beforehand like Marc suggested.  Race begins and I moved up about one spot and hopped the first curb without issue.  Drunk on my success, I rammed full force into the second curb without even thinking of shifting my weight off the front wheel.  Pinch flatted about 45 seconds after starting the race.  

So far, in your brief but illustrious CX career, you are going through experiences that have happened to most of us. It just takes a while to get even just the technical details together to the point where you feel that you can compete.

Not to belabor the point but...

There are a few reasons why I shoot for that magic "3 hours before" arrival time. First, when I'm traveling with my family, I almost never hit that target, but if I shoot for 3 hours before, I usually make it at least 2 hours then. That's just life with a toddler, rental cars, random street parking and lots of shit to load up.

Second, now that I'm not the first race of the day anymore, getting on the course to pre-ride is fussy and has to be timed pretty precisely between the races. You get to the course, get in your kit (don't worry about picking up number just yet), camp out in front of the finish line and as soon as the first handful of racers come past in the glory of having just finished the CX race, you are usually allowed to jump on the course and warm up. In that time between everyone finishing and stage for the next race, you can usually get in 2-ish laps. That first lap will be slow, the second faster, closer to race pace. That's when you start to really appreciate the demands of the course, what it will require from your tires, etc. Then if you are there "3 hours early" you can do it again after the next race before your race calls to staging.

Now if you are racing the first race, then you don't exactly have to worry about course traffic, but you still want to get in at least 3 laps before you race. One should be at as close to race pace as possible. Because everything looks different at speed. Curbs, slimy turns, etc. But still, if average lap times for Cat 4s are say in the 8-ish minute range at race pace, with the first recon lap being much closer to 10+ minutes, you've already eaten up 26 minutes of time just riding. Never mind picking up numbers, adjusting/assembling bikes, eating, pinning, getting dressed x2. (I rarely change kit completely, but I usually swap out my wet base layer, heavier out layer and gloves used in warm-up for dry and/or lighter duty stuff so I don't overheat in the race).

And then don't forget about "Cyclocross Savings Time." What's that? Well, races typically call "Riders REEEEPORT to STAGING" about 15 minutes before race time. So now, if you've gotten to the race just 90 minutes before, you've actually only have 75 minutes to do everything else.

Now again, I'll be honest, when I was racing the Cat 4/5 fields in New England, with their 7:30 to 8am starts, getting their 3 hours early wasn't even really possible. And not totally necessary. Getting there 90 minutes early just barely let me get it all done correctly. Of course for those races I would usually be traveling from a hotel, where it was easy to load up a mostly already packed car.

So for you, if you are pretty dialed in, and you are good about not getting lost to the race venue, have an organized race bag so dressing goes quickly, then if you don't fuss around then I think technically, you would have time to do everything right (from dressing to warming up those muscles while pre-riding), you can get 'er done if your car wheels touch down in the parking lot 90 minutes...

(come to think of it, unlike our race that has more parking than almost every other race I've ever seen--we're World Cup caliber in that respect--a lot of times parking is fussy and takes some to find. There was traffic jam line at Providence as we had to flash our "badges" to get into the parking area, gloucester parking is always tough, Baltimore too. I could go on an on. Once your GPS gets you to the event, you need to account for the additional time it's going to take you to put it in park.) before the race. That might be okay.

But everyone's diff't, you'll figure out what works for you.

I had a great time this weekend. 

^ anyone can create a new thread (just try and search a bit beforehand to make sure what you are looking for doesn't exist )

Marc Bertucco said:

David Yang said:

All hail the new Kissena Cyclocross Club Champ!

And not for nothing, but Todd, I think is the only one besides Myles who worked the race on Thursday, Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday (of which the final 6 hours were spent, "crossfitting" iron fences).