I just read something that first made me happy, then nervous. "For the Cat 4 Men's race, numbers will be assigned by crossresults.com rankings." Yikes...that probably means a second row start for me...and no excuses. Damn. I love me some excuses. Excuse me while I eat some Fun Size Twix bars now.

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=14422
Northhampton, MA

reg opens 12 noon this Monday (Oct 3rd) - no conflict with any MAC races this year as well (MAC's Fair Hill is now 1 week later).

^great race, great park, great town.

Anyone going?
Looks like I am racing Masters both days:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=14422

I'm registered for the Cat 4s on both days...(apparently so is some Cat 1 crosser, who I assume meant to register for the big boy Master's race. I am getting ready my race protest now.)

Eric, I could use some help with twisty-turny root riding (must have skills for the "up-top" portion of Northampton) for dudes who don't have tubulars and can't ride with 25lbs of pressure. Next week I'm off Monday, Tuesday, Friday and if you could do anything clinical on any of those days I would be especially grateful.

Friday at Cunningham around 3:30 would work.

I'm also racing the 4's both days.

I just got back from a race here in Portland that had a 200 meter beach ride. You rode down the beach in deep sand to the water line, then rode 150 meters along the water line on semi hard pack sand and then ran 30 meters back up the beach in deep sand. I was able to power down to the water line without a problem and ride in the hard pack but always lost a couple places on the run back up the beach. My buddy out here who I raced with was behind me on one lap and said that it looks like I have extremely short strides. He coaches track and field at middle school and is an ex long distance runner and he suggested that I spend some time working on my stride length. For the next two weeks I'm going to do a few minutes (5 max) of sprinting, 3 days each week, concentrating on really having a long stride. He thought that by the end of those two weeks I will have gained enough stride length that I won't lose those places during running sections.

Anyway, the only reason I thought about that was the big sand pit a Northampton. It's usually rideable but if someone bobbles in front of you or you need to run for some other reason it helps being able to run well with the bike.

Did the Master B race today. Very fast and fun course. Didn't have a great race but hope to improve for tomorrow.

Bump

Ragot, Reid, Nelson, Bertucco. That's it? This race is pre-reg only. Look Park in Northampton is a great family destination with mini-golf, bumper boats and more. New England in the Fall? Kids races at 1:30 in the afternoon. Just 3 hours pleasant drive North from the GWB (Granogue is only 30-minutes closer).

I second Marc's WTF.

do any of you folks want dining, bar, or accommodation recommendations in Northampton?

i've got a ton of favorite places up there that i miss...

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that despite my best efforts, I won't be able to make it up to Northampton early enough to pre-ride the course. Ben Reid might be up there though if any of you are planning on an early arrival on Friday afternoon.

@Mattio, thanks...Sarah and I are staying with friends and I'm pretty sure they're going to stuff our jowls full of yummy eats.

I will not be pre-riding...

I'm going up tonight with my Sarah (7 year old) and we're staying with friends as well. I plan on being there bright and early to pre-ride. The last couple years I've done these races it's been gorgeous weather and this weekend promises to be the same. It will be chilly at start time for the early morning races though. See you guys up there.

If you haven't been dreaming of the course already, here's a link to the tech guide:

http://www.cycle-smart.com/csi/tech-guide

Also, a word about the start. It's on grass. It's a UCI course, so it's nice and wide at the start, but on day one that first right-left-left-right turn comes really quickly before there's a little curb hop down to pavement. Day two it looks like they have us "running bases" around a dusty ballfield before we hit the pavement. Especially not looking forward to that start.

Day 1 recap:

James Nelson, Ben Reid and I in the cat 4s. 29 degrees at the start. Ben and I pre-riding the course=good. Me missing my second row call-up=disaster. I tried to work my way through the crowd, but snippy officials yell at me. Tail between my legs I go to the back of the field. 120+ riders in front of me and I want to cry.

Regroup, get my head in the game. Make the most of a bad situation. I leave a little air between me and the riders in front of me. Shoot the gaps, charging hard I'm passing through the field until I find myself standing, still, waiting at the bottom of a narrow run-up. Game over. It's finally my turn to walk up the climb.

Get my head back in the game. Race your bike dammit! Ragot's cornering drills still fresh in my legs, I throw my bike around corners with the confidence and bravado of someone who has nothing to lose (and 35lbs of pressure in the tires). Big gears over the twisted roots and rocky roads of the "up top" portion of the course.

As the field stretches out, a steady stream of riders surf my wake for a while before being left behind for good. With 1.5 laps to go, the rate of passing slows considerably. Too many guys too far ahead. One last pass and this rider latches on to my wheel in the last 1/2 of a lap. He's waiting to jump me on the asphalted finishing stretch. I take a flyer off the curb into a right hand turn, and start my sprint.

I may have lost my starting position, but not my pride. I stayed clear of my unwelcome passenger and crossed the line in the 36th place.

Dude you passed like 90 riders in that race.

Think about that.

4th row start for the elite masters. Guy in front of me is slow to clip in. Someone bangs me from behind. Whatever hole shot.

Get to the run up, now walk up and walk. Somebody behind me gets his bike caught in mine somehow.

Get through the upper section fine and as I descended out, I turned left and my rear is sliding out. Huh? Flat!

Drop about 20spots riding the flat to the pits.

Time for my first ever bike change. Jim Nelson is waiting. Jump off grab kona and go. Come back to the pits and Jim say I got you a wheel. So I change again. Then as I am getting used to the rear wheel, I notice the shifting is all over the place. 10spd! Next tike hy the pits I yell "I need 9speed!" Next time by "I got o speed for you! "

Back into the pits to get kona back again for the full tilt boogie. Rear brakes work but have no travel in the lever. So with 2laps to go I finally settle in to sorting out the rear wheel's handling and catching people.
45th and 4 or 5 bike changes. Not what I hoped for, but fun.

Tunis is punctured through the tread. We'll see if sealant works...

dude! 5 bike changes! PRO!

since i was the only kissena, i wont start a new thread, but i rode the 4's and the 3/4's at Bear Creek Cross near Allentown today.

3rd in the 4's, 14th in the 3/4's (which started 15 minutes after the 4 race - i was totally pooped). small fields, but better prizes than last week (blinky light and ski pass!).

i really really need to learn how to corner - tons of extremely slick mud made this a very challenging day - and i lost a lot of ground on anything that wasn't straight.

in retrospect, the snow at HPCX was actually quite forgiving - it kind of held you into a line on the corners.

this slick mud stuff is an entirely different game and i floundered in it/hard trouble clipping in after every run.

kicking myself for selling my tubular wheelset to Al last year, thinking I wouldn't be doing much cross this season.

good job at Cycle-Smart, my dudes!

Today - I had a Marc-like start!
I had a 4th row start spot - OK.
Then with 15 seconds to go after just having shed my gloves, I realized I was still wearing my skullcap. Uh oh. Quick rip off helmet, throw skullcap to the side "GO!"

Sort of clip helmet strap together and get going! I went to the back before I got myself sorted out and then started picking people off. The rear wheel just wasn't mine and I wasn't completely used to it. Although, it was a Michelin Mud2 tire, so I should have been fine with it. I did gain lots of time on people in the corners, but on the top of the course with the roots - not so great.

Marc yelled at me every time as I passed the pits. I finally ended up 30th. So, I'll take it.

My Garmin numbers from the weekend:
Saturday - Avg. HR - 178, Sunday 177
Elevation Gain - 619ft, 137 ft
Average Speed - 14.3mph, 14.8 mph.

I think I am sick now.

Time to rest.

Great course, great organization, great park, great weekend.

Luka medalled in three races too and won most laps for entering the most kids races!

Ciao, see you in Staten Cross

E

In effort to ensure that the only depressing race reports you read from me, are those of long hilly road races (that comment made by one of you still makes me LOL), I'm going to keep this brief(ish).

I did a lot of things right on day 2 of the Cycle Smart International.

1. Not freak out at the fine layer of frost on the ground at 8:30 to go along with 25 degree temperatures.
2. Borrow my wife's watch and and look at it every 60 seconds so I didn't miss my call up as I traversed the lines of the new course.
3. Spend the last 15 minutes of my warm-up on a Cycle-Ops trainer underneath a tent with a direct line of sight to the staging area so I didn't miss my call up.

Unfortunately, those were the only things that went well.

As the numbers were called, I hustled to my spot on the second row. And then an official pushed me forward to the front row to accommodate some other rider. Nice! Front row. No excuses. Heading into the first tricky turns there were 10 of us ducks in a row and I'm feeling good. The ground is still frozen and so traction is fine (for now). Coming into the first climb into the rooty, rocky roads of hell on the upper deck, a jamoke in front of me falls off his bike, I rear end him, a dude rear ends me and the gaps are opening up in front. I keep it rolling. More crashes, more sprinting around the mess. I'm still upright, but the gap between me and the leader is stretching.

The next few laps, I'm losing ground as riders are passing me mostly in the woods. 10th, 12th, 18th. As more riders pass, I get more flustered, and my bike handling becomes worse and worse. I try to regroup and am clawing my way back to the group of riders that contains 10th-15th or so. The sun and pounding of knobby rubber ensured that frosty tundra of the open fields in laps 1 and 2 has become a slick layer of mud with frozen ground beneath in laps 3 and 4. Going into a quick right-left, my bike disappears under me and my right side comes crashing down to earth with a terrible thud.

I get up and attempt to put the chain back in it's place. It's not budging. I pull and tug and yank and grab with all my might. Guys are riding by me with less than 1/2 of a lap to go. Finally, I pry the chain out and remount. The fall, ice-rink like conditions kind of sap my will to live. Coming into the final paved stretch, yet another rider is sprinting to make himself, like 150th guy who passed me in this race. I hold him off by a bike toss for 31st place.

P.S. James Nelson and Ben Reid both had strong races finishing higher than crossresults.com predicted in 38th and 54th place, respectively.

Day 1 Helmet Cam Video from a guy who spent the last lap chasing me. I come into focus at minute 31 or so, with a pass on the steep and uneven run-up.

http://x-blog-x-team-x.blogspot.com/2011/11/cycle-smart-international-11511.html

Fun weekend up there.

Saturday: They lined us up based on crossresults rankings which put me in 37th place and a 4th row start. Not bad for a field of 130. Saw Marc trying to creep up the sideline after missing his start and then saw him slink to the back with a look a severe disappointment on his face when the officials call him back.

The whistle blew and we were off. A long stretch of grass and then onto the pavement, through the finish line area and then the run up. Bikes swinging everywhere. Guys falling down. I keep my composure and move up a couple spots at the top, past guys who were trying to extricate their bikes from each other. Rode hard through the rooty section up top, held my spot, and then started to pass guys when we got down to the power sections on the bottom of the course. Back up into the trees and then back down onto the grass. Felt strong in the corners, pedaling through and keeping decent speed. With 1 1/2 to go the Rutgers guy who beat me by one spot at HPCX goes by me and he becomes my target. With 1/2 lap to go I pass him back and accelerate and that's my spot. Good for 26th overall (11 spots above the race predictor) and 13th (out of about 70) in the Cat 4 35+ which they scored separately. I'm also happy with the fact that I was only 2 minutes off the winner's time.

Volunteered to pit for Eric during the Masters race. He came by the pit the first time in about 35th and was moving up. Second time I was counting and got to 40 and he was still a ways off. Did he crash? Too many beers last night? Then all of a sudden he's in the pit and we're doing a bike change and it actually works pretty smoothly. He's got a rear wheel flat. I ask the Shimano guy for a wheel and he throws in a 10 speed. I don't even think twice because it's a brand new bike and brand new bikes have 10 speed right? Eric comes through again and swaps back to the A bike. Again the swap was pretty pro. Like we'd done it before in a bunch of other races. I relax, thinking my work is done. Next time by Eric yells out that he needs a 9 speed. Crap. I ask the Shimano guy and he's got a 9 speeed so I tell him to expect another change. Another bike swap. The wheel swap takes a bit of time but he gets it in before the next time Eric comes by. Swap bikes again. His race ends without another incident. I head back to my friends house, pick up my daughter and we go visit an awesome little apple orchard and farm for the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday: The day starts badly when I stumble before the barriers on my warm up lap and slam right into the first barrier. I'm pretty much fine and the bikes fine but I knock the barrier to a 45 degree angle. This time I'm starting number 42 according to crossresults which puts me in the 5th row. Whistle blows and in the first corner the two guys in front of me get tangled and I crash right into the back of them. I get going again and move up a couple places. Everything is rideable when there isn't traffic and I stay upright for the first three laps, battling it out with some of the same guys I battled with the day before. Then towards the end of the 3rd lap I hit the baseball infield that the course winds around right after the barriers and feel both wheels go immediately out from under me. Slam. I go down hard and lose about 4 places. I get going again but now I'm tentative in the slick corners, more than I should be but I can't shake it. I get passed by a couple more guys and then sprint it out with a UVM guy for 38th place (17 in the 35+). Disappointing when compared with the day before but I beat the race predictor by 4 spots.

Debriefed with Marc and Ben, went back to the house and then came back later to watch the women and men elite. They are fast. Katernia Nash is amazing and solos the win with a huge gap. The men's race is a fantastic battle for nearly the whole race with 6 guys trading duties at the front. They drop a couple on the last lap but it's a 4 man sprint for the finish with Luke Keough taking the win. Very exciting.

Congratulations to Jim, Eric, Marc, and the others who I may be forgetting who raced in Northampton this weeknd. And of course to WDC (at Bear Creek). Biggest kudos though to Luka Ragot for his multiple medals. Are there any podium photos Eric?

Yep.
couldn\'t find his Jersey though.

Here is a link to some pics I took on day 2 of the pros' races:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2369131862454.125693.1075176960&type=3&saved#!/media/set/?set=a.2369131862454.125693.1075176960&type=3

GO LUKA!

Hey, is it time to party like it's 2011? Naaah, just keeping forum tidy-ish.

2013...Northampton weather watch begins. Shit looks bad so far:

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Northampton+MA+USMA0306:1:US

38 degrees and rain. You pretty much can't get any worse...

Finally, mud tires coming out of cold storage...