Oct 25, 2012 at 11:47 PM
@Derek Chiles - I'm in the same ride boat as you. If nothing turns up would you be down to rent a car?
Cyclocross!
Oct 26, 2012 at 02:15 AM
Did anyone see power's result. Pretty awesome and bodes well for USA at world's if he can keep it up.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-cyclo-cross-world-cup-1-2012/elite-men/results
Oct 26, 2012 at 02:17 AM
Learn to "go to bed hungry" I believe was the message 
Oct 26, 2012 at 07:34 PM
Hotlist Cross Edition Pre-race chatter:
Well, the hotlist is VERY excited about this coming weekend of racing, namely, we're going to see lots of Kissena's shredding grass in New Jersey (near and far) and should make for an interesting update to the hotlist.
Saturday, the oddly renamed "Independence Cross" (nee Beacon) takes place on the familiar grounds at Bridgeton City Park with its beach run, amphitheater of doom and some fun single track. Last year's epic, wet and cold gives way to predicted climes of sunny and 60s. But because of the distance (south of Philly), and lack of MAC status, many Kissenas are not showing up to this one.
We've got Michael Perlberg lining up with the Cat 3 field and crossresults.com predicts he'll finish in 12th place. Dan "Double Down" Strika, is once again signing up for 2 races competing in the 1/2/3 50+ and Cat 4 40+. Bertucco hopes to relive the glory he felt from receiving 4 beers for his 3rd place at Cooper RIver, and podium once again.
Sunday, things get more interesting. HPCX just a stone's throw away from the city, has attracted almost all of the team's regular cx fanatics. As such, I expect to see a hint of what's to come during the Kissena Club Championship match.
In the Cat 4 show-down, there are no less than 9 Kissena's toeing the line. Who will come out on top? Who will get good call-ups and who will get stuck at the back from the get-go?
Crossresults put Jules and Joe within 0.12 points of each other in 11th and 12th place respectively. The hotlist thinks they should both be in the top 10. James Nelson is predicted in 17th. Patrick "I just podiumed muhtha-dunker" Grehan is predicted to finish in 22nd. Derek in 24th, Konrad 27, White 38, Da Silva 51, Sannosian 52 and we think that's too low for everyone. So man-up, and get to the front....NOW!
In the Cat 2/3/4 race, Perlberg coming off what I hope will be a ball-busting performance on Saturday, will ride the wave to a top placing. Crossresults thinks 28th. Hotlist is keeping it's fingers crossed that last year's Perlberg returns to race this weekend! Todd "5th Place" McLoughlin is predicted to finish 30th, and the Hotlist is "McLaughing" about that lame-ass prediction. I see a top 15 in his future. Jeffrey "Why Not?" White has apparently been IM-ing Dan Strika because he too is signed up for 2 races in one day. Stop the insanity folks. One and done, that's what the lazy Hotlist prescribes!
In the 55+ race, crossresults wants David Stokes to finish in 10th. We want better, we always want better. 7th place, yo, okay?
In the 45+ race, we got Jim Feehan returning from quiet times away from cross competition finishing a crossresults.com predicted 23rd and Dan Strika in 52nd.
In the 35+ race, a race where Roger "What broken back?" Aspholm is predicted to finish only in 5th place (against some dudes with 201-207 points...yikes), Kissena's FORMER number one, Eric Ragot is back for blood. Right, you're back for blood? Because crossresults wants to give your punk-ass 16th place, but I'm thinking 12th will be earn you a "BAM, how you like me now beeeyotches?!" Covering the back of the field in the "what were you thinking?" spots, are Bertucco and de Baca in a predicted 41st and 42nd place respectively. JP Partland just sent me a cryptic email indicating that he too will be racing. He hasn't pre-registered, so he'll be at the back of the pack at the start too. The hotlist will want a solid mid-pack finish for him if he expects to hold onto his Hotlist ranking this coming week.
Rumor has it that Bertucco is obsessed with crossresults.com points because of Northampton start positioning, and figured he has a better shot of beating 6 dudes after starting near the back of the "Elite Masters" race, then beating 85 guys after getting a back row call-up for the cat 4s because the MAC series insists on calling riders up in order of when their ancestors came to this country. (Don't hate the playa, hate the game). No word on what the hell de Baca was thinking.
In the Elite race, we got no one....but if Justine Lindine, Jeremy Durrin, Travis Livermon and Adam Myerson can come to Jersey for some sweet MAC UCI points, then we gotta make sure they come in for SuperCross, RIGHT? It's the only UCI race going on in the region that weekend!
Oct 26, 2012 at 09:18 PM
I am sorry to say I won't be at the race formerly known as beacon. I love that race but I have had some weird flu thing for 4 days that I can't seem to kick. I'm hoping to give hpcx a whirl but I don't have high hopes. 
Oct 26, 2012 at 09:27 PM
I raced Marty cross, but dnf due to fatigue. I haven't been gone, just forgotten
Hocx will hopefully be redemption.
Oct 26, 2012 at 09:28 PM
Bummer, heal up, get your flu-shot, get back on track.mperlberg said:I am sorry to say I won't be at the race formerly known as beacon. I love that race but I have had some weird flu thing for 4 days that I can't seem to kick. I'm hoping to give hpcx a whirl but I don't have high hopes.
Oct 26, 2012 at 09:31 PM
I hate the iPad autocorrect.
No way would I ever buy one off these...
Oct 27, 2012 at 01:53 AM
I'm on the second round of the "full family flu" and am premptively (sp?) raising the white flag. As much as I'd love to give it a go, I've been on my bike once (today) since last week's race, and once the week prior to that.
Gotta get rested up. I hate to watch the Cross Hotlist glory slip farther away from my grasp, but c'est la vie.
Oct 27, 2012 at 02:29 AM
You can turn off autocorrect, DUH!
Oct 27, 2012 at 03:13 AM
remember eastern ride! hours of cross training, learnign to turn, and fun in the almost sun in sag harbor tomorrow
Oct 27, 2012 at 11:20 AM
true, I just want to choose to not accept the autocorrect at times, or have choices. That's one reason I prefer the Android OS - you get those choices...Jeff Owens said:You can turn off autocorrect, DUH!
Oct 27, 2012 at 11:19 PM
Sadly, I have to bail on the race tomorrow. Hurricane Sandy forced a change in plans.
Oct 28, 2012 at 12:16 AM
Independence/Beacon CX report:
Hot Damn that was fun! The Beacon/Independence course is downright fun. How fun? Well after my race, I hung out and got in an extra lap, because riding sandy single track in the woods is awesome (also, there were a couple of turns that were giving me trouble all race so I wanted to take another whack at them.
Dan Strika and lined up for the 40+ Cat 4s this afternoon. It would be Dan's second race of the day. A small field of 20 or so and call ups where how shall we say, a little disorganized. No matter, I heard my name, and the course has an extra long uphill pavement prologue that is very VERY fair, even if you are many rows back.
Still not one to give up any advantage I might have, once my name was called, I saw a spot on the front row just waiting for me. So I took to it, like Peter takes to his bottle after a long afternoon nap. I've been racing since 1991 and I still get nervous. The competition wasn't quite as fierce as some of the bigger Cat 4 or the 3/4 fields that I've raced this year, but today's pressure came from needing a top placing so the nerves were still in full effect.
The whistle blows and we're off. Nice rising pavement, 300 meters worth, before the turn off into the grass. I pre-rode the start 2 times, took different lines and was prepared. A guy comes up on my right just as we enter the grass. Except the course goes left, and he goes right. [cue Simpson's sound EFX "weh-heh"] Hole-shot is mine, I get to pick my line through the first twisty-turnies. I've got one hot on my wheel, but that's it right now. I've gapped most of the field. He passes me, I let him go. We hit a long stretch of hard packed sand. It looks like the right line is on the right or left, but my pre-ride revealed that the raised center stretch was best. I pass him back.
A couple of other guys start to come back to us. Through the woods, down a rocky single track onto the beach. I'm trading places with the Lamprey guy and he gets to the beach first. Except he dismounts right away, while I ride past him about 1/3 of the way before the sand sucks my wheels and will to live.
[hot cross tip for riding the sand. Keep your head up, look as far ahead as you can, keep those pedals churning and most importantly, GET OFF before you come to a complete and awkward full stop]
Steep steps up to pavement, I'm first wheel again. I hit the pavement and am hurting. Big time, but I want to press my advantage, so I crank out the watts as I head into the single track forest again. This time, no one's coming around me for the next 1/3 of the lap. Amphitheater of Death is the next major feature. Huge gaping steps. I'm hurting, but press ahead, when I get to the top, my bike lands with a thud, I jump on and get George Hincapie's now infamous "no chain" feeling. Except, my "no chain" has nothing to do with EPO and everything to do with having dropped my chain. I have to dismount and manually reattach. Guys are flying by me. Including my crossresults nemisis from Foundation, and a dude who was chasing me around at Cooper River. Damn. From leading the race to too far back.
Well, nothing to do, but put my head down and crank. I start pulling people back, digging deep where others are resting (after steep run-ups is a popular place for the weak to rest). I'm clawing my way back, now in 4th place. Crap. 1 place off the podium, 1 place out of the money. Stay strong. Push as hard as I can and maybe things will go my way. Last 1/2 lap, coming into the barriers before the descending pavement stretch, the guy in the lead, drops his chain. He makes a quick recovery and is off before I can catch him.
Past the pits, I'm drawing closer, and grab his wheel at the top of the short steep ride up before the drop into the amphitheater of pain. He's got a leg up on me in the amphitheater, but I stretch my legs and draw even before passing him 1/2 up the staircase. Lungs and legs searing, I jump back on and continue to push hard, getting a nice gap. I have to be careful as I've got tricky sand-filled turns and a quick descent before the final pavement homestretch.
I'm extra cautious this last time around, because I know that if I can just hit the pavement first, I will not let him pass me. And so it was. First and second were out of reach, but I'm pretty pleased with 3rd. Bittersweet though, because I had the legs to win today, but that's cross for you!
Oct 28, 2012 at 12:21 AM
eff'n awesome Marc
Oct 28, 2012 at 12:28 AM
Nice one Marc.
Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android
Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android
Oct 28, 2012 at 12:45 AM
Aaaagh! So sweet, so bitter. I was right with you gasping up those stairs. Next time. Victory is within sight.
Oct 28, 2012 at 01:34 AM
Nice Marc.
Now, conquer masters at HPCX...
Oct 28, 2012 at 01:35 AM
@marc a w e s o m e!& ol' BiG George says howdy...
Oct 28, 2012 at 10:28 PM
After a couple of warmup laps where I decided I'd "break the seal" and finally ride over 30psi I contemplated the irony of the fastest & driest course of the year being on the eve of Weather-ma-geddon.
I lined up in the front row, thanks to either a) my almost-400 cross results score or b) my having waited up till just after midnight the night before some race to register.
Hole shot was pretty straightforward; there were one or two guys ahead of me but they were working much harder than I was to keep their positions and since I knew I didn't have my usual level of leg & lung searing energy I was happy to slot in 2nd or 3rd wheel.
I soon heard Handsome Joe on my wheel and smiled knowing that *he* with the twin powers of youth and his stars & stripes leggings was ready to tear the field apart. If Joe is was an eight month old Labrador puppy, this field was a box of kleenex left unattended. Before long it was going to be raining bits & pieces of shredded hope, glory and wheel glue in his wake.
Without warning one of the lead riders bobbled a hairpin turn and while the rest of us tried to steer around him Joe dismounted, all but threw his bike over the obstacle and chased after his airborne ride.
HONEYBADGER! Technique be damned - he was going - as we used to say in the fire department - "like a whore in a fit" (with full apologies for the crude expression).
Good luck chasing THAT I thought and did my best to get into the front of the chase group and soft pedal. That ruse didn't last long but it was a nice rest and by the time I was passed Joe had a lead almost as handsome as he.
...
Oct 28, 2012 at 10:28 PM
From there it was a familiar game of "hang on to the lead pack as long as possible" I lost places, some more places, watched some guy plant his shoulder into a passing tree and come to a sudden and apparently painful stop...
I think I heard Dave Stokes say in a voice so calm he might have been speaking at a funeral, "Stay with that group," as I passed from the forest onto a paved stretch.
Thus I found myself third wheel behind my nemesis from two prior races; a spindly good-natured guy who rides for NYC Velo and another guy who looked like muscles all over. I sat patiently behind them, encouraging my nemesis whenever Muscles gapped him. I waited for my opportunity. After an agonizing wait, my opening appeared; the long paved uphill to the finish line, followed by a further uphill on the grass.
I jumped hard, as hard as I could with no thought to the future - like a "dyno" in rock climbing I put my whole body into the leap thinking that the other two would be winding up with all the rage of twin Ahabs, "how DARE he try to drop us?!?" as I rocked my bike from side to side I looked down and, expecting to see a wheel behind me saw pavement. I looked further ahead and summoned forth the mighty Six Demon Bag of magic power and blasted through the finish line (not yet, not yet...) and up the grassy hill. Stunned, I passed someone with so much momentum he basically sat up and muttered, "nice."
I had in the space of 40 seconds taken 3 spots with nobody chasing - yet.
Thus it was that I stumbled into the amphitheater of strife; me vs father time, age and the diabolical "Wallop" virus. I fought, twisted and gouged. I bit, I scratched, I hit when his head was turned and I taunted. By the 30 minute mark I was all but praying for death and I made it to the finish having conceded only one spot to an unknown who must have chased from farther back than horses & armor.
The clocked stopped at 37 minutes & change, and as I wheezed my way over to congratulate Handsome Joe (Second Place, none too shabby) the red letters on the scoreboard flickered briefly in my minds eye like a failing neon light in a Chinatown back alley...
Jules 1
Fate 0
As far as the race goes, I think I was in the top 10. In my bare knuckle brawl with the universe though, I'll spit out the loose teeth, straighten my vomit stained shirt, raise my middle finger to the heavens and call it a podium.
Oct 28, 2012 at 10:39 PM
courtesty crossresults.com:
Oct 28, 2012 at 11:21 PM
I was 31/63 in the 2/3/4 race. My clock says my time was about 51:00. It was very hard (avg HR 188 / max 203! ouch)
I'm happy that I didn't do the hard backwards slide I've been doing after the 2nd lap in every other race this year. Some strength is missing but I can still gain a lot of time with some refined technique. The last 2 laps were very tough, my back is still not strong enough and I was barely able to lift the bike above the barriers.
Anyway, I'm excited to see where this has me stacking up on Marc's next hot list.
Mike
Oct 28, 2012 at 11:54 PM
I had a great start sat top fivefir the first lap and it was hard but I wanted to go faster. Slid backwards a bit and was comfortable in 12th and heading to 1.5 laps to go. Disaster struck. It wasn't the rolled tire, but the comedic duo of joe and Jim changing my rear wheel. Slipped to 20th, clawed back three.
Joe got his revenge for last week. But Jim, what did I do to you?
Good feelings heading into Northampton.
Joe got his revenge for last week. But Jim, what did I do to you?
Good feelings heading into Northampton.
Oct 29, 2012 at 12:06 AM
Stokes, how was the new whip?
Oct 29, 2012 at 12:47 AM
Sarah does my wheel changes so I'm out of practice.
Oct 29, 2012 at 01:37 AM
Started building my gin and trombones and the headset is just tight with minimal pre-load. Stokes you too?
Oct 29, 2012 at 02:00 AM
Congratulations Joe and Eric and all of you......
Oct 29, 2012 at 02:30 AM
I went into this thing thinking my form was so good, I don't need no call-up, I don't need no pre-reg. Just line up at the back and go for it--I'd be breathing on Roger's neck within a few minutes.
Actually, that was Mike Magur. He started at the back of 55 starter and finished 2nd, only 24 seconds down on the flying finn.
I wasn't quite so confident. Last week was my first race, and hurt like a first race. I was pretty certain I'd start to see a little form come my way. Been feeling good about my cornering, and the punchy efforts have been a little better.
I did start at the back. Not a great start, but after that, things started picking up. Taking corners well, passing people, things were good. Think I was probably somewhere between 15th and 20th by the end of the first lap. Then, on the second, disaster.
Went into this elongated U, where you go downhill,turn left, ride a side hill, then up. I was carrying good speed, as I had in preview laps, and just as the turn started to head up,my front tire decided my glue job was so last year. Rolled! and with 23mm wide rims, not easy to put back on. (perhaps I was going faster)
Ran to the pit, Joe was there with a wheel. Eric's wheel. Put it in. Went. (thanks Eric!) Second problem; my bars were cocked to the right. Not the easiest to turn right when you're hanging a bit too far. Couldn't go quite as confidently into the turns, but stopping seemed like a worse solution.
Don't know where the mechanical put me, but I'm guessing around 40th. Passed Marc, hoping he'd get on my wheel and set about trying to catch Joaquin. Unfortunately, the guy who had been riding with me closed the final few seconds to Joaquin without me and then I faded...and that guy rode away from Joaquin as well. Sorry about that JDB.
Looking at the results, a few of the guys I was ahead of when I crashed caught and passed Eric, one made it up to 12th. Don't know if I had those legs today, it was a bummer that my first rolled tire in over a decade added to my string of meh.
Now I guess I need to troll the web for race pictures. Want to see how the dirt and grass stains look on the new skinsuit.
Oct 29, 2012 at 03:11 AM
Ah Wump! E tu, glue job? Terrible. Are the results posted online anywhere yet?