nicely done!

Great stuff!

BTW, upgrade explanation is on velonews.com today... and the fat lady she has sung.

Grehan takes 2nd in the Cat 4 40+ race at Horseshoe Scramble.

I took the hole shot. Patrick came by me with a vengeance and had a solid lead half way into the first lap. I was in a chase group of about 5 until I sucked a branch into my derailleur, ripping it in half and off my bike. Race over. Patrick held on for 2nd place and what should be a 2nd overall for the NJ series. Congrats.

way to go men!

Sweeeet!

awesome, awesome, awesome!! sorry about the derailleur jim,

so myles and i laid out the course for supercross this afternoon. looks to be a really fun, albeit tough course. that section of the park had a lot more potential than we though it did. i almost felt as though i was designing the instrument of my own demise.....promises to be a good weekend.

I was sure that Horseshoe Scramble couldn’t be as muddy as last year given that it hadn’t rained since Tuesday. I was wrong. Who knew that Jersey got hit with snow on Tuesday and it hadn’t fully melted till the past two days. This made for a muddy course that made up for the lack of mud at most all other races this year. The mud was mixed with long grass that did a nice job of getting clogged in the drivetrain. Awesome.

At the start of the Cat 4 40+ race Jim got the hole shot and I motored past him and get a good gap on the field. The back end of the field had a long muddy stretch (250 meters?) with a quick drop, sharp turn and and run up followed by an even deeper and longer muddy section. I slipped out on the turn right before the run up on first lap and was overtaken by two pursuers.  So much for being careful. I was able to regain 1^st position muscling through the long muddy section. As I started the second lap I saw Jim off to the side shouting encouragement. Appreciated the encouragement but was disappointed for his mechanical as he was looking real strong today.

The next few laps I yo-yoed between 1^st and 2^nd place as either I or a racer would get bogged down in the mud. On the third lap I was being pursued by a BH guy (Pascal) who overtook me as I went down out in the same muddy section where I crashed on the first lap. I would close the gap to him and them he would make ground on me. I was chasing hard on the bell lap but took a new line on one of the slippery turns and fell for the third time. Now there was no way of catching the leader unless he had a similar mishap. He didn’t. I rolled in 2^nd place and he thanked me for crashing.

Pretty stoked about another second place finish. Frustrated at how close I was to taking the win. I had to hose down my bike twice to get it even close to being clean again. Belgian waffles with specula was the bomb. Thanks to David Sanossian for lending me his tubulars.

 

 

Nice Patrick!  Really nice!

Bad day for me... right knee issues meant I favored the leg left a ton. However, the course was insanely fun and I'm really glad to have finally gotten to do one soggy race. Mud may be more annoying to clean, but at least it doesn't linger in your socks like sand. Plus, it was nice to see other Kissena dudes doing so well, especially Pat, who crushed it and then came through big time and lent me his rear wheel after I broke two spokes preriding (thanks a ton!). Also a huge thanks to Jim who stuck around after having some personal bike tragedy to cheer me on and get Patrick his wheel back.

Good News--Bad News--Good News from Day 2 of the NBX pro race.

Double-secret-undercover Kissena pro Mike Garrigan rode like a champ for 7/8ths of the more technical race course than day 1. Hanging out in 2nd through 4th wheel, covering moves. Day 1 winner Shawn Milne attacks and puts a solid gap between himself and everyone else. Mike has no choice, with 1 lap to go, he has to bridge. He needs the 40 point win desperately.

With less than 1/2 a lap to go, it's clear that there's no catching Milne. Garrigan appears to turn off the gas somewhat to save what he has left from his failed chase to secure a 2nd place sprint. Which should be no problem against guys like Timmerman, Durrin and Lindine. Except, he rolls around in 5th? What the what?! Oh...flat tire...not sure when that happened. Through the finally rooty section before the pavement? Slow leak earlier in the lap that hampered his failed bridge up attempt?

The good news now is that he may be forced to fly back from Canada next weekend to compete at Supercross.

With less than 1/2 a lap to go, it's clear that there's no catching Milne. Garrigan appears to turn off the gas somewhat to save what he has left from his failed chase to secure a 2nd place sprint. Which should be no problem against guys like Timmerman, Durrin and Lindine. Except, he rolls around in 5th? What the what?! Oh...flat tire...not sure when that happened. Through the finally rooty section 

Curses!

My own race was fine. Better warm-up. More technical course. Warmer weather. All signs pointed to a better day 2. And I was close to catching a group that included 11th place, but the advertised 40-minute race was cut short at 35 minutes for me. I had a plan, I knew where I would catch them, I just ran out of time. Blurg...15th place, again.

I'm a little tired right now to wax poetic about the weekend, but I feel I owe it to cross-lovers everywhere to point out some key facts about this weekend.

1. Sarah uncovered THE BEST Holiday Inn Express IN THE WORLD. Really nice, affordable place, 15 minutes away from the venue. Also close to Providence. Looking forward to staying there twice next year.

2. Awesome breakfast diner in nearby town serving up wicked good hash, eggs, hot chocolate and more.

3. Awesome doughnut joint called Allie's worth the trip alone.

4. Awesome race courses on both days. REALLY interesting, challenging, but not stupid challenging. Something for everyone. Wide grassy turns, rooty forested sections, long beach runs, long windy pavement stretches for you to exercise your inner Floyd Bennet Field.

5. Rock solid food-truckage. Podium ceremonies in heated building at "center of course." Kids races. Results out promptly.

In summary, this may be my favorite race course of the season and you are really missing out on some great New England racing if you don't come to this one next year.

Hey we got a shout-out!

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/coverage/249977-NBX-Grand-Prix-of-Cyclocross/video/665296-Mike-Garrigan-Rides-in-on-flat-NBX-Day-2

I know some of you think of Sasquatch when we talk of the elusive Keith...but he's real, oh yes, very real. Here's a spy shot I took of the unsuspecting creature observed wandering the grounds of Goddard Memorial Park on Sunday:

Woot!

I though I saw him in the background of this http://www.cxmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/nbx_day_2-267-590x392.jpg

Work kept me away from NBX this weekend, which was disappointing.  However, I did make it to Horseshoe Scramble on Sunday, where I took 6th in the Cat 3 race.

All the local Cat 3s were there.  40+ riders started the race, but far fewer finished.  A few of the guys I am competitive with dropped out before the finish, but, trust me, they were behind me when they dropped out.

The course was, essentially, up and down a long, shallow hill, and it was muddy.  In my mind, the course had two parts, a top section and a bottom section.  At the top, book-ending each lap, were a number of slippery, not-too-muddy turns, a few drops, a downhill on grass and a pavement drag to the finish.  In between, at the bottom of the hill, was a mud bog.   The bog had two longish muddy straightaways, separated by a few muddy turns and a ride/run-up.  The last portion of the second muddy straight, about 30m, was un-rideable.   

I had a pretty good start.  I rode as high as third on the first long muddy section, but I got bogged down on the next mud section (I rode, very slowly, through the un-rideable section) and slipped back into 8th or 9th.  I stayed in 8th or 9th for the next lap or so, but then I slowly picked people off.  On the first muddy section of last lap I pulled even with the rider in 5th, but I bobbled the ride/run up and he rode it cleanly.  The bobble cost me a few bike lengths, which I never closed down. 

All in all it was a good day.  I'm pretty sure that I rode the last few laps faster than the leader.  With three-to-go I marked our relative positions on a portion of the course that doubled back on itself.  On each of the next two laps I was closer than on the previous lap.  Not much closer, but it was still encouraging.

Supercross should be good.     

Nice Todd...

Hotlist wants to congratulate all you "Horseshoe-ers" for "hoof'n" it out to Jersey and scoring some "ringers!" (Get it? You didn't know that Hotlist was so 'punny,' did you?).

Anyone else get out there? Hotlist needs to know to predict the outcome with total and complete accuracy the KCC champs this weekend!

Todd: Nice description of the course and congrats on a well earned placing.

You guys are just murdering it this year.  Nicely done!

I though I saw him in the background of this http://www.cxmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/nbx_day_2-267-590x392.jpg

Sitting with my father in the local taqueria, he points to the tv and says "cyclocross?" ESPN Deportes had cx coverage (a euro pro race though I didn't catch which one). Pretty neat.

Wednesday. Less than 5 days from the world's most epic show-down. Ever. Jawbones, Alpine times by Strava, Floyd Bennet Field power records. This is the stuff of sissies and pretenders and training ride champions. Hotlist is here to tell you that if you are a man, you will sign up and race the Kissena CX Club Championships (the rest of you are opposite of men). There has been a suspicious lack of chatter about this coming week and Hotlist can only assume that means everyone is deep, lost inside their personal pain caves, doing double secret training in attempts to stand on the golden podium.

This week Hotlist looks into his crystal ball (not to be confused with MSNBC's Krystal Ball), and is going to tell you how this show-down is going to shake out. Top 10+ style, natch. Some of you will rejoice. Some of you will cry. So be it.

1. Eric Ragot. Can anyone stop this man?! Dude hasn't raced in 3 weeks and as much as Hotlist would like to punish him for his race-lite girly-man schedule, it's hard to look past his season's results and ability to put most Kissena's to shame within a grassy turn or two.
   
   
2. Todd McLoughlin. If there's anyone who can ride Ragot into off-camber oblivion, it's this dude. While NBX would have been a better gut-check than the local Horseshoe hoof fest, we can't ignore the fact that his 6th place earned him a season low 330 crossresults points.
   
   Grrr....now it gets tricky. Too many "x-factor" dudes who have sick power, but approach cross like it's the 9th most important thing they've got to do on any given weekend in Fall/Winter.
   
   
3. Joe Mueller. Another dude who's been MIA from the racing scene since Bubble-time. But, Hotlist can't ignore that this guy probably has a 30-50 watt power-to-weight advantage over almost everyone signed up to race the champs. Not enough to take either of the top two spots, but enough to secure the final step on the podium.
   
   
4. Patrick Grehan. With two second places over the last two weeks, Patrick has gained valuable experience RACING at the FRONT of a race. Which will make a difference in this small field of starters. Hotlist would feel more comfortable putting him in the number 4 spot over our number 5, if one of those second places was a win. But hey, racing ain't comfortable, why should race-predicting be?
   
   
5. Michael Perlberg. He's one of the club's totally legit Cat 3 crossers, and if this race were on computrainers or at Floyd Bennet Field, he'd be number 4 fuh shure. But it's not, and our Prez hasn't cranked out any race-day wattage since Bubble cross where he finished 13th out of 31.
   
   
6. JP Partland. It's been a while since Hotlist has seen a solid, good cross race from the Chief. And he's got among the fewest races under his belt in the last two years of anyone actively crossing on the team. Still, if he doesn't have a sleepless night on Saturday, he's a shoe-in for a top-half of the field finish.
   
   
7. Jules Roazen. Our lanky Canadian friend ripped through the early season cat 4 fields, proving he was among our best cat 4 crossers. Lately, his cross rig has been gathering dust, but once it gets a power wash, and if he can dial up the mental motivation to race hard, he and JP will be chasing around each other on the new for 2012 course.
   
   
8. Joaquin de Baca. He's one of the club's super-secret studs. He's been quiet since Northampton, where he motored exceptionally well to overcome a couple of lackadaisical starts. He won't have crowds to contend with at this race, and I expect this Deathstar to be fully operational...of course a photon torpedo implosion wouldn't be totally unexpected either...the future difficult to predict is.
   
   
9. Jim Nelson. A quieter than normal season for Nelson, but he remains one of the club's better bike handlers. If he can keep his derailleur attached to his bike this week, I expect a top ten for this guy.
   
   
10. Daniel Hubbard. He's been coming in on the tail end of smaller race B fields this season and I expect that will be enough for squeaking into the top 10 on Smackdown Sunday...unless...
    
    
11. Myles Romanow. Our chief crosser is signed up to race. A couple of years ago, with literally one ride on his cross rig all year, he raced the Elite race at his own event and didn't come in last. I'll let you google those results on your own. How does he do it? Well, it's the skills man. You know how most of us feel riding around with Ragot on warm-up laps? That's how guys like Ragot and McLoughlin feel when they ride with Myles. But unless this retired Jedi has been doing secret training on Tatooine, he'll be grabbing his throat choking for air around the start of lap 2 of this race.