Gosh, those skills do come in handy...

LICX Race Report

41 starters, no categories....just line up and go!! The race was 50 minutes, and judging by race predictor, I knew most were cat 4's, making 50 minutes longer than most usually race. With that in mind, I played it as a race of attrition. This course has a lot of climbing, and a lot of twisty turns which require braking, a tight turn, and sprinting to the next one. My plan was to come across the first lap somewhere around the middle, and wait for people to slowly start going backwards - which is exactly what happened. I turned it up a little on the 4th lap (out of 6), and and started working my way through people who had not counted on a 50 minute race being substantially longer than a 35 minute race. In the end, I picked off a bunch of people, and crossed in 14th. Had I moved earlier than the 4th lap, I might have been able to pull a top ten. I gotta say, employing strategy, rather than just going like crazy without thinking ahead is kinda cool.
Now it gets interesting.....As I looked over the results, I did not see my bib # ANYWHERE...Oh, there it is, way at the bottom....What do you mean I got lapped??!! I think when I came across at the end of the first lap, I must have been overlooked, because I was clearly on the lead lap, and the 13th place finisher told the officials that I was right behind him, and on the same lap. I learned an important lesson today. If at all possible, wait for your results. If I had left, I would have seen the results posted a few days later, and I would have gone nuts.
That said, I am happy with my result, and had a good time. I told you I would get my revenge after Supercross!

@david S. - was it the same course as last year's (pretty much)?  

Pretty much the same course. Very twisty in the mid-section. Maybe more climbing. I kept waiting for my tires to roll clean off!

Sterling Day 2. You'd think that with it being 20 degrees warmer, life would be grand. Except not so much, because it was raining-ish and...the anti-griddle.

Foodies and fans of Food Network's Chopped will know what I speak. The anti-griddle is a kitchen tool that is a griddle, whereupon anything you place on it will freeze (instead of cook like a traditional griddle pan). So that's exactly what was going on in Sterling, MA. While the air temp was 28-31 degrees, the ground was still living at 8-10 degrees from the previous few days of deep freeze. So when the rain started hitting the ground, notably the non rutted muddy stretches, you had a new sheet of ice whereupon only ice skates were going to be an efficient mode of transport.

I actually got in 3 nice recon laps which both terrified me and gave me some confidence. But when the mud got it's new shiny coat of ice, I was out.

Siss-ing out was made worse when I later watched 10-year old girls handle their business without too much drama. And so did lots and lots of other riders. But not me. You can't race an icey off-camber course scared and I was scared.

Additional notes:

• There was some last minute re-routing of certain parts of the course that took away some of the dangers.
• Had an interesting chat with the lead UCI official who shared some info with me that might be helpful as we get ready for Supercross 2014. One of the roles of the UCI officials is to help make sure that promoters are putting on legit quality races. And he specifically said, it's not just about the details, "I told Tom [the promoter], that what you have here looks basically like a local race, not a UCI race." He then goes on, un-prompted to note that the course stakes were NOT double-taped. I know Myles likes to poke me about that particular point, but you know...it's something we should get done next year. We'll need two more bodies at Friday's course set-up.
  
• There were other things, like talking about presiding over a Burrow's Brother's doping(?) case...I didn't know that they got popped?
• And then there was his comments about Richard Meeker, associating him with the US Postal Master's team a few years back and called Steve Johnson "The Marionette Master"
  

@Marc we double taped the ever-loving crap outta Supercross... 25 mph winds may have obviated that...

Jules said:

@Marc we double taped the ever-loving crap outta Supercross... 25 mph winds may have obviated that...

Sorry, foggy memory. I know I did a bunch of double taping too, but for some reason I was remembering that the whole course wasn't done up.

But seriously; does the UCI offer nothing more than "this looks like a local race" because there isn't one more more row of tape everywhere?  Gee thanks.  Good thing we spent the extra grand on the license and the trip for Myles to CO to stay certified.

Is that the sum of their wisdom on the subject?  I mean, how about a tall glass of STFU with that, Mr. UCI ref?

I took out a measuring tape to make sure the hole shot was a regulation 5 meters wide and the official at Supercross was like, "Whatever, it looks ok like it is" even though it was only 4m wide...

^ but they did deign to cite us for lack of a posted SIGN to the media area, even though a blind, three legged dog could have found it in the dark...

a photo of me on the podium at last weeks SCCX #1. this weeks SCCX #2 i was holding 2nd place for the first 2 laps and ended up getting passed by 2 people and finished 4th

Whoa http://russcam.tumblr.com/post/68747065271/i-give-you-the-wissell-slide

Hey hey. Is anyone planning to race the Horseshoe Scramble this coming Sunday in NJ, departing from BK? Looking for a ride for myself and the bike. Hoping to get a second 'cross race in this season.

hi Kayt &co,
i am registered for the Horseshoe Scramble; a new category(for me) Masters cat4 40+ 8am, and will be leaving from brooklyn early early Sunday...can/love to share a ZipCar.
-harry

hbolick@gmail.com

jim_nelson said:

Nice 5 photo series of my buddy Mark in Portland:

Start at this one (he's the one swimming in the green helmet).

http://leonardjohnson.zenfolio.com/p387865920/h1338a5f4#h1338a5f4

Nice jazz hands

^Stay to the left^

What kind of discs are those and does he like them?

I can haz translate?

The Hotlist: Episode Missing

Shuffle, shuffle, flip, page, click...Hotlist is lonely. After seeing so many Kissena's race at Supercross, last week was bound to be a let-down. But Hotlist understands...folks are burnt. Adam Myerson talks for days about how he needs weeks after CycleSmart to recover and get back in the groove.

Of course that didn't stop David Sanossian and Marc Bertucco from lacing up the skates last week...

That said, let's consider this week, a "bye" in the Hotlist episode schedule. We'll get back to it next week when deep intel reports that we've got folks planning on racing Horseshoe and NBX. The season's not over...beyond Horseshoe and NBX, on KCC party-day, in Emaus, PA, the MAC series finale is on the schedule too.

It's the Hotlist equivalent of this

@Hotlist - I am done. After all, what greater heights can I achieve?

eragot said:

@Hotlist - I am done. After all, what greater heights can I achieve?

Always end on a high note.

Some random notes/thoughts.

Ragot, if you contested Horseshoe, you'd be a legit contender for podium in either Master's open, or A race. If you went to NBX, you'd get a second row call-up.

Sterling. I didn't push hard to get more Kissena participation at this race, primarily because there's not a lot of family fun around the area. BUT, I will say, that from a strictly sporting point of view, if you are looking to improve your off-camber riding skills, there is absolutely, no better race to do it than Sterling.

NBX, I look forward to the time when more Kissena's finally get to this awesome race and then ask on the forum incredulously, "How come no one ever told me how amazing this race was?" I will be racing then feasting on Alie's donuts all weekend. I can't wait.

I'm going to head to Horseshoe. I have a love/hate relationship with this race that I can't divorce myself from. I have not ridden my cross bike since HPCX. Gonna be ugly.

I have 2 spaces leaving Brooklyn at 5:45 for the early race. I need to be back in Brooklyn by early afternoon.

NBX is a race I'd love to go to. Buy family commitments mean I can't. I have to take time away from racing to accommodate the family. With the return of nice weather, I wouldn't MIMD racing again. But I won't. Maybe next year.

I totally understand the need for a mental and physical break. (I personally could use a break from the rental car tango we've been doing all season.) ESPECIALLY if you are targeting early spring racing for results. I'm just giving y'all a good-natured ribbing...

For me, the cross season, reminds me when I started racing in college, over in a flash! It feels like just last weekend, I was consoling myself at Nittany (when I got crashed out of contention rather spectacularly on day 1) saying "it's only the first race of the year, no biggie." Even then when I was saying it, I knew that throwing away races, in such a short season, is a dangerous mental attitude to embrace. But then for me, I come at cross from a different perspective than most--namely cross and crits are my new/old/new again jam.

But yeah, for sure. Everyone should look at the entirety of their racing season, evaluate what targets are most important to them and train/race accordingly.

And as a side bonus for ME, this "early" retirement for many of the team's crossers means I may actually, despite an overall disappointing season, still make the last couple of hotlists!

I'm going to keep it going.  I'll be at Horseshoe Scramble on Sunday and, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong, I'll do the last MAC race.  I don't really have any excuses not to race.  I only did a small number of road races this year, all of which were local, and I'm still reasonably fit.  We'll see what happens.