Well, it's not me hunched over my handlebars in defeat, but I do like this pic too:

http://www.leisterimages.com/Bicycle-Racing/2013-Racing-Season/Limestone-Cross-Dec152013/35335515_vb3pZQ#!i=2971092454&k=XFD59PG

And here's one of Todd coming through the opening off-road stretch of the first lap, with a little imagination and my previous description, you can "see" what madness is about to happen behind him:

http://www.leisterimages.com/Bicycle-Racing/2013-Racing-Season/Limestone-Cross-Dec152013/35335515_vb3pZQ#!i=2971048548&k=V3zhPgx

And I don't know why, but this pic makes me think of The Amazing Spider Man (as opposed to Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider Man...comic book nerds unite, am I right, or am I right!?)

http://www.leisterimages.com/Bicycle-Racing/2013-Racing-Season/Limestone-Cross-Dec152013/35335515_vb3pZQ#!i=2971052906&k=2gsGpDg

WoW!

...marcB, toddMc &Nelson, what a "classic snowy cyclo-cross fest" great images!!!!!
hopes to do same oneDay the soft muddy conditions do seem preferable to the razor-sharp
ice &frozen tundra. great job&report(s)
-harryB;-)

Harry,

@Rick,
yep! i am registered&will travel w/. i hope conditions are soft&that it is
not too icy!
-harryB:-)


On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Rick Perner <

mperlberg said:

there go another 20 minutes of your lives!

http://vimeo.com/album/2200561/video/81993307

sorry! 

There are 154 videos total.  I might seriously have to take a leave of absence from work just to catch up.

New rules:

1N4: Wording has been added to the rules of the course to make it clear that riders must stay on the designated course and that fallen barriers or tape shall not stay that responsibility. 8F7: A penalty has been added for avoiding an obstacle in a cyclo-cross race.

Newsflash... Nelson wins the 4/5 at Newtown this morning.

Officials make the call. Now they have a rule to cite. Unlike the NFL, USA cycling probably does not do any specific training.

dstokes said:

Officials make the call. Now they have a rule to cite. Unlike the NFL, USA cycling probably does not do any specific training.

From today's World Cup race:

"Sven Nys (Crelan KDL) finished fourth despite injuring his wrist in Saturday's race. He was distanced after a difficult start but somehow fought back up and passed the bunch of chasers on the final lap thanks to help from the Belgian fans, who pulled the barriers back to reveal a clean line. He took a tumble late on but was rightly proud of fourth place."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/providence-aims-for-cyclo-cross-world-cup-in-2015

Oh boy do I hope Richard is able to pull this off.

Also from today's World Cup race:  Mike Garrigan was in front of Sven Nys for the first half lap plus today.  I saw them together in a few shots; then saw Nys pass on the off-camber descent. It was pretty cool.

when is it too cold to race?

Rick Perner said:

when is it too cold to race?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/when-is-it-too-cold-to-race-cyclo-cross

I tore myself away from another fascinating article on how this PRO cyclist went to a wind tunnel to work on his TT position to read this article (for more snark-hilarity follow me on the twitter. I'm @VC95)...good stuff to read does pop up on our fav cycling websites after all I guess!

I think I agree that riders need to be protected from themselves. I'm frankly shocked at the number of folks that started the early morning races at Sterling. Watching the highlight videos of the Elites, seeing all the slick mud in the afternoon, for us cat 4s, was solid impenetrable ice in the morning.

Having just spent a few minutes myself in 7 degrees as I went about a 1/4 of a block from a parked car to the restaurant today, I'm just not sure if it is possible to dress well enough to protect your fingers and toes from frostbite. Which is a very scary thing. One of Sarah's friends went running a few years ago in Chicago, was wearing a hat and still got frostbite and LOST part of her ear.

Peter's hands, despite wearing gloves in much warmer conditions than 7 degrees, got red and puffy and that's pretty much the first sign that frostbite is just around the corner. I was very worried for him all night. Fortunately everything turned out a-okay and I was mostly just being a nurse-father, that probably knows both too much and not enough about a lot of things.

But reading about black fingers? Guess what, black flesh is dead flesh. And needs to be removed, immediately. For what? A f-ing bike race?

Random equipment note from LImestone:

Clogged pedals/clipping in issues

Todd riding Shimano XTs
Nelson riding Time
Laura Van Gilder riding ???? (I shoulda asked)

NO clogging issues.

Marc riding Egg beaters (the kind without the plastic platform surrounds)!

All the pedals mentioned are reportedly good in muddy conditions...and frankly I'm a bit surprised I didn't have problems too...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Fiennes

"In 2000 he attempted to walk solo and unsupported to the North Pole. The expedition failed when his sleds fell through weak ice and Fiennes was forced to pull them out by hand. He sustained severe frostbite to the tips of all the fingers on his left hand, forcing him to abandon the attempt. On returning home, his surgeon insisted the necrotic fingertips be retained for several months before amputation, to allow regrowth of the remaining healthy tissue. Impatient at the pain the dying fingertips caused, Fiennes cut them off himself with a fretsaw,[2] just above where the blood and the soreness were.[1][3]"

Fretsaw is an astoundingly appropriate name for such a tool.

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/oct/05/features11.g21 "So he decided to do the job himself. "I purchased a set of fretsaw blades at the village shop, put the little finger in my Black & Decker folding table's vice, and gently sawed through the dead skin and bone just above the live skin line," he writes. "The moment I felt pain or spotted blood, I moved further into the dead zone. I also turned the finger around several times and cut into it from different sides. This worked well, and the little finger's knuckle finally dropped off after some two hours of work." It took him five days to do the rest; a job, he says, well done."

Please stop! I just watched 'In the Cut', a very disturbing Jane Campion movie about cutting up body parts.

The Hotlist: Episode 11

 

And little Cindy-Lou Who looked up at Hotlist with a tear in her eye, and asked, “Is it over already, so really, so much too soon?” And with just an innocent crumb of a question, Hotlist knew what had to be done, and his heart (three sizes bigger than it is during road season) broke just a little when he said, “Yes, yes it is.” But before Hotlist says goodbye until September the next, there were many joyful songs of cyclocross adventures to celebrate these last few wintry weeks of the year. Which embro-covered elf stands alone at the very tip-top of the snowy peak, looking down upon all the rest?

 

1.     Todd McLoughlin goes into the long dark CX off season knowing that he’s got two top-10 finishes (6^th at Horseshow and 10^th at Limestone, the MAC series finale) to keep his embers burning for the raging fire of 2014.

2.     Nelson Martins dug deep into the furry depths of his winter-wear beard and pulled out end-of-season results that may have him mixing it up with the Killer B Cat 3s next season. 1^st at Horseshow, 1^st at Newtown. And 1^st in the New Jersey CX Cup Cat C category. He’s got all the confidence necessary to lead him into a strong 2014.

3.     Patrick Grehan retires his 2013 CX season having pinned on a race number no less than 17 times (a 70% increase over his 2012 race count). For Grehan, it wasn’t just about quantity either. The final weeks of his season included a 6^th place at SCCX #2, 5^th at both Horseshow and Steven Kane (for which he was rewarded with an impressively low 331 crossresults points).

4.     Harry Edmund Bolick stormed into and out of his virginal cross season like the Honey Badger we all know he is. In the final weeks of the season he earned some of his best results of the year by placing 10^th at Horseshoe, 8^th at Steven Kane and 19^th at Newtown.

5.     Marc Bertucco, as numbers go, raced no less than 22 times in 2013, making him the unofficial champ of “How many times did YOU race cross this year?” More relevant however, is that he didn’t totally suck in the last 3 weeks of the traditional New England/Mid-Atlantic season. 16^th place in the 2/3/4 MAC series finale held in challenging snow-muddy conditions earns him a spot in the middle of the Hotlist this week.

6.     David Sanossian looked to be on his way to a very good finish in the 4/5 race at Supercross before a minor course detour threw him off track. Sanossian bounced back at Steven Kane out-riding, out-lasting most of his competitors to finish in an impressive 12^th place in an open category throw-down.

7.     James Nelson probably saw flashes of his pre-rib-injury self when he crossed the line at Horseshoe in 12^th. With a full “off-season” of road training ahead of him, Hotlist expects Nelson to be battling again near the front of the Cat 4 fields in 2014.

8.     Philip Maronilla is another fresh young innocent face to the world of crossing. Newtown wasn’t his first race of the season, but rolling in a rock-solid 37^th out of 51 starters is a great “amuse-bouche” to next year.

9.     Rick Perner took a really deep breath and coughed out the last of some nasty bronchial goodies for “clear sailing” to finish in 15^th at Steven Kane and 39^th at Newtown.

10.  Kayt Mathers caught the #CXisBoss virus at Supercross and toed the start line at Horseshoe and Steven Kane where she finished in 12^th and 27^th places respectively. It’s hard to look at her results with probably less than 10 actual rides (never mind races) on her cross bike and not get excited about what she and the rest of the Kissena women’s squad can/should/will do to their competition.

 

Thanks hotlist (and whats up with the font). One more race before end of season...

Ahem! Hotlist?

27dec2013

whos in for LongIsland-CX sunday, 29dec2013?:
Rick Perner
Phillip Maronilla
David Sanossian

&harry edmund bolick yes!...snagged a cancellation last minute:

please text me to organize ride out!
-h
718-640-8680

newtown-cx
cat4/5, 8am, 40min race

overcast, cold, 38dF, snow 0-14" packed/icy crust w/soft interior.

preRace:
early start from bkNY, great crew of phillipM, rickP, nelsonM&me.


course: fast, physically difficult, course, snowy, w/long paved &packed dirt sections, a 750m/ +30m elev. climb, open field descents, &packed 200m snow run.

pre-ride: w/nelson v. hard course! w/me into O2 debt@heavy ridable snow sections, long paved hill climb&packed snow run section! we were 1the 1st couple riders on course for the day&each took different lines in the snow sections w/nelson often running sections &me trying to ride them; nelson's assessment, accurately, was that the long hill climb would be a deciding factor, it is @700m of 5-6% climb w/ +30m ascent.

i re-rode 1st snow section (4x)@the pits area&base of hill to A)establish a ridable line& B)mitigate effort(O2 debt) b4 longclimb section...re-rides paid off as i rode this section all(5)laps.

raceReport:
&shout-out 2a v.cool v.tough guy &newkissena, nelson martins;

race: good group @50-60riders &finale to CT-CX Series&State for Champion; cat4/5 field, incl. nelsonM, phillipM&rickP;

i lined-up 2nd row right, just behind nelsonM 4the 200m slight uphill paved sprint to turn1; i reached the corner@25th, nelson @10-12th, manage2 pass 3-4after the turn, saw nelson running @snowy pits, (2-3)ahead, then 'witnessed' nelson re-mount &pull away from me&past (6-8)others on the long hillclimb; (i was deep in O2 debt &he(nm) had just fallen/run&remounted, undoubtedly also in O2 debt w/heart rate off the chart). this is/was the winning d e e p dig!

...an effort which separates 1st&15th; followed by a (1)minute gain/loss on each of the (5)hard fought &challenging laps;

i did NOTgive-up@any point in the race, but Nelson! kept diggingDeep&deeper, i sumize, 2retain&gain when others faltered or were suffering; i fell(4x), nm fell(2x), i rode pits 5x, nm ran2x &rode 3x, i was super fast in the deep snowy descents&meadows, nm must have crushed the runs&long climb ea. lap...in the end nelson finished @5minutes ahead of me, 18th/53 &a nice last lap pass/re-pass@ the snowy run by a tight group of(3) in last km, very nearly catching them again@final barriers, fell soactacularly, w/a feet over head cash @1st barrier...ending 8sec back of the(3).

Nelson for the Win!

we fed&changed warmed-up at the Youth Sports Center awaiting nelson's glorious podium ceremony &the succeeding races devolved into a mud-fest w/previously un-ridable snow sections becoming ridable...still, cold hovering in&out of freezing depending of wind&shadows.

this was a taste of cyclocross!

w/conditions for the child in us ALL!

so, nelson predicted &was determined to secure a podium spot&he took it ALL...c o n g r a t u l a t i o n s to NelsonMartins cat4 champ in NJ &force to be reckoned with!

Something to note, there was no organized call up for the 4/5 race at Newtown.  Very strange.  People started where they stood the first time.