Looks like Hotlist has his work cut out for him in the waning days of the season!

Myles,

FWIW, in all the interviews I've seen post Supercross, everyone refers to our race as Supercross. Not sure what's going to happen legally in 2015, but it's pretty clear that in the minds of racers. Your race is "Supercross" and that other race is just "Gloucester."

Nice work Pappa G!!!!!

Ugh. Reminds me of Granogue http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/12/news/rider-dead-crash-french-cyclocross-race_355313

Ugh. Reminds me of Granogue http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/12/news/rider-dead-crash-french-cyclocross-race_355313

Did someone die at Granogue?

Yet another reminder of how incredibly dangerous our sport can be....I sometimes find myself falling into the "'cross is much safer than road" trap.....falling at 15 mph onto grass instead of 30mph onto the tarmac, with ten people piling on top of you. Unfortunately, we sometimes need awful reminders of how careful we need to be out there, and that at the end of the day, we're doing this just for fun.

PatrickG said:

Did someone die at Granogue?

While I am fairly certain that no one died at Granogue, Bill Ellison and another rider were in a bad crash at the start of the 35+ race in 2011.  Bill Ellison hit his head very hard, lost consciousness and was air-lifted to a local hospital.  He appears to have recovered.  At least, he is racing in the Elites now.

Head trauma is a real risk in cycling.  It warrants repeating that Kissena's concussion policy is a good idea. The policy is: "If you crash hard enough to break your helmet, you are done racing (riding) for the day."

No one died at Granogue.

After Patrick's win in the Master's race, I was second in the Open race on Long Island on Sunday. 

Originally, I was scheduled race in Rhode Island this weekend, but my car crapped out on the way up.  Rhode Island was out.  Not to be totally thwarted, I convinced Brendan to lend me his car so I could do the Long Island race on Sunday.

Sunday's course had a few muddy spots, but, nothing too soupy.  After all the rain on Saturday, I expected more mud.  I'd say that place has really good drainage.  I'm told that Sunday's course lay-out was the same as Saturday's course, but run in reverse.

The race report was pretty uneventful.  I rode 10 seconds behind the eventual winner (Brian Wolf) for just about the entire race.  I got very close with 2.5 laps to go, but couldn't close the rest of the gap.  After that, I was pretty tired and a bit discouraged.  In the end, I was 10-15 seconds behind.

Next weekend is the MAC series finale and my last race of the year.  Mike P will be looking to defend his current 3rd place in the 2/3/4 MAC series standings.  Goooo Mike.

PatrickG said:

Brendan - did you beat the Junior you were racing with the first few laps? Perry has good handling skills and is the NJ Junior champ. His dad told me he is going to Nationals in Austin in January. Keeping up with him is an accomplishment i itself.

Was it this kid in the red/black/white kit?  I think I did finish before him.  Looking at the video though I doubt that's who you're talking about since it's 20 mins into the video.  There was another guy I chased for ~1 lap and he pulled away quite fast.  He was on a mountain bike  

So about an hour ago, I found myself banging around the house, the only one awake, and looking for something to do......so I said to myself, "'cross season is over, time for some off-season maintainence!" (you can feel appropriately sorry for me now). So I decided to pull the headset of my bike apart. Yikes. Sand, gravel, bits of string, and the odd subway token were all hiding conveniently out of sight. A clean rag, some white lithium grease for the cups, and that puppy was good as new in about 15 minutes. If you haven't done it in a while, and if you raced in rain this season, of which there was plenty, I highly recommend making the investment of a little time and effort to clean that bad boy out. Your headset and steerer tube both take tremendous abuse, and keeping them in prime condition is both important, and easy. I was shocked at what was going on in there. That's all....I'm done.

^subway token LOL

NBX Day 2: 35+

After 2 days and nights of rain, I awoke again to grey cloudy skies on Sunday morning. But this time the clouds were dry. The NBX course drains well, and I was surprised to note multiple mud holes, deep standing water. (One particular descent, when my brakes "failed" me, I ended up accidentally discovered a very fast line through a deep puddle that was ice cold and chilled my feet to the bones.) Wind gusts were fierce, making 36 degree air temps feel much, much colder.

Still, with a repaired wheel, a belly full of Allie's Donuts and hot chocolate, and plenty of time to warm-up on the horse trails, and golf-course access roads that surround the NBX course, I was feeling good. And motivated.

Since upgrading from the 4/5 fields where I was routinely in the first or second row, I'm now getting staged in Master's and Cat 3 races just a few rows from the back of the pack. At NBX, that meant starting in the 5th row. And I'm finding that it's taking some time to figure out how to manage the start from the back of the pack. Compared to a front row start, the 5th-row start is more nuanced, more patient, but with no less urgency. It's a tough position to be in frankly. When I was on the front few rows of the Cat 4/5s, the start line drill was pretty straight forward. GO VanHAAARDER! I don't have it dialed in yet, but my mind is focused on the problem and I've got one more shot at it this coming week at the MAC Series finale at Limestone.

Honestly, from my 5th row+ starting positions of late, I've been kind of laying back, chilling out, taking my turn, trying to be all neat and orderly, thinking that the course will allow me to move up as required. Well, at NBX not so much.

Kerry Werner said as much in a recent dirtwire.tv interview:

http://dirtwire.tv/2014/12/nbx-gp-cx-3rd-place-kerry-werner-i-just-sat-back-and-watched/

To paraphrase, Werner noted that the course was an illusion. Taped wide, but much of it was through rough roots that effectively gave you a very single, single-track. (This didn't seem to hurt the outstanding Jr. 15-18 year old rider who started even behind me, and won the whole race outright besting no less than Al Donahue.) Day 2's start was identical to the first. And so as I was warming up, I took note of the changes in the surface and made mental notes. So many, that I nearly missed my call-up!

The report of my recon laps was not good. The multiple days of rain, plus so many racers ripping up the course with their Limus and Super Mud tires on Saturday had conspired to ensure that the roots were taut like the veins on a Finnish body-builder who had spent too much time in a sauna. They were TREACHEROUS.

Still, I was more aggressive at the start and took my place in line, a little further up than the previous day. Or so it felt that way. (The end results suggested otherwise.) Unfortunately, right after the rooty woodsy section was the long beach run with massive wait at the exit stairs (made worse by a right/left zig-zag exit pathway). Cue another forced timeout while the leaders flew away. After a 200 meter stretch on pavement through ice cold puddles, we hit a short dirt "ride-up" that was all "run-up" on the first lap, drop down to a sand-pit, run up short but steep sand hill over the exposed roots of a 100+ year-old tree and back on the bike. More waiting. Bye bye first 10-15 dudes, I shall never ever see thee again.

I attempted to out-maneuver riders on the sand pit descent/climb by going the long way around the tree rooted path that most were taking. Wasted energy going the extra distance and gained no ground. Hrumpf. Well, I had to try something, because #sickofwaitinginline

Once the herd thinned a bit, in later laps, I was in the groove. Riding up the steep dirt climb, riding the sandy ruts down and up again before "ejector seat" style dismount to run the remaining feet out of the Pit of Sarlacc. I was hunting down and passing riders. But also, looking to reconnect with a guy who was my day 1 nemesis. To that end, heading into the rooty "single track" I had a very clear idea of what needed to happen. Somewhere along the way I was reminded of a book I've been reading.

"The Sports Gene." In it they describe how advice commonly given to little league baseball players at bat. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL--is not only terrible advice, but is not how major league athletes actually hit the ball. The speed and distance involved makes it literally impossible to "keep your eye on the ball." What these athletes do better than others, is anticipate and predict and react to a given pitch early on in the release.

This notion that their eyes and brains can somehow literally track the trajectory of a big-league fastball (or even a pitch from a female Olympic softball player; several big name pro players were routinely struck out by said softball pitchers, not because they can't hit a fast moving ball, but everything about the way a softball pitch comes at you is diff't than a big league baseball.) is ludicrous.

And so, I felt like for me to make forward progress, to advance, to go faster through the challenging roots, I would have to go into the battle with my blast shield down. If I was able to see where I was flying, I was going too slowly. So yes, I had to use the force. Seriously. And boy did it work.

Sort of. I was flying, dropping guys. But then it happened. At first I thought it was a flat, but no, a quick check of the tire on the beach revealed plenty of pressure. Then I realized I had a massive wobble in the very wheel that was repaired the night before. FUCK!!!! Every rotation, a major rub of the brake. I thought about disengaging the brake altogether, leaving me with just my front, but my front brake is just so weak, that I couldn't.

And so for 2 long laps, roughly half the race, I'm tearing around the course with an extra rub that is strong enough to stop the wheel dead when I spin it by hand. I spent about 1/2 a lap sussing out how rideable the wheel was and with each passing corner my confidence started to grow that I could in fact at least finish the race.

In the end, I never quite made it to where I wanted to be. But I finished in 31/38th place in the Masters. Again, a placing in and of itself is not all that impressive. But more importantly I had the kind of ride that started to make me believe that if I start to improve my starts, and can move up a few rows, that I could actually compete, the guys fighting for say 10th through 20th places.

After the race:

• So, my wheel, turns out is "fine" sort of I think. The wheel wasn't wobbly, it was my tire. Somehow, a section of the bead had come unhooked and was bulging out and rubbing against the brake.

I feel your pain. I had the same thing happen to me at Supercross, except for me the job finished itself when my front tire blew on the asphalt climb, ending my race. Sorry man.

See what you missed. Bonus game, play "Where's Marc?" in both of the video clips below.

http://dirtwire.tv/2014/12/nbx-gran-prix-of-cyclocross-elite-women-day-one/

http://dirtwire.tv/2014/12/men-day-one/

Registration for Silk City opens June 1st......who's with me!!!!

dsanos said:

Registration for Silk City opens June 1st......who's with me!!!!

Silk City is my least favorite cross race. About as technical as they come. Hope you like steep silty run ups. I don't, especially after doing it this year. I can not recommend this race.

Don't hold back Rick......tell us how you really feel! Ok, a lot of time to consider it!

Hotlist request. Asylum racers, looks like your results aren't being posted anywhere. Can someone give me a run-down of who all raced, which categories and what their results were? I obviously can see the 45+ results sheet from Saturday but...

Specifically, I'm looking to see anyone who didn't note specifically in their race report (Brendan), or didn't write a report (Kayt). Anyone else race that I'm missing?

From the Kreb's website

We got an email from the promoter yesterday saying he will be submitting to USAC and Crossresults very soon.

jim_nelson said:

We got an email from the promoter yesterday saying he will be submitting to USAC and Crossresults very soon.

Awesome, because gone are the days in CX when results don't matter. We are still RACING bikes here right?

They're up on USAC http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2014-3602

Hotlist No.12 2014

 

A lonely, chilly breeze whispers through Brooklyn, up Manhattan, around across the Bronx in into Long Island. “The cross season is not over.”

 

To whit, this past weekend a select group of dedicated crossers packed up their cars and hit the road for racing near and not-quite-as-near. Most Kissena's were racing around the abandon halls of an Asylum on Long Island, while one closed out the Verge Series in Rhode Island.

 

1.   Todd McLoughlin. Car trouble prevented McLoughlin from making his first trip to the Verge Series’ NBX on Sunday. Instead he took the “B” line and lined up at the Asylum and proved that he’s got the watts to place second by just 10 or so seconds to a very strong competitor on a power-friendly course. Hotlist would have loved to see what he could have done on the technically challenging NBX track against a deep field of Cat 3s.

2.   Patrick Grehan. 2 podiums in 2 days! The team psychologist handled all the crazies at the Asylum with a second place on Saturday and a win on Sunday in the Master’s 45+ field. Grehan had the kind of weekend we all dream of, but only a few will achieve.

3.   Marc Bertucco. He slipped his way through two days at snowy, icey racing at Bay State, then played in the wind and mud and sand at NBX in the Verge Series finale the next weekend. His numerical results don't read all that impressively, but the quality of his field is unmatched.

4.   Eloy Anzola. Continuing his march back to the form and fitness he enjoyed a few years back, Anzola is proving that he’s on track by finishing 7th in the Master’s 45+ category.

5.   David Sanossian. Racing amongst a block of Kissena masters all day long, Sanossian busted out some barrier hopping skills to best teammate Jim Nelson for 8th place on the day (and number 5 on the Hotlist).

6.   Jim Nelson. Battling with teammates and interlopers, Jim proved that skills honed after years of racing can keep him in the mix until the very end. Jim earned his second top-10 of the season with a 9th place finish at the Asylum.

7.   Brendan Rigby. In the open race on Saturday, Rigby hops into the race with cold legs and still cranks out a rock-solid 7th place. Hotlist can’t help but to wonder what might have been had Rigby listened to someone…anyone really…about the importance of warming up BEFORE the race starts.

8.   Kayt Mathers. Rumor has it that this baller was out there for over 50 minutes in the muck. That’s a race time that many of the UCI Elite women haven’t been getting! And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, she beat a woman who has 8 cat 3/4 top-10s, including a win to her name.

9.   Andrei Fluerasu. Racing in what appears to be his first event since 2013 Horseshoe Scramble, Andrei lined up in a healthy 34-rider field and came away with a solid 23rd.

10.  Mark Taylor. Back in 2008-2011, splitting his time between the Northwest and Colorado CX scenes, Mark was a busy racer. It’s been a quiet few years since then, but 18th place this past weekend at the Asylum 45+ Master’s race is good enough to steal the 10 spot from Philip Maronilla, the only other KCC racing this past weekend.

 

Looking ahead, this weekend looks to be another interesting one as several familiar faces are going to be in the fray again at the MAC Series finale, Limestone at the Kiln in nearby Emmaus, PA. Good luck to Eloy Anzola, Marc Bertucco, Jim Feehan, Todd McLoughlin, Mike Perlberg, and Dan Strika.

Mark

Mark Taylor said:

Mark

I have never been to Colorado and i have never been a busy racer , but it sure felt great to get back in the mud !

Huh, looks like your name got merged with another Mark Taylor on Crossresults. Probably worth sending them an email to get "separated."

http://www.crossresults.com/racer/29282

Look what I found on Insta: 

Mark

I have never been to Colorado and i have never been a busy racer , but it sure felt great to get back in the mud !

Mark - are you getting lessons from Owens on self handicapping yourself ("I'm out of shape and fat" he said as he singlehandedly led two laps at prospect park this spring)?

You expect us to believe that it was another Mark Taylor who raced cx nationals last year. Boy this club is full of sandbaggers :-)

Looks like one more weekend of cross in LI. I just got an email from kreb cycles re: new race on 12/27-12/28. Woohoo!