Weekend in Review: Waterville Valley CX, 12 Hours of Bradbury Mountain, Sucker Brook 'Cross Race Report

BBB/ERC found themselves spread across the known world last weekend in an attempt to roll tubulars, be cold, and even win a race. As far as I know, all of these objectives were completed.

Waterville Valley:

Despite being far away, rumor has it that WV was very fun. I wasn't there, but Mike Wissell, Ryan Brazell, and Harrison Seiler all participated. Mike rolled a tubular, died, and came back to life, and managed to fight back to 4th place. CX newcomers Ryan and Harrison both had respectable finishes; 12th and 6th respectively.

12 Hours of Bradbury Mountain

Newly minted Cat 1 racer Lori Kohls finished her MTB season with a victory in the Open Women's Solo 12 hour category. Totally badass. She completed 9 laps over 11:22:12, setting a 1:15 pace per lap.

Sucker Brook Cross

I really enjoy racing at noon. It gives me so much time to prepare. The only downside is that it gives me too much time to prepare.

Dave Stallings, Bethany, and I endured the 1-hour trip together. As we arrived, Erik Petterssen and Ryan were packing up to go home. Erik got 13th at his first ever cross race, and pretty much the first ride on his new bike. Ryan placed midpack, at 38th. Fellow teammate Nick Maggiore was one of his "victims." Apparently, Nick went to elementary school at the host location, where he was told to never return. So much for that. Harrison placed 27th, and joined our merry gang as we warmed up a bit for the 3 race.

We didn't get to warm-up on the course, which was a bit of a drag, but fortunately it was exactly the same as last year. I managed to get a good starting position near the front.

The start was a bit of a fiasco. A start whistle blew before the course tape had been lifted from the start area. Everyone stopped a bit confused. The race ended up starting where everyone stood. Unfortunately, I now stood two rows back. Oh well.

I fought my way back to the front, though I burned a lot of matches to get there. At one point I was 2nd, trying to gain ground on Cory Lowe. I kept losing ground in the sand pit (like, totally sucking in the sand put), and ended up gaining and losing positions that way for a while.

With two laps to go, I was lagging a bit behind, and Colin Reuter issued some heckling, to the effect of, "What kind of mountain bike racer are you, not totally winning? Want a danish?" At the mention of danish, I took a turn with a bit too much gusto and laid the bike down. My left brake hood was all turned around, I bashed it back into place a bit, and soldiered on.

I felt much slower that last lap, and was a bit worried since my front brake didn't seem to be working. I later found out that it actually had been working the entire time, as my brake lever had shifted down and pulled on the cable. Yeah, a little bit of resistance training doesn't hurt, but that was absurd.

I finished off in 9th place, which was a very satisfying result considering my mishaps.

Not content with the damage I had already inflicted, I took advantage of the $10 second race offer and jumped into the Pro 1/2/3 race. I held on for 40 or so minutes, until my front derailer cable slipped, eliminating my big ring. I figured I'd save my bike any more abuse, and dropped out of the race. I felt good though, and by then had figured out what I was doing wrong in the sand pit.

Someone got a good picture of my butt. Enjoy.

Quad Cross 9/13/09: A race report

In sharp contrast to last years event, Sunday's Quad Cross was warm and sunny. For my first cross race this year, I was pretty okay with that. While the course is theoretically fast, dampness makes the going hard by forcing you to slog through cut grass and mud.

BBB/ERC brought a bunch of folks through. In the Cat 4 race, Ryan Brazell and Nick Maggiore enjoyed the cooler morning temperatures. Big props to those gentlemen, as they did well in their second cross race ever. Lauren Kling represented in the Women 3/4 field, while Mike Wissell, Dave Stallings and I rounded out the Men 3/4 under 35.

After a bit of warm-up, I ran into Brian Wilichoski of Cyclocrossworld.com. The year prior, Brian and I were head to head in the Cat 4 race, with him ultimately pulling ahead on the straightaway finish for the win. After he unceremoniously dropped me during my second lap at the Treasure Valley Rally (to be fair, I was racing the Elite category and had one more 9 mile lap to go, and he was finishing the 2-lap Cat 1 race), I knew he was the guy to beat.

I had a second row starting position, not bad, but I did have to filter through a few people. By the first turn I was somewhere in the top 15. At this point I spent the rest of the first lap picking people off, working towards the front. I hit a bit of traffic, especially in the "twisty-turney" section, and this slowed me down a bit. By lap 2 or 3 I had a decent gap on 4th place, and was gaining on 1st and 2nd -- Brian Wilichoski and Corey Lowe, respectively. At one point I was 8 seconds off, but I had used a bit too much energy to get there, and I got a bit sloppy and fell on a turn or two.

Given the heat, I knew that I had to be careful. I eased up a hair, but made sure to push it where I needed to. Aside from the double barrier section, I kept it in the big ring, as most of the course had proven to be doable in at least a 46x25 during pre-ride. I gained a bit on 2nd, but it looked like Wilichoski rode away from him. At the end, BW was a whole minute away from me. I managed to maintain a gap on 4th, about 20 seconds according to the results, and therefore finished third.

Many people were snapping photo's, here are some good ones, courtesy of Geoff under a Creative Commons license:

A slightly unsteady Ryan (though, admittedly, he is a triathlete)-


Nick's new bicycle -


Nick actually riding his new bicycle -


A contemplative Lauren -


Mike likes to suffer -


And me -


Sorry Dave, this photographer missed you somehow.

green mountain stage race, day 1

it has already been established that i am somewhat poor at the individual time trial. i have also never raced a real stage race. add (or, i suppose, subtract) to that my less-than-stellar climbing ability and you can begin to understand the trepidation i had about the green mountain stage race. matt (who has done the race before, lived in the area, rode the course a bunch etc) assured me i would be fine. matt is also a very talented (and experienced) road racer, where i am stomping my way through my fist year on a bike without knobby tires. so i was nervous - excited - but nervous.

we got to matts aunts place (thanks matts aunt!) on thursday night. racing would be me, matt, erik, anna and jon; generously throwing bottles at us was caitlin. i had a bit of a sore throat, but otherwise felt fine. like i said, i was pretty nervous, so i didnt get much sleep that night.

we got up early, made oatmeal and coffee and rolled out to warm up. i did about an hours worth of riding, lined up under the trainer tent (thanks john!) and watched as folks rolled out.

the first 2 miles or so were uphill. i started out fast, passed my 30 second guy, felt good. my heart rate was pretty much pegged, so i didnt have much more gas when the road leveled out and i caught up to my minute man. he took one look at me and floored it. unable to respond, i just continued to suffer along. i looked back, and saw that my 30 second guy was gaining. i tried to get on it some more, but nothing doing. there was a bit of a headwind, and i apparently used too much gas on the opening hill so there was little to do but finish my run as best as i could. i came in 43rd out of 110, not too bad - actually, the exact result i was hoping for.


after the race, i sat in the river for an hour and waited for everyone else to finish. we ate very tasty sandwiches and fruit bars. i slept somewhat better that night - i was through the first hurdle, one of the things i was worried about the most, so things were looking up. matt was in a good spot and i was completely ready to help him out with KOM or GC position. erik was great, a top ten spot and he "didnt break a sweat". i will leave their race reports to them, though. we all had a great time.

Late Treasure Valley Rally Recap, plus DH40 shout out

Treasure Valley Rally - August 23, 2009

So there was not much to say about this race, except for the fact that is was hard as hell and that I raced the Elite category. I finished 5th out of 14 entered, only 9 finished. The course was extremely technical, and each lap was 9 miles long. I did three laps. It was brutal, but also totally awesome. Being close to Worcester, I appreciated the proximity to Boston.

Dark Horse 40 - Forget anything negative I ever said...

Going through my mail pile, I discovered a hand-written envelope from Dark Horse Cycles. Inside was a $100 check for third place! Turns out I didn't get fourth after all.

While I was psyched on my own thing, I'm even more psyched that a race organizer made the effort to correct a result like that ex post facto. Considering someone else had already received a hundred dollar check for the same result, it was a very stand-up gesture. Forget any disappointment I expressed earlier. If you have any interest in doing awesome mountain bike races, do this race next year.