best ever the verge placing, sterling mass.

james morrison craves fresh brains. photo: mike

attention every verge race promoter: these are the courses to beat (funwise) so far. while each race in the series has had its merits (the green mountain hillclimb extravaganza notwithstanding) - cycle-smart was a super fast, zero-recovery hammerfest, providence had something like 5 running sections on the first day, new gloucester was a complete never-have-a-clean-bike-again mess, great brewers had brutal power sections into harrowing turns - this weekends race had a bit of something for everyone, and i rode almost the whole course with a smile on my face (that is a complete lie. anyone who reads this knows i am praying for death the entire 45 minutes). there was a bunnyhoppable horse jump. seriously. and crazy, crazy turns. so many awesome turns.

day one: i didnt push it at the start - i have pretty much given up on the holeshot unless it is absolutely vital, like at velocross. the reason for this is simple: i would rather fight for a few places on the first lap than crash spectacularly. and if there is one thing i did really, really well this weekend, it was NOT crashing spectacularly. honestly, i rode a fairly conservative race. after the initial, as-per-usual first lap shenanigans (me and bill kenny practically made out on the run up) i settled in with huff and collin. we had a decent pace - i dont think any of us were near out limit - we werent attacking, but were in fact letting collins teammate synjen reel us in. entirely unable to get our act together, we let the CL noonan duo of destruction dictate the way the rest of the race was going to go.

those kids is fast. photo, lodri
slowly creeping up on our little party was another dangerous pair: rosey and cary "15lbs of leaders jersey" fridrich. cary (also known as the NUMBER ONE CAT 3 IN THE COUNTRY) has some serious top end speed, while scott is one of the best all around bike riders i know. great. i really didnt want our little train to get any bigger - and that seemed to be the consensus of the group, so we upped the pace a bit - stretching out along the backside of the course through a muddy and front wheel eating hard left off of the pavement, then bunching back up through a series of tight turns after the pit.

i am mostly useless in these situations. unsure when to attack, i kind of let it go past the point of recovery - im not a better sprinter than huff, and there were two Noonans to contend with: i should have attacked with everything i had with one to go. i would have likely been able to get a gap through the turns after the one muddy section and hold it before the track. clearly, it did not go down that way - the two noonans rode a classy and very tactical race. i thought i had rolled a tire through the last series of turns and waved the other guys through - i didnt want to take anyone else out if my tire rolled again. i had to wait until i was on the fast grass part to check out the damage: nothing, just folded it over on itself. fantastic. now, chase down huff. sadly, i came around just in time to watch the Noonans round out the podium. huff and i were left panting and podium-free (evan, breathless, smiling and only half joking after the line was saying "what just happened? i never lose a sprint"). james morrison made us all look slow: we never even saw him.

day 2.
after the race i was in chili 3 bowls deep at caitlins parents house. nothing like 7 pounds of recovery food completely covered in cheese. we got back to sterling early so i could register (i probably didnt mention it above but i did not, and for no particular reason other than my own tom-foolishness, prereg) and get out to see what day 2 would throw at us. i ran into mister rooter, who (among other people) asked about my imminent upgrade. like, really imminent. supposedly i was waiting until december 1st to get my elite license, which because of some quirk in USA cyclings flawless system would remain valid until NEXT january. hmm... that IS a good idea. it was such a good idea that i can take no credit for it whatsoever. but now that the idea has been planted, im definitely going to look into getting that worked out. i would like to try my hand at the elite field at a high profile race. repeated and relentless lapping does build character.

anyway, the race. the holeshot today was tricky. i will illustrate with words. 100 dudes funneling at full gas into a 180 degree turn onto slick asphalt. what could possibly go wrong? oddly enough, nothing. cursing, squeaking and reeking of burning carbon, we all more or less safely rounded that corner. i was in good position, as i REALLY didnt want to get caught out by (or in) a crash. the first lap was merciless - i was in the front with a rotating cast of characters, each one sliding out or stopping suddenly with a mechanical or bit of wood in the face. a crash on the very slick downhill/left turn into the woods left me alone. all alone.

it was the beginning of the second lap, and i had some doubts about my ability to hold off morrison, huff and durrin for the next half hour. so i kept my pace steady and sure enough we were all together in a minute of so. should i have gunned it and tried to stay away? maybe. would i have been caught and pooped out the back of the spooky/embrocation train? probably. regardless, we rode together for a lap without any particular urgency until morrison threw down a brutal attack from behind (that sounds rather worse than it was, though it DID hurt quite a bit). durrin and i jumped, and huffs chain apparently jumped directly off its ring. i slowly bridged up to james. i knew he won yesterday, and he was clearly the strongest rider in the group. we all knew that if we rode smart, we would all be on the podium, so after james' first escape attempt, we were content to take turns on the front. i tended to lead through the woods and on the track, while the other guys were on point for the grassy fast straights on the field.

one thing stood out about the second day: my forehead-slappingly bad rides though the the turns after the pit. it was just miserable. i was fine the day before, but i found myself apologizing (mostly to my bike, who deserves better) by the second lefthander around the bush. i should point out that day two was my favorite cross course (except for MAYBE shedd park) of the season. the steps were tricky, the uphill barriers that jeremy powers bunnyhopped without apparent effort were fast as hell, and the runup was perfectly placed before a very sketchy downhill/right turn into some rooty woods.

the results pretty much tell the story - morrison left us standing with hands firmly in pants. he pulled away like we werent even moving, and i stupidly tried to shift while chasing him. this put me in a completely inappropriate gear to climb the last slick hill, and jeremy durrin didnt even have to sprint for second place. it should also be pointed out that james broke his finger at the end of the race. that makes his last burst of power even more impressive. 2 wins for him, and good work. as for me, this was my best performance yet at a verge race. very exciting!

Easthampton Cross - with video!

While everyone else is out having a good time this weekend, I'm home nursing a knee that just wants the season to end already. But alas, all is not lost (especially since I did not pre-register). My lovely girlfriend Bethany took a collection of short video's with a crap digital camera last Sunday, and managed to put together a very nice video.



I'll summarize in ten points or less.

1. I start near the back, as per usual. I should probably work on that. The flat sections gave me a lot of room to reel people in, though.

2. I eventually get on David Wilcox's wheel, with one IF rider and one NCC rider. Wilcox pulls the train, crashes on the sketchy descent into dismount, and promptly passes everyone again.

3. Wilcox and I are ahead of the other two riders, but the pace is slightly slower and I'm worried about them closing the gap. We can turn better, but they have a few watts.

4. Midway through the race, I attack Wilcox. This is mostly because I feel bad for Canton, but also to elevate the pace a bit and try and catch the next "group."

5. The attack lasts 3/4 of a lap, and I am passed and promptly gapped. I ride alone for a while.

6. Mickey D of Spooky was impressed with my line towards the end of the lap. Fast descent into muddy descent into more mud, and a steep run up. Everything but the run up was ride-able.

7. I keep getting offered beer feeds, but I know I'll probably ruin my insides and would like to finish the race without any gastrointestinal handicaps. Towards the last sand-pit where I Fred Flintstone a bit (see end of video), I was seriously considering it anyway.

8. I pass Clif Bar rider Nate Morse toward the end. Kid had a bad crash on the sketchy down and up mid-lap. He was standing as I passed and offered help, and he said "well there goes my race." He was a bit more fucked when he passed the finish line; big ol' crack in the helmet.

9. I see Jeff Molongoski in the distance, but can't close the gap.

10. I finish. I got 9th. I'm totally cool with that.

While I spent most of last Saturday making money instead of racing Lowell, Easthampton was totally worth the drive.

The Shedd Park 3/4: The Worst Start To The Best Cross Course Of All Time

the rideup, photo by geoff
i had never raced shedd park before. i think this race happened last year during my "picking bits of shifter out of my knee while recording" phase. Eric, avi and i got there a bit early, caught the womens race, rode the course a bit, talked with the ever-awesome yash cupcake-sumi and got psyched. the course was good. really good. well, good for me. unlike last weeks "mountain bike course", this was legit - off camber roots, rocks, goofy turns, deep ruts, lots of shifting (none of that "leave it in the big ring and stomp" nonsense here) and an honest-to-god sidewalk power section. it was mostly dry, but loose gravel and the exposed roots made the course trickier than my first preride lap indicated.

i lined up for the 3/4 race in the middle of the bunch - i think there were 80 or so riders. then they called up all the brc, cambridge, and mrc folks in the race. now i was kind of in the back. weak. the start around the track didnt help my position any. someone chopped my wheel, bouncing me off another rider (who somehow remained upright); there was a flagpole toward the inside that caused a few close calls and about 50 feet before the holeshot, the dude in front of me decided to dismount and walk (!) into the 180 around the tree. not good. i was told i went into the woods in the bottom 10 or 15 guys - the dreaded "reverse holeshot". the first couple of sections didnt help my cause any - there was a backwards waterfall of cursing, running, riding, elbowing, falling and chain-snapping shifts up the first hill into the "circle of death" (or at least, the "switchback of moderate inconvenience"). get off bike. run. use bike as club. get back on bike. nope, off you go again. run up hill. finally, i was starting to pass people.

through the gravel turn, behind the bleachers and into the first part of the downhill off camber turny section i was on FIRE. i passed 5 and 10 people at a time on the turns, taking them too far inside; using the trees and tape to guide me (read:bounce off of) i was riding in a place i am rarely at in these races - i believe some call it "the zone". my "zone" lasted approximately 40 seconds. rescuing me from my blissful world of enlightened turn-railing was a foot. expertly (and with surprising gentleness) the foot came down on my front fork on a left handed switchback, brought me to a sudden stop and forced me to unclip. i was now officially out of "the zone".

now fueled entirely by rage, i rode a sloppy but apparently fast rest of my lap. the only other notable botch was my first or second time through the ruts on the backside of the course - i almost stuffed it riding behind someone (maybe ryan). i had no idea where i was, but i wasnt passing anyone anymore. by the second lap (i think) i was riding with mr. ryan ohara. i COULD NOT shake him - i could get through the technical parts faster, but he could pull me right back on the flats. at some point, someone told us we were second and third. that lit us up a bit; we traded places a few more times until i suggested we work together - he pulls on the flats and i lead through the turns. just then we were entering the technical sections, so i floored it - pushing through the turns, standing out of every corner - generally trying to up the tempo. by the time we got out of the woods, i had opened up a gap. figuring he would just catch up on the flats, i kept up the pace. when he wasnt right behind me, i figured he had some kind of mechanical or bobble so i started going harder. a lap later i caught a glimpse of the leader (as we passed by each other on the track) and had one of the spectators yell "8 SECONDS" at me. oh shit. here we go. i stood up and suffered on the track to about 15 feet past the pit, where i yelled "how many left?" at someone on the side of the track. their response was "you are done". what? i sat up, looked around and coasted across the line, at which point i saw a rider flying by the holeshot up into the woods. "am i done?", i shouted. no response. "AM I DONE??" "yes". i see. i rode a bit more, about half the course, at a recovery pace. aside for that (the winner, nate morse [with another stellar ride] also didnt know it was the end) this was the best race of the season. great course, decent weather, good folks - cross in new england.

1st place at Plymouth South or, How My Hand Is Still Sore From Booty Slaps

chasing, chasing (photo by jeff)
I chose plymouth south over plymouth north because i was told it was a "mountain bikers course". now, as a sometime trail rider i was fairly excited by this. the last time i ride a "mountain bikers course", i won the race (velocross) - beating dudes who shame me unmercifully on the grass. the bad weather from the day before made sweet images of sloppy corners and drivetrain-devouring mud fill my cross-addled brain all friday night.

i roll up with avi and eric in time for the 2/3/4 race. my plan was to do that one, then roll around the course a few times and do the 1/2/3. my nose was a bit stuffy, but i was confident that 45 minutes of mouthbreathing agony is exactly what i needed to clear myself out. we prerode, and much to my disappointment, i could detect very little of the "mountain bikers course" i was promised. also, the brutal mud that tempted me to switch my gears to a single front ring was entirely absent. the course, except for two or three spots, was entirely open, flat and windy. awesome.

i had a good start - better than i wanted, actually. i was second wheel into the dirt, and within a few minutes cosmo looked at me and did the "hey buddy, how about you take point on this one" thing, leaving me in the usually-enviable first wheel position. thing was, i had a plan. a very carefully constructed plan. i wanted to start light, stay with the front group and put in my big (ha!) accelerations on the last lap or so. this was clearly not the plan. so i sat up a bit, tried to convince everyone else that it was a super good idea to replace me at the front of the line. finally, colin rowan bit and took the hell off.

for once, i did not panic. i looked over my shoulder, sure enough guenter was there, just a little bit back. as far as i could tell there was a gap behind him. colin was in sight, barely. resist...urge...to...sprint...

i spun. high rpm, firmly in the saddle, looking through the turns. not bad. except for my (very) poor management of the "mountain bike" sections on my first few passes, i kept the speed up and the mistakes to a minimum. little by little, i was bringing colin back. i caught him with 2 to go, and we traded places a few times. we passed avi, and i administered what i thought was going to be a friendly ass-slap. the thing was, we were flying by him at the time, and my playful tap sounded like a wet towel smacked against a locker room wall. (sorry dude). anyway, colin was clearly the better rider on the field, while there was only one place i saw that i could put any time into him: a goofy hard left up i short rise with a bunch of sharp rocks and a tire (yes, a tire). i seem to do well when navigating around tires is involved. i gunned it there, almost fell off my bike (yeah, im smooth) and pushed as hard as i could until i hit the finishing stretch. even with that effort, he finished just 2 seconds back. good race, all around.
leading on the rideup with 2 to go (photo by jeff)
sadly, i began hacking up nickel-sized pellets of something brown out of my lungs. no 1/2/3 race for me. i watched for a bit, packed up my things and went home. hopefully on saturday in lowell i will feel well enough to do both.

Northampton day 2 - Watch out for safety

Miraculously sleep cures all, as I woke up for day two of Northampton feeling well. Driving out the second day, I made sure I had a real lunch, something I neglected on day one. And by real lunch, I mean "Dunkin Donuts."

Warming up I felt a bit flat, though I was more into the course on Sunday after some pre-ride laps. Most of the descents and ride up's on the plateau had been switched, and one decent took you flat out into a train-track jump. If I could do x-up's, I would. Apparently Matt Green did.

Dave Wilcox fixed my bike again, because I decided to wait until the next day to fix my busted bike. Again, many thanks for that.

I staged at about the same position, and got some quality face time on the seat cam. I figured, how could todays start be worse than the previous days?

Well, how about a crash involving even more people, including me?


Photo courtesy of Colin R who patiently cropped the still from this YouTube video. This is something I would never do myself.

As you can see off to the right, I am precariously perched and somehow floating over my bike. I was hit by a wall of humanity and pushed into the fence. My handlebars got caught in the crossbars, and I continued forward, grabbing the fence and pushing it back a bit. My bike was tangled up in other bikes and the fence itself. I picked it up, and I noticed a few things were wrong. The handlebars were pointing a completely different direction, and I wrenched them back into place. Somehow my rear quick release came undone, and I had to fix that too.

If you watch the beginning of this video, you'll notice I had a late start. Pretty much dead last at that point, minus the dude who was on the ground. But hey, what better way to start a Verge race than with a 30 second handicap?

I wasn't the only person having troubles. I passed Adam Craig (!!!) before the pits, it looked like he was having a bit of trouble. He promptly passed me after, though.

At this point I knew I needed to step up my game. I felt good, and I was certainly not going to let that crash mess up a perfectly good race.

I slowly started to catch people, and felt good on most sections. On Saturday, my sandpit riding was pretty poor, but on Sunday I cleared it every time. I managed to ride the run/ride up for all but two laps. I found some good lines through the roots, and even though day 2 was far more rooty, I felt it was not as treacherous as the previous day. I found myself putting time on other riders in the turns, and then managing to break off on the speed sections. Having more gears helped a bit, I'll admit.

Jumping the train tracks was probably the coolest thing I've done at the cyclocross race yet. Towards the end I was floating over the set right after the start, too. I was feeling fast, and hitting turns right at the edge of my traction.

A couple highlights included riding between a pair of Embrocation Pete's. Mike shouted, "Greg, you're in an Embrocation sandwich!" The rider in front of me commented, "Mmmmm, yummy." Later in the race, I am coming through the rootiest part of the course, and smelled something peculiar. Yup, a lone spectator smoking pot -- nice.

On the last lap I managed to pick up a couple more wheels. At the very end it was Michell Hoke (one of the U23's) and me, and while his turning was arguably better than mine I managed to put some time on him in the last flat sections.

Overall I finished much better than Saturday, coming in 22nd place. This weekend was a bit perplexing. On Saturday I pretty much spent the whole race getting passed by people. On Sunday it was the opposite. Not exactly sure how that works out.

In any case, I have plenty of time till the next Verge race to figure it out. In the meanwhile, my bank account will be in a recovery period. I have not been kind to it this fall.

Northampton Day One - ouch?

Northampton is a place I really enjoy, but I rarely get to go to. On the way over to Look Park, Bethany recognized the road, though she had never been there before. Turns out we were driving through a scene in the Young @ Heart documentary. Also, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon live there (probably because Northampton has some of the best used record stores around). Unfortunately, I had no time for record shopping. Racing is serious business.

I arrive and fetch my race numbers. Shoulder numbers! This was a first for me. The novelty wore off after trying to pin them, though.

Pre-riding the course, I found the features required a good deal of power and skill. The plateau area had many tricky roots and rocks, thank goodness it was dry. On the field, turns were fast and smooth. Jumping railroad tracks? Yes please.

After knocking a few roots and rocks with my clincher wheels, I was a bit concerned about having a slow leak in my tires. Dave Wilcox was generous enough to lend me his training tubulars, and also tune my bike up a bit (because I can't seem to do it right). Thanks dude.

Saturday was my first day racing some of the bigger names. Jpow, Driscoll, and Adam Craig with his $1,000 Di2 chainring were all there. I staged 36th. The start was fast, I hung around the back. A large crash in the beginning took out a bunch of people, and all of the sudden I found myself riding within the top-20. According to Mike, I was behind Jesse Anthony for a lap (who was admittedly having a bad race at the time). Come through again, I hear "you're 40 seconds to Timmerman!" Really? Not for long, I suppose. After a couple of laps chasing the lead group, I looked at the race clock and realized I'd only been racing for 15 minutes. Oops, I'm already spent.

I hit the run-up, already dying a little on the inside, remounted, and took the twisty wood section a bit poorly. I hit some serious roots, which somehow caused my right shifter to slide roughly 4cm down the bars. Great. Maybe if I had a pit bike, that wouldn't have been a big deal, but fortunately my brake was not engaged like my crash at Suckerbrook earlier in the season. Shifting was limited to the middle of my cassette in the rear.

My second mishap occurred near the same area, this time in front of Colin's camera. I pedal struck a rock in a turn and went down pretty bad.

Towards the end of the race, while I was dying on the inside and the outside, I got a face full of barrier while demonstrating the incorrect way to dismount and remount your bike.

Folks begin to pass me at this point. Over the course of the race, I don't think I gained any positions for the last half of the race. I was feeling pretty awful. I was lapped by Powers and Driscoll with one to go. At the very end, Matt Green and Pete Rubi overtook me, I was pretty much running on fumes. I finished 33rd.

After the race I physically felt horrible, my guts were literally wrenched, and I spent a good amount of time post race clutching my stomach and a large bottle of Pepto Bismol. I had pretty much burned all my matches for the day very early, and learned a very valuable lesson about energy conservation.

Day two coming soon..

but, i like our cat 3 field!!!

dear cat 2s,

recently, there has been a bunch of cat 3 hate going around the internets. not to name names, but come on now guys! i feel like our field is doing just fine. no one is dominating the podium anymore, and we arent pissing out lapped riders halfway through the race even though our field sizes are easily the largest at any event.

and hell, i like racing with these guys. we fight it out pretty well: every race, no matter where we are in the pack.

example: day 1 at new gloucester, i had some problems. now, when my bike is working i can usually hang at the front (unless i dont, like the first day at the great brewers cup...) sadly, i - or more likely the mud - locked up my drivetrain and jammed my chainkeeper into my little ring. that was the day nick mashburn gave me the race of my life. i was dying. i think the only reason i eventually made it by him was my mountain bike background (i did a few races in similar conditions this year). the next day i was fighting jeff bramhall for spots in the first lap, killing myself to break out of the pack. in providence, greg burbridge was well off the pace, suffering through a few rough races. in new gloucester, he pulled out the win in the worst conditions this season. look at rmm - hes had great results and not so great results. and along with dumont, cary and laflamme, hes my rabbit.

its a good thing to have so many folks of similar ability - it ensures pretty brutal competition and keeps us honest. next september, when i have 2 seasons of cross under my belt, ill be seeing the business end of tim johnson growing ever smaller in front of me just like the rest of you. so dont worry, cat 2s. we will come up and hang out soon enough. and dont worry - we'll find someone else to pit for you.
love you guys,
the 3s

Canton Cup Pro 1/2/3 - Wheel sucking madness

Last year around this time I also raced Canton. It was the first race I did as a Cat 3. I was a bit sick prior to, but after the race I ended up getting pneumonia. So yeah, that ended my cross season pretty quick.

This year I figured out a way to stay moderately healthy, which helped quite a bit. I showed up super early in order to get Ryan to his race. Play super-fan for a bit, shake a bell, set-up a tent, etc. Lots of course pre-riding occurred.

I was thinking of bunny-hopping the mini-barriers, and made one attempt. Somehow, that turned into me falling in such a way, that I ended up bending my aluminum handlebars. At least I didn't do it during the race.

So we line up, a whole bunch of people run for the start. Me, not so much. I got a third row position, so near the back. Mike and I were next to each other, though he had another race in his legs already. I was behind David Wilcox, and hoping maybe I could hop on his wheel and get pulled through the center (more on that later). Turns out that wouldn't happen, since my wheel got chopped bad in both directions. I hit the fire road maybe five wheels from the back.

I spent the first lap or two fighting for positions. I was at the back of a group with Colin Reuter and some other folks, hopefully I got in the cam footage this time. The wind was killing me, but I also knew I needed to move up.

A crucial passing opportunity came before the run-up. Someone bobbled in the left turn prior, I managed to sneak through without getting caught and picked up a wheel on the running track. The group got more broken up.

Eventually I found myself chasing down Dave Wilcox, and a couple other folks I don't really know.. the key player here had a Powertap wheel, so I'll refer to him as Watt's for now.

Watts was also very fast, and I spent most of the race sucking his wheel while he chased Wilcox. Now and then I'd get spit out and have to chase back up, but I know trying to break free from that group was pretty futile. I spent some time in front of Watts, and in my typical fashion, overcooked a turn and nearly went down once or twice. I started to see familiar faces get close, and hoped that the group would speed up a bit, which eventually happened with two laps to go.

We were 9-10-11 at this point, and I wanted to make sure I was in the money. I figured if I could stay on these wheels, I had a chance at the finish. Watts made an attack, then rolled a tubular right before the track. Wilcox tore off, and I managed to hold on at the track. After the dual 180's, Dave put a small gap on me that I couldn't bridge after the barriers, but it was a close finish nonetheless.

So there it is. Tenth place finish, recouped my race fee, no serious injuries or upper respiratory illness. I shamelessly sat on Wilcox's wheel for most of the race, though attacking him would have been akin to dumping all my matches into the nearby lake.

Oh yeah, some lady gave me new handlebars today, they are totally sweet Bontrager "women's" bars. I guess I win?

I've got some video's but they are still uploading. We'll see if they end up okay.