Race Report: Providence Cyclocross race day 2: Master’s Cat 4

The day started w/ getting pulled over by the police not four blocks from my home.


I was of course running late, and was seriously speeding through the neighborhood without ever checking to see if there happened to be a cop around…since there normally isn’t! “Driver’s license and registration please”. At least he used please. Last month when I got pulled over, the cop used the F word a LOT and was sputtering and spitting he was so furious (that‘s a different story). “…you know you just went through two stop signs and were speeding don’t you?....U have a race?” I was in my full kit already. “yes officer, I was trying to make it for the start time in Roger William’s park” He took off w/ my paperwork and I was certain that was going to delay me too much for my first CX race. Yet he was back w/in minutes handing me my license, insurance, and registration. “you got a speeding ticket last month didn’t you? Where?” “In East Providence sir” “you know this ticket would cost you over three hundred dollars? But since this is the first time you get pulled over in this town, I’ll let you off w/ just a warning! Good luck on your race!” “Thank you officer, have a nice day!” What a nice bunch of guys our local cops!!!!

Since this was my first cross race, or even attendance, I had no idea what to expect. My USA license is good for cross…what da ya know… More expensive than mtb though. At the race I quickly found some team mates who are avid/dedicated/obsessive CX guys (like me w/ mtb). The advice was to practice remounting while running. A couple of tries showed me I needed to make sure I kept track of where my pedals were before jumping back on the bike. Also landing on my upper thigh on the saddle instead of the general taint area would most likely save me some serious pain. Obvious stuff but not a given. I did not get much of warm up and heard on the PA, this was the “last call” for my group. Crap! I was actually on the other side of the park still warming up. Made it just in time and since I was the last person to register, got called up last. The group looked big, and I was the only guy on an mtb.

Since I was having a pretty good mtb season, I had been told I would do quite well in cat 4 Master’s. Ugh, that was not pressure I needed, especially since I was now hanging w/ the roadies/cx guys on the team and had to show that my mtb results were no fluke or a sign that mtbers are not as fast as roadies. It’s already bad enough that cat "2" mtb is only really equal to cat "4" road.  40+ years old and crap like that was still going through my head… Anyways, I was looking to win this one (since I was expected to) and starting all the way in the back was not helping my pre race jitters. “Get to the front as fast as you can” came a seasoned team mate’s advice…

Off we went and a sea of cx guys was flooding the way. People were bumping into each other and cutting each other off. The start at mtb racing can also get a little hectic but there just are never this many racers vying for the hole shot. Also I am always lined up at the front getting the hole shot! As we cleared the pavement and funneled into the double track, people were crashing into each other and wiping out. Slowly I elbowed my way through the pack but was already completely red lining. Racing on my mtb was giving a little bit of an edge on the tight turns though as I could take the lines over the tree roots everyone was avoiding, and allowed me to pass a couple of racers. By the beginning of the second lap racers were starting to thin out and I felt like I had made up some good ground on the front. Sadly though, I had given it all that I had and had nothing more to give. There were a couple of guys in front of me, but I had lost contact w/ pole position. As we hit the pavement the second time around, I got dropped pretty quickly but fought my way back once back on the grass. At the start of the third lap, it was still the same three guys and I switching positions. Any time we hit anything straight they would pass but as soon as we entered the twistier track I would pass again. Eventually I was able to hold a slight lead to those guys but had no idea how many more racers were in front. I knew there were quite a few and that they were un-catch-able as the PA would announce them lapping while I was still quite far from the start/finish area. By the end of the second lap I was so far in the red that I could see through the fog that was forming in my brain, my team mate cheering me on, but could not register what he was saying. That was most likely a good thing cause I am sure he was hurling some insults to try to motivate me. In the end I was able to hold of those three guys and ended up placing 8th out of 58. Not first but not too bad for my first cross race.

My heart rate monitor showed that I hit 190 bpm 10 seconds into the race and never came down below that for the rest of the 34 mins race time. Most of the time it was hovering around 195! That is pretty intense and I definitely need to warm up a lot more next time…if there is a next time. I had a lot of fun, no doubt! It was a super twisty course that had some really good flow and was challenging. From that perspective, I would love to do another CX race. Yet on the other hand I am done w/ cycling for a while. It has been a long and hard mtb season, I am ready to spend some time sitting on the couch doing nothing or playing the wow 10 day demo I am downloading. Maybe even put on a couple of pounds…

Racing Results and Standing for 2009 Season.

3^rd Place Finish: King of Burlingame, Charlestown, RI; MTB Time Trials, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 3/5/2009.

8^th Place Finish: Bunny Hopbrook Dam Mtn. Bike Race, CT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 4/11/2009.

3^rd Place Finish: Fat Tire Classic, Winding Trails, Farmington, CT;  Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 4/26/2009.

1^st Place Finish: Winsted Woods MTB, Winsted, CT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 5/17/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: Putney/West Hill Mtn. Bike Race, Putney VT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 6/28/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: Domnarski Farm Race, Ware, MA; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 7/5/2009.

2^nd  Place Finish: Root 66 Racing at Mt. Snow, Dover, VT;  Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 7/26/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: Annual Hodges Village Dam, Oxford, MA;  Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/2/2009.

1^st  Place Finish: U.S. Cup/Snow Shootout, Mt. Snow, Dover, VT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/6/2009.

1^st Place Finish: Bikes for Bovines, Keene, NH; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/23/2009.  Also full category win.

1^st Place Finish: Norcross Scurry, Ashford, CT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 8/29/2009.

1^st Place Finish: Mt Snow, Trail of Two Lakes, West Dover, VT; Root 66 MTB Race Series, Cat 2, Age 40 to 49, on 9/20/2009.

2009 Series Winner for the Root 66 MTB Race Series for Cat 2, Age 40 to 49.

National Rank by USA Cycling for Master’s Cat 2: 8^th (out of 1200

2009 Cat 2 Series Winner

So I won the 2009 Root 66 Race Series for Cat 2 (age 40 to 49). Yeah…pretty sweet…I guess. I thought I would be more excited about winning it than I am. Maybe it was the fact that I knew a month ago I had it pretty much locked down. So maybe it was the lack of surprise or the absence of possibly not getting it. Maybe it’s the knowledge that winning Cat 2 means next season I will race Cat 1. That right there comes w/ a lot mixed feelings. Perhaps it is the fact that officially winning it means the season is officially over. Which means no more racing (I am not in that CX craze everyone seems to have been bitten by – though I have never really tried it), cold is coming, it gets dark freaking early, and that only means long rides in a dark basement staring at wall for the next four/five months?! Shit, I think I am whining… Root 66 will supposedly send me a jersey stating I did win the series, and if it's a nice jersey, I might wear it proudly when on training rides and that might bring some excitement.
That whole Cat 1 idea is going to have to be a topic on its own as the moment it came up, so did a lot of pretty strong conflicting feelings..

Also of note was that I was ranked 8th in the WHOLE USA for Cat 2 (out of 1190 cyclist). Being top 10 in the country (of cat 2) has a pretty nice sweet sound. I have to admit that at times I toy w/ the idea of dropping the Cat 2 context completely out. That would actually mean I would be on level w/ an Armstrong, Zabriskie, Hincapie, Leipheimer, or more "realistically" with the likes of JHK, Craig, and Bishop etc... That has a really nice ring to it and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy in my pink fuzzy fantasy world but...I'd better step up my training before I really do that! First I have to beat the local cat 1 guys, and that is most likely not going to happen, especially guys like Johny B.

Root 66 Race Series, Mt Snow, Trail of Two Lakes

Race Report for Mt Snow, Trail of Two Lakes, 9/20/2009


This was the most exiting race of the year!!!

Weather: Could not be better!

Course description: Third time this season for racing Mt Snow, w/ the first two resulting in a lot of bitching from racers (incl me). None too happy to be back at Snow for the season finally, but got there on Sat to pre ride, as they supposedly had redesigned the course somewhat. Lo and behold, course was awesome! Dry…I have to say that one again…dry. I feel like Homer Simpson, saying donuts... Climbing was done on the access roads all the way up (+- 2K feet I believe). Steep and loose but all rideable. At the top, the course shot into some really twisty gnarly singletrack, the likes I have not seen yet this season. Some sections were long sections of just roots. The tires would not touch dirt for yards. Then there were rocks, lots of them, big and sharp ones, with the course actually being in a dried up stream bed. Somehow though, it all had some great flow to it. The downhill being so dry allowed for a superfast and fun descending. The speed did add some good adrenaline, for if you screwed up, you were going to be in a world of hurt.

We had to do two laps. Turnout was low, but the usual faces were there, including the guy who beat me at the first Mt Snow. He took off pretty fast and I had to give it all to stay w/ him. Half way up the first lap I was really struggling to keep to his wheel but I really did not want to let him go. I was hoping he was riding faster than he could sustain w/ me on his wheel and that he would blow up on the second lap. Though at that pace, I was pretty sure I was going to blow up on the second one too. He had created a little gap by the top, but I caught back to him pretty quickly on the downhill. It seemed I was faster on the down, so my goal became to stick to him going back up, and pass him just before entering the downhill section and try to drop him. As we started going up the second time around, he seemed to be struggling just a bit so I passed him but could not drop him. Soon he had me passed again, but was not dropping me. As we neared the top, I screwed up over some rocks and had to dismount which gave him quite a big gap. He entered the downhill section way before me. So much for my very clever plan! I was able to catch back up and half way down found a section to pass him. I flew down, completely out of control to try to gap him. He stuck to me though and to my great frustration, slowly passed me again on an uphill section 20 yards before the finish. As he crested the top and turned to go down toward the finish, he took it wide, and I was able to cut to the inside and gave it everything I had left! I came in first by a bike length.

Root 66 Race Series, Landmine Classic

Landmind Classic, Higham, MA, 9/13/09

Boy was I looking forwards to this race.  After the US Cup, this is the biggest race.  Not only because of the huge annual turnout, the epic 26 miles technical race, or the GT Golden bike award, but also because cat 2 and cat 1 race the same course and distance.  This is the time where I would get to see where I would place if raced cat 1.  This is the humbling moment.

Well the start went well, and unlike last year, I got there w/ plenty of time (kinda of) and was able to get some warm up before the start.   W/in the first three miles I was able to claw my way into first position and was feeling pretty good.  Sadly, after I caught some air coming off a bridge, I landed right on a sharp rock w/ my front wheel.  The moment I heard the metal sound I knew this was not good and was expecting to flat.  Somehow my tire held air for about a mile.  It was just a tease though as it then suddenly went flat.  I had a spare tube and though got caught by everyone as I was changing it, I knew the race was long, perhaps affording me a chance to catch back up w/ some.  As I got the spare tube in, inflated it, it went flat right away.  At that time I also noticed the serious wobble in my front wheel and the fact the rim edges were bend in.

It was a long freaking walk back to the start.  A nice rider handed me a tube which held and I was able to ride the last mile to the car.  One DNF for me.  People say better DNF than DFL, but at least when you DFL you get to ride the whole course, so I"ll take a DFL any day over a DNF!

Root 66 Race Series, Norcross Scurry, Asford, CT

Abbreviated Race Report for the Norcross Scurry, Root 66 Mtb Race Series, 8/29/2009


Weather: If you stuck your head out on Saturday (or raced), you know…full storm, just downgraded from a hurricane

Course: 6 miles of ankle deep peanut butter mud w/ rocks and roots hidden under all of that. Anything with more than a 3% grade up was unrideable due to loss of traction. Even on the flat sections it was a granny gear spin to keep your traction. Then it would be spinning like crazy to only be moving at 3 mph.

Race: start..mud in your eye….run…run…run some more, ride, back to running, running some more…ride, mud in both eyes…blind…rocks…otb…run…ride…otb again…swearing, cursing, drop of water bottle…run…fall while running, some more cursing..ride.. finished 1st. 

The picture is Nate, a team mate who was brave enough to come out and play on this day!

Root 66 Race Series: Stonewall Farm, Keene, NH

Race Report for Root 66 MTB Series: Bikes for Bovines, NH, 8/23/2009


Climb mother phucker, climb!

Course: start in a nice quaint farm; quick fire road onto short section of pavement and back another fire road that went up, and up, and up…five miles of straight unrelenting climbing. The climb started on a nice groomed fire road but then turned into a loose wet slippery rocky dirt track. 2000 feet elevation gain on that first climb. At the top of the climb, the course shot into tight twisty, off camber, rocky and rooty single track which was very wet from the massive rains NH had gotten over the past two days. Looking at your brakes the wrong way at the wrong time and down you went! Several miles in, another climb, this one shorter but w/ many sections too steep and muddy to actually ride. The last three miles were fire roads back down: flying in the big ring and aero position to gain as much speed as possible. Lap length: 13 miles. Thank dog, we only did one!

They called us up by age group and lined us up accordingly, but then announced a mass start! There were three age groups lined up in front of us and somehow we all to have to fit through the narrow start gate. The whistle blew and of course it was one giant ass cluster phuck. Riders were banging into each other. One of them banged into me, making me bang into someone else who … To add some insult, right after the gate was a giant mud puddle through which I went flying (no choice as I was stuck in a pack). I lost traction, slipping sideways, about to go down, but then slamming into the racer next to me, who went down, but helped me stay up right. Thanks! The climb was wide enough that everyone could pass. Some were racing up, while others were settling in. I tried to find a guy that seemed to have the same pace as me and grabbed his wheel. People were passing but then burning up and dropping back. Within the first ½ mile there were only 10 riders left in front, and that number quickly dropped to 6. The rest of the pack was falling back and a good gap was starting to form already. A racer behind me picked up some speed and passed me, so I grabbed his wheel. Slowly we started to pick off the rest of the riders ahead. One by one. I had no idea how long the climb was and noticed I forgot to reset my computer. DOH! So my strategy was to stick to the guy in front and try not to burn up all my matches. Several miles in, still climbing, without any type of brake what so ever, we had passed everyone. My legs were screaming and I was struggling to catch my breath, but just kept on holding on. The guy’s pace was starting to come down and I could tell he was getting tired. I eventually passed him and he grabbed my wheel. We finally (!!!) crested the top and started the tricky single track. He fell behind quickly and had soon lost him. I finished the rest of the course by myself, and beat him by two minutes.

I ended up winning not only my age group but the whole field. This was pretty sweet for me since I was on the next day, adding one more year to the pile of years I had already collected, so it was nice to beat all those younger guys!

If you like climbing, add this race to your calendar next year. This was a massive climb.