The official start to cyclocross season today in Bedford at the Quad Cross race. Pulling into the parking lot at Middlesex Community College I parked next to GeWilli who gave me an arms raised greeting of "BUCK!!!!" at the top of his lungs.. Honestly, nobody is more excited for the start of cross season or is more fun to be around at these events than Geoff. The greeting also helped to take away some of my pre-race jitters. This was going to be a really intense race for the first of the season. Being the weekend after Labor Day (most people refuse to race cx before September), and the weekend before the start of the Verge series, EVERYBODY was here hoping to get any kinks and bad luck out of the way before it really starts to count next weekend. The field was stacked, Aspholm and Hines were missing but pretty much all the other top guys from around New England were there. My goal coming into the race was to have a good start (check), stay on two wheels as much as possible (check), and finish a little closer to the people who were regularly kicking my ass last year (half-check)...
Got a decent couple laps in on the course after the B-men's race and then finished my warmup on the trainer.. Ryan Larocque rides by all bloodied up, skinsuit torn, loaded with road rash. "WTF happened to you?".. Apparently Ryan was experimenting with the somewhat controversial "hit a speedbump while not paying attention and crash hard on the pavement" warmup technique. I think it's designed to get your adrenaline up to higher levels before the race starts. Must have worked because he got cleaned up, straightened his handlebars out, and went on to take 7th in our race. Unbelievable! Might have to try that warmup routine next weekend in Vermont, but I'll have to clear it with coach first. I'm sure he'll be OK with it.
Here's Ryan, fully recovered from his pre-race warmup "routine" chasing down Bill Shattuck for a top 10 position.
Race was supposed to start at noon, so everybody completed their warmups and headed over to the staging area about 15 minutes ahead of time to get good position on the line. Actually, not everybody. Dave Foley nonchalantly strolled over to where Geoff and I were finishing our warmup about 25 minutes before the start of the race in street clothes asking where registration was so he could get his number. Dave doesn't know why us cx fanatics take riding their bikes around playgrounds so seriously (he has a point). I would be out of my mind if I showed up 25 minutes before a race.. I ended up second row in staging, not bad. And then the waiting began, for what, I don't think anybody knows. But we sat there for at least 25-30 minutes. This sucks for a number of reasons (unless you're Foley and you literally just showed up and could use a few extra minutes to get ready). First, you're already tense at the start of a race and you really want to just get going. Prolonging the time in the staging area is brutal. Second, by the time we actually started, the warmup we did was no longer a warmup. It might as well have been the openers workout from the day before. Third, and this is the worst, all of us who race find a place to piss exactly 10 seconds prior to entering the staging area. Pre-race stress has a way of running liquid through your system like other diuretics could only dream about. So 25 minutes later I had to piss again really bad. Luckily there was no sign of the official coming to start our race yet and we were right next to the school so I was able to dash in last second and take care of business...
Finally we get the whistle. I clipped in clean and had a half decent start. Would have been better but I got squeezed on both sides and kind of got pinned. I hit the dirt with more than half the field in front of me.
McCormack leading the charge into turn 1 off the sprint. But really, I put this picture up to see if you could find my ass in it, like a "Where's Waldo" thing... (photo by Andy Huff)
The pace was pretty furious and I had trouble hanging on. I was immediately reminded how quickly a cross race puts you right at your limit. There were a couple good power sections where I was able to make up some spots early and by the time things settled out after a couple laps I was riding in a group with Mosher, Chris White, and a couple other guys. Rumsey, Starrett, and Millet were no more than 20 seconds ahead of me for the 3rd and 4th laps but I was unable to close the gap. Having them in my sights was kind of a big deal for me though as all three of them were crushing me by a couple minutes last year.. In the 5th lap, I had a slight bobble coming out of the barriers into the small uphill s-turn, getting caught up in a hole which forced me to dismount and run the rest of the incline. I had been riding it clean all day up until then, and honestly had no other reason to be upset about my race, so it was at this point where I let a couple of my trademark mid-race f-bombs go. The gaffe allowed White to open a substantial gap on me and it also allowed Burbidge to close a gap on me from behind. He sucked my wheel through the power sections as I tried to close the gap on Whitey and then went on to pass me and open up a slight gap through the last technical section of the course that I was unable to close. I was gassed at this point but finished with a strong sprint against lapped riders for no other reason except that it always feels good to pass people like they're standing still..
Pete Smith, Mad Alchemy Embrocation founder, apparently used an embro that was a little too hot for the 60deg temps... (photo by Todd Prekaski)
Not sure how many started the race, had to be close to 50.. 42 finished, I ended up 19th. Definitely room for improvement, but I finished ahead of the people I hoped to finish ahead of for the most part, and came closer to some of the guys that I've been chasing for quite a while. It was a solid effort, and I think if I can get a little more output out of the legs and lungs in the first 5 minutes of the race I will move up a lot in the pecking order... Easier said than done :)
As I rode around the course after, cooling down, watching my buddy Ron Steers tear up the Cat 3 race, I came to the section of the course with the narrow off-camber turn prior to the stretch into the finish line. GeWilli is right on the corner in his big orange jumpsuit, leaning over the tape, blowing a vuvuzela at 2010 World Cup levels right in the faces of the racers as they went past. HONNNNNNKKK!!! HONNNNNKKKK! It was f'kin awesome and it is something you will only see at a cross race (or a soccer match in South Africa). It was so good to be back.
Next up. Verge Series #1 and #2 in Williston, VT!
