Making a statement!

Ok these blog posts are happening, even if they are a little on the late side. That being said, let's hit this one at full speed!

After figuring out that my race was in fact on Saturday, not Sunday as I expected on Friday afternoon when I had just committed to riding with Anthony makes for a pretty interesting sequence of events! So its Friday morning back at home, and I'm rolling out of the driveway on the road bike for a few hours on the road bike in some pretty nasty wind, but we'll ignore the wind for a second. Its BEAUTIFUL out, clear blue skied and in the mid 60's; It doesn't get much better than this as far as I'm concerned. Anthony and I knocked off about 40 miles together around the valley and enjoyed suffering a bit in the wind but were blessed with a tail wind down river road (this NEVER happens). Overall on the day I put in about 60 miles of riding and definitely rode a little harder than I should have, when you get two people that have been focusing on racing for the past few months that tends to happen!

After some food and stretching after getting off the bike I got my Darkside ready to rock for the race at Massasoit the following day. I had never raced there before, and had no idea what to expect. The bike was dialed in, and after some dinner I was in bed before you could bat an eye.

On Saturday morning I grabbed some breakfast, packed the car with my bike, a few sets of tires, and hit the road! After a few hours I got to Taunton and was at the race. After registering for the cat 1 race, and some extremely helpful parking lot schmoozing I decided to make a last minute tire swap, and mounted up some 10 year old Continental twisters. This decision, though probably unnecessary, was a very good one. The course in Massasoit state park is fast, is not incredibly technical, but it turned out that the rolling terrain and dry conditions suited me perfectly.

I lined up with the 19-29 cat 1's for the first time in over a year. After some weird looks from everybody because my stem was over an inch longer than theirs, and my handlebars a few inches narrower we were hearing the countdown and waiting for the whistle. The whistle blew and we were off! I clipped in and took off I was the first person down the 1/4 mile pavement section, and the firs into the woods. After the first section I continued to extend my lead for the duration of the race, and was racing to prove that I do not belong in the cat 1 field. My goal for the day was to catch up to the back end of the pro/open field and ride with them but until then I was going to have as much fun as possible!

Ok, so you all know the feeling, the perfect day where you have seemingly endless fitness, are super motivated, and you are bike is working perfectly; the day where the stars align and everything clicks. Well today was that day for me, by the end of the the first lap I had picked up 2 minutes on everybody, and had caught a few of the people that had gotten gassed early on in the open race.

I rode at a pretty steady pace for the remaining two laps, and for the duration of the race was doing everything I could to maximize fun without being a total idiot. I was putting up a good roost in some of the loose corners, doubling technical sections, and having a great bicycle ride!

At the end of the race I crossed the line about 3 minutes ahead of the rest of the field, and felt really good about what turned out to be a race for me, against myself more than anything. Races where you do a good 2/3rds of the race alone can be pretty difficult mentally. I think the biggest victory for today was a big mental victory, I proved to myself that I can ride by myself and keep driving and pushing harder even when there is nobody in sight, and nobody behind you breathing down your neck.

After I crossed the finish line, collected my bottles, and cooled down I had a great talk with Colt from Cycling Dirt. We did a post race interview, and he asked to do a Pro bike interview to check out the bike that I love so much!

Here are some links!
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236970-root-66-massasoit-lung-opener/329620-matt-green-post-massasoit-lung-opener-1st-cat-1
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234969-pro-bike-season-one/330349-matt-green-pro-bike-spooky

Here's a big thank you to Colt for making me feel popular on the internetz

Craig Mello took some really awesome pictures as well. Big thank you's here too!







Stick 'em up!

Farmington, the start of it all

This is the race that started it all for me, Farmington was my first bike race 5 years ago, On a 30 something pound K2 Lithium, not the bike for the job, but hell you have to start somewhere! Last year it was my first race in the Pro/Cat1/Open class; Winding trails isn’t a race I have ever had the best of luck at, but still plenty of sentimental value, and always a good time.
This year we were faced with perfect weather, mid 50’s for the day, blue skies, and tons of riders. Because of my stellar performance the previous weekend (and being a tad late to showing up to the line) I didn’t get the front row starting slot I was hoping for. The second row would have to do for today. Farmington is one of the faster races in the area, and I was ready to give put in my best effort to stick with the front runners from last week.
The whistle blew, and I felt like I got a very good start I narrowly missed a crash in the sand and entered the singletrack after the quarter mile of sandy slog to wide open double track inside the top ten and was moving comfortably. Once I got settled in the pack and started to get into a rhythm and get a feel for the pace my eyes started drying out and before I knew it my left contact lens had dried up and fallen out. (The same thing happened 3 years ago here, when am I going to start racing in sunglasses?) This setback was not something I really wanted to deal with, and even though it made the cornering pretty difficult, and I had the finesse of a bull after being surprised with a branding iron, I soldiered on.
I rode the majority of the race with Cary Fridrich, who was also sporting his swanky Darkside prototype. We stuck together for 3 laps, and had an awesome ride. The course was blazingly fast as expected and bone dry save for one totally unnecessary mud bog, seriously it was awful. But after racing Cross all fall I got the running down and was able to keep my bike which was perfectly suited for the course riding perfectly all day.
My buddy Jeff Lukach (Hit him up if you need a photographer, his pictures come out awesome, and he’s just out of college, take pity) took a couple great pictures of me running through ankle deep slop, awesome.



Despite the minor setbacks today I feel like I’m right on track for an awesome season on the bike, The darkside was the best tool for the job today, light 26er hardtails with semi slick tires can race with the fastest riders out there, even if I’m not quite there.
-Matt

Early season bike races

Part 1:
After an unusually tame New-England winter cross country racing started off with a bang in Middlebury Ct at Hop Brook Dam. I have been doing this race for years, and it is one that I always look forward to; like all early season race it shows off who has been working hard over the winter, who has been slacking off, and gives everybody to catch up after the winter months. Fortunately I had a fairly full winter, playing off mother nature’s kindness in giving me enough days above freezing to get out on the bike; that along with some awesome days of downhill skiing had me ready to ride my super sick Darkside at shit break speed for 2 hours….AWESOME!

I got to the venue early Saturday morning with a car full of bicycles (Darkside, Skeletor, Dirt Crab, and Supertouch) got registered, schmoozed in the parking lot (as important if not more important than actual bike racing), and got warmed up. After warming up on the road bike I got to the line and was enjoying the great view of the water from the front row, I’ve never gotten a front row starting spot in one of the Pro/Cat 1/Open Root 66 races, and damn it I was determined to make good use of it!
The whistle blew and I was off like a rocket, got the hole shot, and motored on down the first straight off the front with about half the field in tow (I guess riding street paid off, sprinting around for hours with Mickey built some leg speed, HELL YEAH!) Unfortunately my time on the front didn’t last very long as I led about 8 other racers off course because of all the excitement, honestly it was too good to be true, and I didn’t really want to ride that fast. By the time I got back onto the course I lost about ten places. The first lap was over before I knew it, the course at hop brook is like your typical Connecticut race course, rocky, some mud holes, and plenty of climbing. I was able to hold a pretty smooth pace for the 4 lap race, felt pretty strong, and had a great time finishing just in the top ten. Not too bad for an early season race if you ask me!
After the race I got in a good cool down, got a fair bit of shit for running a good portion of the field of the course, and packed the car and made way to New Haven along with Chris and Mike from UVM for the Collegiate road races hosted by Yale (They had raced a time trial in the morning, the Mountain bike race in the afternoon, and were going to be lining up for the road race in two hours, DAMN!) We made it to New Haven in time for them to race on the road, and while they were racing I got to do some more parking lot and sideline schmoozing!
When the racing was over for the day I went to meet up with the Bowdoin College race team to pick up a jersey for tomorrow’s criterium, to check out their hotel room, to go get some AWESOME pizza, and went out for a night on the town with J.B. New Haven is awesome, Yale has a really awesome campus, and awesome people call the castle home for 10 months of the year. After a really long day, and night it was time to make the floor as comfortable as possible, I slept like a rock.
The following day I got to do my second road race ever, and naturally I was terrified, after seeing crashes at 20+ MPH all morning I was getting plenty spooked, and was playing with the idea of sidelining my the awesome Edge 68’s hanging from my Skeletor. I elected to keep the wheels on my bike, and suited up in Bowdoin kit and lined up. When we started off I got settled into the middle of the pack, and was riding comfortably, and felt safe. Just as I was getting the feel for the group somebody got a little loose after taking the inside line on the 4th corner of the 5 corner course. I got wrapped up with the 5 people that went down, and because I am an ignorant mountain biker I had no idea I could take what I hear is called a “free lap” and jump right back into the pack.
I spent the entire race working my ass off trying to get back the 40 seconds I lost in the crash. I got about 34 of the 40 seconds back (This made me really appreciate the blazingly fast Edge wheels) before I was pulled. 12 solo laps, that hurt like hell, and I’m hooked!

(Photo courtesy of Chatura Atapattu, I don’t think I know you, but you took some sweet ass pictures!)

All and all it was a great weekend of racing to kick off the race season, lessons were learned, the bikes rode better than I could Imagine, and bike racing in New England is alive and well! Oh did I mention that all 4 bikes I lugged around for the weekend are the best bikes I’ve ridden? Yeah they are, and these rest days are killing me!