Monday, April 26, 2010

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!
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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!
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(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!

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