Race Report... Dayville DAS race

Yes. I should get to that. First I love these close races. Sleeping in, waking up and getting out of bed when I'm ready to, not when the alarm says to. Getting stuff loaded in the car, lounging around in the morning. Filling up the car on the way and still getting there with more than enough time.

The weather was windy overcast with spotty showers, some pretty heavy. But it didn't rain a drop on the way home. With rain all night and heavy damp fog and mist there was no drying of the course. it was wet last year when i went. wet this year. Love it.

On the way there i hesitated putting the iPod with the death magnetic through the car stereo. WBRU was doing the retro-brunch, songs that close to middle age folks like me remember fondly. Crap. I can't be middle aged. 37? Seems way more middle than anything else. Anyway. A couple good songs came on. Then, cruising through the fog towards CT on 101...

the opening bars of this song started in through the speakers...
I'm not ashamed to say, I like that song. Why? Dunno. Something about the simplicity and the melodic vocals? The synth. what ever it is, it sort of washes over with positive good vibes. forget metallica... for the drive in at least... i was pumped.

WBRU fades just over the CT side of the RI hills... so the retro brunch was cut short...

It was a light turn out at Dayville. Despite the Beer Cross in the title, this race doesn't have any of the shenanigans you'd associate with stuff like the SSWCCX race. It is just plain old hard core cyclocross.

Head over, get my number. Walk back, chat a bit, grab the pit bike and ride over to check and see what kind of changes they've made to the course from last time I was there. First barrier was the same. Most all the course was the same. An added barrier in a new location. And then there was the tape chicane maze. Holy crap batman, that is one tight ass twisty section. Custom made for a little freak. Not some big guy with a longer than average wheelbase. Steve Morse was running it in the pre-ride. I think it might have been a touch faster to run it. But i still only ran it 1/2 the time. And then there was the run up. The descent was tough. Bumpy, slippery and trees everywhere.

So with recon finished, the women about to start... I headed back to get through the pre-race ritual of non-rituals. Trying not to be so set in my ways that disruptions or changes don't freak me out, but there are elements that seem to be required. #1 pinning on the number. Can't really get around that. And after years of doing it and finally hearing the one phrase that made it all click into automatic:

"How do you pin them on? When numbers are on the left-
Bottom left hand corner goes right under the armpit. Bottom of the number should come pretty close to following the line of the side panel."

(thanks to K-man)

Now pinning numbers on all funktasticly just seems crazy. How hard is it to pin the sh1t on? Seriously. I'm too OCD/fastidious for my own good. Anyway.

Pinned up suited up trainer set up, hop on. The Bikeman gang from RI are under cover warming up. NBX Bo Fuller was cruising around doing something. Maybe warming up too? I dunno. Steamboat was racing with us in the Killer Bs. As were a handful of others including Shawn McCormick. Before Plymouth or maybe a race before that I had not realized that there was more than just Frank and Mark. Then one race there was a guy who looked remarkably like Mark, in a Fuji team kit. Well yeah. That's Shawn. The only McCormick I can say I've finished in front of. Sounds kind of cool to say "I beat one of the McCormicks!" Esp when the person you are talking only knows of Mark and Frank. (I just realized my name's all my spelled in the Opa-Opa results -damnit). Anyway Wayne was there too. Looking pretty serious today. Bo was all about wanting to beat Wayne pre-race.

Warm up felt okay. First time on the bike since Monday. Legs were pretty stiff. Lots of slowness in them. But I persisted and spent about 25 minutes just spinning them around listening to Metallica. Eventually I broke a sweat and I started to mix in a few intense efforts. The sensations weren't bad but not great. All that time off kind of left me feeling somewhat flat. But not too bad. Much better than I felt at NoHo. Not as good as I felt at Plymouth South. With about 20 minutes to go I rolled over to the start. We got lined up. I didn't want front row. I wanted to start within myself. Chuck and Steve made a Steamboat sandwich in front of me. Boom we were off. Chuck went out crazy. Nailed the hole shot, had it for a few minutes or a few seconds, not sure which, but the second lap or so I was past him. Passed a slid out Stevens. Got around Morse when he went down into the narrow hill after the covered bridge thing, he was running up and I managed to pedal around him and drop him. I don't think I was slowing down much, but I never really got better at riding the lines in the single track. And other people did. NBX Rob was chilling back a few seconds from me. I could see him, and after every single track section he was a tiny bit closer. Closer and closer he'd get through the tight twisty stuff. I'd easily hold the gap in the straights or over the barriers, but hitting the snot slick clayish mud in the turns and the tight single track he'd work closer until he'd get me. Then he was gone with about 3 to go. I was again alone in no mans land. Then there was a kid moving up. Killing it in the twisty sections and the down hill. I tried to hold him off as long as I could. Then on the last lap he got around just as we passed the pits the first time on that lap... and he jumped as he went around. A really solid jump. I was able to dig down and keep the gap from growing but he hit the twisty stuff up top and gapped me a touch. Then I reeled him back heading into the back rocky rooty stuff. I was flying through there and managed to get almost on his wheel as we hit the tape maze. He got out a touch better than me, but I ran the last two turns and was on the bike and I was on his heels at the top of the run up.

Saddly, he just took off and i botched the turn at the bottom of the hill and he built a gap I couldn't close on the plane of pain. I was at the limit there through the turns, full bore big ring spinning, rear wheel drifting around the corner, but i would have needed about 50 meters to catch him.

And once again I've sort of come to the realization, I like big hills, and power sections. This single track mountain bikey stuff even with tubbies still has me a bit slower than I could be. Something to work on.

But it was a fun race. Finished 8th out of 18th after being as high as 6th with a really mellow start.

Had a post race IPA, mmm good. Then picked up the pit bike and headed back to change and come back to watch Skinny and Mark G race around. The kid who won the Killer B race destroyed those guys. Word was he was hopping the barriers. Kid has skills.

Then sunday I decided to check on my weight... damn ~7-8 pounds lighter than I was a week ago. I should really have kept the food intake up even when I was off the bike. Damn. Getting skinny. But then the nice people running the wellness clinic said i had about 15-16 pounds of body fat so... hopefully most of that was fat? Hopefully? (doubtful I know but hey i can dream, right?) Even if only 5 pounds of it was fat... that would wind me up around 5% body fat... possible... so much for trying to keep that insulating layer on during cross season... Gotta eat more food. SWEET!

Gotta say, I like having that dilemma... fooooooooood.... me need FOOOOOOD...

now to see about making the skinnier legs and body go faster...

heddwch
g