Wow, what a weekend

First off. Flags at half mast for Soups. Mark Suprenaut crashed hard along the lake section and suffered a spiral fracture of his fibula (up near the knee). 'Soups' has surpassed Marro as the nicest guy racing, sorry marro, but it is true.

Toughest is that he busted the right leg, driving is going to be tough for a while (until he figures out how to drive left footed).

That put a big shadow over the end of the day today.

That and me and G-ride not winning the damn SRAM force group they were raffling off.

What a day. Wicked fun. Kerry Litka has a new slogan to yell at her "MAKE IT WORK" sure it is hard to yell at the top of your lungs in a Tim Gunn accent but hey it is the words and the sentiment that count right? So if you see her little pinkness racing, make sure to cheer by yelling "make it work."

It was a hard weekend of racing. I mean really hard. These guys in the 1/2/3 35+ race here in New England are wicked fahking fast. No joke. I'm sort of fast, but man - not like Jonny Fooking Bold, or Kevin motocross Hines, or Mahhhhhk, or Asphlom. Good god those guys are unreal.

Myette - wow he's coming into form and is on FIRE. FIRE. Everyone is faster this year - esp G-ride. Too bad a whole host of folks ran right up his ass and busted his rear der at the start. It didn't break right away but after the repeated bashing from the rear - his der gave up the ghost before he could finish and the worst of it - they didn't have a small enough bike in the pits for him to jump on and prevent a dreaded DNF. Oh the dreaded DNF.

I made it both days without getting lapped. and as fast as those guys were racing up front, it is amazing that I didn't.

Great, and I mean GREAT seeing the CX folks.

The Interbike thing was pretty damn cool too. The folks at Giant (wicked nice that they actually still make a bike that fits tall folks) hooked me up with a rear der hanger. My shifting's been slightly off and as much as I tweak the cable (replace it, lube it, mess with the tension - every damn adjustment) it still was flaky a bit. and It looks like the hanger (I'm not a fan of replaceable ones anyway) was tweaked a touch. It was passable racing in the 46 with the smaller ring is more sensitive to chain line perfection and it was not shifting well at all. Hoping it fixes it.

Another shout out to the awesome folks at Thompson. I've been riding a Thompson post almost exclusively (except for the American Classic breaking and ripping a hole in my sack, yes, that sack). I've bent posts, had issues with adjustments, on most all posts except Thompsons. They are unbelievable. UNbelievable.

If you are going to buy a new post, buy only Thompson. Seriously. I have been assured that the Masterpiece (the light one) is the 5th strongest post on the market. And one of those 5 stronger is the Elite (or the original one), and another of the stronger ones is the wicked heavy kalloy kind. So we're going to drop a few grams off the Giant cyclocross bike and hopefully cure the slipping that has been resulting from sticking a 27.2 inside a sleeve to fit a 30.9 tube.

So looking forward to swapping it in.

Saturday's race was bad. Well good but started bad. I had a first and a half row call up behind the Verge Point guys. Meaning I was mid pack in a field of 71 at the start. I just didn't have the grr i'm getting them at the start and slipped back a few spots into the first turns and settled in decently placed until after the barriers. First you go right down the hill up to the 180 degree right turn followed by the 120 degree left all while going up and down (highest points at the turns if you weren't there). so the final right, i had the inside line, passing people, moving up but then someone turned right in front of me and came to a complete stop. I was moving up hill. Not flat. Had to stop, and just slipped down to the bottom of the slope before i could gain traction enough to get going again. By that point - EVERYONE was ahead of me. All 71 starters. Everyone. And not by just a second, by a LONG shot. It turned into a reel people in race. Place by place. Never feeling super confident in any corner. Working hard to find a rhythm. But man it was still fun. Wicked hard. Any 1/2/3 35+ race is around here (heck probably anywhere).

Race race race, I rode the unridable hill nearly everytime, while not faster I was able to gap most everyone i hit the hill with on the following pavement stretch, and I feel that being able to ride it mean a lot to saving the legs/lungs for riding a very fast stretch. We did 6 laps. My lap time was wicked slow but I still managed 44th. 44th out of 71 starters, when i was 10 seconds behind EVERYONE a 1/3 of the way through the first lap. I HAVE to be happy with that. Yeah?

I am. It was a success. G-ride is killing it out there this year and he was up in the 30s. amazing stuff - he's found something good this year. I really need to focus and work on the power a bit. The knee sort of threw a wrench into things this summer. Not that I need a reason but it was a big factor over the summer, if I didn't screw it up in Maine, just think what might have happened. Maybe nothing really. Either way, it is what it is and I have to work with it. I'm feeling better each weekend and that's what counts right?

Today's race was a bit better focused. Left the house earlier. Got there earlier. Got PRIMO parking spots. Worked the trainer heckling action there as everyone went by. Really focused more, cranked the tunes on the way there. Death magnetic specifically. Cranked that in the iPod on the trainer while cheering/heckling. despite my more focus the start was a bit lackadaisical. But we hit the grass and well - people were stacking it left and right and I managed to slip around most of it all and came out in a decent position. Drilling it to stay on wheels. But I made a bad mental error as we came down the off camber. I had programmed a 180 turn to come back by the pits so I was in conservation mode until I realized - Oh shit - we go straight! Fuck. Hit the afterburners a bit to get back on wheels... and just worked it and worked it and tried to spin more than grind. Used the 46 on some sections.

*just got up to let lucy out and holy Sh!t my legs are KILLING me*

It was brutal. But. BUT i survived on the lead lap. Not lapped. Thought I had the bike barn guy (Kevin?). I attacked him going past the pit on the second to last lap, got a decent gap and killed it to stay in front of him, but by the time we hit the start finish line for the bell lap he'd erased my gains and went through me and I held the gap constant until we started the big pump track stuff up by the road. He gapped me slightly through there and extended it through the up hill before the beer tent (thanks for the cheers Karin) and I managed to pull him back a tough on the hills but was unable to close it down and kind of just worked hard enough not to lose spots before the finish.

*CRAMP CRAMP CRAMP*

hamstring

wow i really nuked my legs today...

ouch

It was a gorgeous day. Hard work. Wicked hard work. Great course.

Awesome as always catching up with folks and enjoying that side of the sport. can't really do that side of things well pre-race. Before the race it is focus, focus, focus on the course, gathering intel, not getting sidetracked from purpose... focus and all that...

Despite the flaky shifting the bike was great. Tire pressure dialed. I discovered that I could roll and mess the rear up adversely running 31 psi in the 34c Fango rear tubular. 36 was perfect. ran 48 up front in the racing ralph clincher and it was freaking HOOOOOOKED up solid. Need more watts.

Too bad i can't afford to fire my coach and hire someone who actually knows what the hell they are doing.

It is all good. Maybe there'll be a good photo from today or yesterday of me in the new kit and I can update the avatar/icon...

My voice is kind of toast after the photo shoot with ROB BAUER... Hats off to Coley for the beer! Those MRC guys are primo (second only to the Planet Bike East Gang of course).

Here's to hoping Soups heals up quick and fast! We'll miss you man! Seriously.

heddwch
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