Plymouth North

Plymouth North
Saturday November 14, 2009.

Forecast was looking good. That hurricane had brought a good Nor’easter and the weather was killing it down here, but the radar showed that Plymouth was just on the outside edge of the rain. Got the car loaded up, headed into the city to grab my team mate Curtis aka Skinny White Dude aka wicked fast. His ‘A’ bike is up at Hot Tubes getting the top tube fixed (sanded and new layers of carbon) so he had his ‘B’ bike and ‘C’ bike. With the rain coming down we put mr. almost pro’s B bike inside and left the aluminum ones on the roof to get completely waterlogged on the way up. And man it was heavy at times. So much rain. But it let up a bit as we got there. At least the rain did. It was windy enough to take down some tents that people had set up.

We got a nice spot on the corner of the building well out of the wind and between the building and the tent we were totally dry under there for warm ups. Curt got part of a lap in on pre-ride. Giulia assured that the course was as identical to last year as it could be. Except it wasn’t quite. It was actually more like 2007 IIRC. There was a bit of a different wrinkle, but still much the same. Got numbers, got set up, started warming up. I went with a new embrocation. Skinny used the last of the Leg Salsa. He’s addicted to that stuff like crack, esp that lingering burn post race. My new one? Nothing special, nothing secret. Actually crediting G-ride for the plain old Ben-Gay (well target brand ultra strength stuff), but I added a nice wrinkle to slathering up with the old school stink of camphor and menthol. Once the Ben-Gay was worked in, I added the pro ‘look’ and cleaning aid and water/windproofing. I used a simple mix of olive and sunflower oils. Simple, wicked cheap, and nice and shiny. Makes post race clean up in the mud super simple. The oil keeps transpiration down to a minimum and thus evaporative cooling, and it makes the legs all shiny. And if I’ve learned anything hanging out with Skinny, you start going fast when you start looking fast. We all know that’s pure BS but hey it works for Pete Smith (exit17 link).

Legs all ready to go, hop on the trainer, wait. Shit I forgot the slick road wheel with the skewer that fits in the trainer. But I did quick a swap from the ground down skewer (I guess the bike slid along on more than the left hood in the crash) to the spare wheel’s skewer, it worked but not ideally, gotta remember to modify that side of the clamp, but it worked. Hummed along on the knobbies.

Out of the wind warming up was good. Did a quick re-pinning of skinny when I noticed his number on the wrong side and we rolled down to the start line, did a quick ride up the steep run up and got ready for the start. Quite a bit fewer people this year (only 15 finishers) so we had more or less on single row with a few people lining up behind. Curtis and I got the far inside. Curt next to the cone and me planning to run his flank giving him the clear hole shot, yeah, that was the plan. Kevin Buckley was lined up behind Curtis (probably the best starting position actually). Chris gave the 30 second warning and Kevin asked if I was going to wear the jacket, because he couldn’t see my number (or something he phrased it pretty well –I can’t remember the exact words). I looked down and in a split second realized why it was so comfortable sitting there at the start line, I still had my long sleeve winter weight jersey on over my skinsuit. SHIT. That’s the problem with perfectly matching kit. I got it unzipped halfway when the whistle blew. Panic. SHIT. I got it off and tossed it to the side, aiming for a dry spot, but wouldn’t ya know it blew right into the middle of the biggest puddle.

And I was off. Dead last. Not just last but everyone was out of the field almost. I had some work to do. I messed up Curtis’s focus, but I guess it didn’t really affect the outcome too much, he won.

I drilled it, great – so much for chilling and surfing the wheels. I had work to do. Jamming time. Jump across wheels, dig to get up to a faster wheel, jump again. Pretty soon I was up where I should be, but that was a book of matches I didn’t plan on burning right away. Around the barrier smooth. A bit of a few slick spots before it and then there was the old wrinkle and I totally flubbed it. Lost 3 places and a huge time gap to the leaders before recovering. Wheel slipped out and I stopped. Back around and we headed to the barrier and then the downhill. I was back on wheels, in line and we hit the pavement. I did a decent job of staying on the wheels in front of me on the sidewalk, then hit the left turn into the mud right in the middle. And I tried to ride the middle. Even the folks with Cubus tires or Rhynos couldn’t ride the middle, me and my worn out Fangos? Not a chance. There I was upright spinning the rear wheel not moving… much. (sorry about the ellipses erik needed them). To add insult to stupidity I was in the big ring from the sidewalk jamming, and under that load I couldn’t drop the chain (constant pressure just to stay upright and move about a cm a pedal stroke). I managed to suck it up and find some grass and get moving but I lost a couple places but more importantly the wheels I was on hitting that mud were looooooong gone. Shit. Dug down jammed around the tennis courts hit the run/ride up trying to ride it. I slipped out just before the top and lost more spots. WTF I’m riding like a moron. I dug down and really worked to get some time back. Got a rider or two back, got passed by one person maybe and I just worked it. Jammed it hard in the straight sections. Found the best lines in the turns and started riding smarter. But the second time down the downhill I lost more time in that single track. Gaps opened up after that, it took me a good couple of laps to get the hang of it and not lose so much time. I managed to figure out the lines, tried riding the run up, made it but slowly.

Then Chris caught up to me. He got on my wheel through the downhill section single track. And I gapped him on the sidewalk but only enough that he had time to get around me in the slippery stuff after wards. I was still trying the far left side, he jammed on the right and had a ton of traction and was flying away from me. “damn, that’s the line.” After he zipped past me I had to get on the wheel but he had a decent gap already. And he hit the run up and dismounted and ran it. With my lackluster riding of it I got off. And FLEW up it. Woah. That was #1 easy and #2 wicked fast. I was on his wheel at the top. And it took no effort. Amazing.
But Chris managed to gap me coming into the start/finish chute. I got some great encouragement from the sidelines and I funneled that into power. His gap was a handful of seconds. But I dug down and pulled him back by the time we hit the place I bobbled on the first lap. I hit it hard on his heels and he washed out, and I made the pass on the right and took advantage of it. We were hitting the section he was getting most of the time out of me. And I drilled it as best I could. I came out with a gap and didn’t look back. We had two laps to go, well a lap and a half. I just dug and dug and rode hard. I was 9th, knowing that (from the sidelines) was huge motivation. Hit the right side after the sidewalk and rode it hard. Someone else was coming up on me but I dug down and was charging hard. Chris wasn’t around, weird. Flew up the run up and ran up and finished hard and strong. I checked back and saw no need to sprint and chilled across the line.

It was hard, it was tough, but man it was fun. I hate that downhill single track, but I figured out the bottom half though and I nailed the run up and made up some of the couple minutes I lost on that first lap.

The rain held off and the wind didn’t really pick up until we’d finished.

It was an awesome day racing.

heddwch
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