2012 GMCX: attempt #1

Vermont, Catamount... the real wake up call at the start of the season.

A predictor of the rest of the year sometimes.

The Catch 22 race, go and get destroyed, stay home and miss the insane intensity and pain and suffering.

Granted you can actually get out of the Catch 22 by racing and training in the summer. Last year went better with the TTs leading up to it.

But yeah I didn't.

The first race, up at Quad cross, was simple, clinchers, no big deal. I got one bike sort of ready, but I was dumb and re-used the cable (got kinked a bit) and used some plastic ferrules (because they were laying around) and the white blue shifted like crap. So.

Vermont prep was totally stymied by the need to get tires glued up, get some tubeless ready tires installed on tubeless rims so I could have a pair of race ready wheels on both bikes. Add to the mix a sick wife all week, a sick kid, ballet every night, work, insanity, you know, normal life stuff. Thursday was a glue session (went well, tires stayed on the rim even when i was doing a tokyo drift in grass) and the final air up of the tubeless tires (they are losing less air than the Clements btw). Friday night? Oh we need to ALL go into town. Okay. Get home, make dinner. No one eats it (they had a bit of food before we got home, guess it was enough). And I start getting the wheels set up. Had planned to put carbon pads on the Black Blue for the 303s. Used the pad holders off the Tektro 720s for the V-brakes. Worked great in the back. Had to bend the springs to deal with how far out the arms were but I got them installed. Worked amazingly well (quiet and modulation and all that).

Started on the front. Oh. Fuck me really? pads are too thick, bottomed out on the fork. Back to the Kool-stop Salmon. Maybe I have to see about trying to get some shimano V-brake carbon pads. I think Swiss Stop makes them but I haven't seen them available at any distributor. But that's cool The Salmon pads actually work pretty well on the carbon. A handful of pro bikes were using them (noted in the pits on Saturday), lots of people have used them, they are better than some pads but still tend to melt if you really really use them a lot.

Had to tweak the brakes on the White Blue for the Ultegra Tubeless wheels too.

I think I had both bikes ready to go sometime before 10pm. Maybe 9. twitter probably has the time line on my tweets. Maybe. Don't remember. Once the bikes were ready, I needed to get them all in the car. In hopes of maximizing fuel economy for the f'n long ass drive there and back (still have about 1/2 a tank left today) I took the roof rack off. I put the EZ-up in there, then the white blue, a packing blanket, the black blue, and then all the wheels. I tossed a set of clinchers in there and my trainer wheel with the ancient welded trainer. Plenty of stuff. I did forget a pillow, sleeping bag, clothes, pants, jacket, knee warmers, anything cold. Also, no clean underwear. Yeah nice personal detail there. When you realize you have no clean clothes at 11pm and you're planning on getting up at 4:30am to drive 4+ hrs to race bikes all weekend, well laundry isn't at the top of the list to start that late at night.

Eventually I said fuck it. Packed close enough. And tried to sleep.

Tried. Operative word.

More or less I just stayed awake, in bed, i dozed off only to wake up 30 min later. Pretty much all night. 4:30 and the alarm went off, i managed to drag myself out of bed at 4:40, made some breakfast sandwiches, packed the food, stuffed the last bits in the car, and managed to hit the road, later than I planned... 5:30. But well. I was on the road. In the car. With what I needed.

The drive up really wasn't too bad. I rotated through the tunes. Cruise control set. Traffic was fine. It wasn't too bad. Nice mellow morning. Drinking coffee, eating, and driving.

The Vermont welcome center was perfectly timed. I had to poop. Pulled a Kbuck, pooped in the morning and then again. I guess I ate enough the day before. Jumped back in the car. Music was probably a bit loud. Ears were ringing in the rest area. Go figure. Driving to bike races alone is bad for my hearing. HAH. Well at least I can crank that shit and sing along. My desireable sound level is far too high for anyone else I've been in a car with.

Made it. Parked in the insider/masters/pro lot. Set up the tent next to Gary's and the Cyclocrossracing.com compound ready for action. Got some bikes together. Headed out for a lap, got number, talked to half of everyone there. Ate some more food. Drank some coffee, got back on course for a second lap. Texted/called/annoyed Closethedoor about bringing us our new team skinsuits in time for us to pin the numbers on and race in them. He got them there 45 min before we started. I like to be pinned up before then. No big deal.

Nicky has a video project for the season. I got an Ion Camera put on the bike, so did our kid Mosbey. BARCAM. Oh god, now my suckitude will be documented.

This race had the Juniors mixed in with the old dudes. And this race is all grass. Climbing and lots of fast dudes and kids. And while my weight is more or less at the target level, I'm still in the 190# neighborhood w/o clothes on.

And then we lined up.

And then we started racing.

And I've run out of time. Bottom line, I raced. Finished not last. Felt good about it. Could have gone harder but beat Whitey in the sprint...

details later
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