Gloucester day 1 in the books. IIRC Day 1 is always a high power watt fest. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I started a bit in the back. 10-11 row somewhere. Results showed 105 including the DNFs, not sure that is all of the DNFs or not.
But man what a ride to get there.
Got home last night after driving my oldest and a classmate to their ballet and point class at around 9:15 or so. Nothing was packed. Nothing was ready. Hell I had to throw the orange suit in the wash before we left for class - it was still pretty rank from wearing it at White Park and racing in it.
Besides making sure I had a clean set of shit to wear tomorrow - i did fuck all to prepare for today. Zip. Nada. Tried to go to bed early - didn't really work so well. Work up a few times, ones I thought I heard squirrels chewing on the house, but it was the dog grinding her teeth in her sleep. That sort of was unsettling. Woke up 30 min before the alarm went off - I just lay there thinking I should just get up, but I didn't move until it went off.
Stumbled downstairs - fired up coffee, contemplated making food. Drank coffee. Fed dog. Sat down. It was still POURING rain. Checked the radar. Oh rain should be clearing off before i need to leave at 7am.
Finally got around to making some breakfast. Sat down and ate slowly. This was not the pre-VT freakout. Freakout level was at Defcon 0. IOW relaxed. Too relaxed.
Finally finished eating. Made another cup of coffee. Filled up the water bottles. Made some oatmeal for 9am feeding. Sliced up the Stollen. Started packing the race bag with the new Formal wear Cyclocrossracing.com skinsuits, shoes, helmet, gels, stuff.
Had to convert the rusty race wagon from kid hauler to the millennium falcon... tossed the bikes in, trainer, trainer wheel, pump, tools, i dunno what else. I actually remembered to pack a towel even.
By the time the car was loaded, it was 7:30 and I was now leaving later than I wanted to. Google said 1:45 drive time. Yup, pretty much on the money, for the return trip. I think i cut 5-10 min off racing up there.
Found a parking spot, surveyed the situation, headed over to get number, always good to see everyone, to say hey, get a hug and all that. Love all y'all like family.
Number picked up.
wandered around aimlessly for too long, missed the pre-ride window before the next race started. Then futzed around getting shit ready when I finally got it ready to miss the window between the Cat 4 35+ and the 3/4 women's race. Granted I spent most of that time walking around the course yelling at Matt and Derdowski, Andy and Savage and anyone else I recognized. Oh yeah NIXON on his killer new CX bike.
By the time I made it to the car again, the women were lined up and I hadn't even taken a bike out. Swapped the cassette off the commuter wheel onto the Ultergra set for the pit bike, aired up some tires, lubed the chains, and started pinning the number on. Took me pretty much the whole women's race to get ready for a pre-ride. Did I mention I was relaxed? Cranking tunes didn't even help that much. I was having fun, chatting with people as they walked by. Was good.
Finally got my shit together. Put on 800 layers because my glands are swollen, my throat is raw, my nose isn't quite running but it is close and I'm just starting to cough shit up. Head out with the thundering herd. It is still damn, raining, not quite but not dry. Course is slick. and there's a kid, who finished but didn't get the message that he was finished and he was trying to ride the course on a road bike. Slick tires. He kept stopping to pull his sagging shorts up. We would sit and wait. He would ride a bit. stop. get off, look back at us, get back on, ride a bit, get off. crash. get up. pause. We were waiting. As it was I think they might have pulled him at the pit. But a few of us turned around and jumped back on to repeat a bit. So i got almost a whole lap in as a warm up. Tires were good. Pressure was a bit high but I left it that way.
Headed back up I think... 45+ were starting. I grabbed the pit bike, took it down and stuck it in the pits talked with Cathy, made it back to the car, and I dunno - fucked around a bit I guess. I don't remember. I didn't warm up on the trainer I brought. I grabbed a few tools for Kyle while he was warming up on the trainer, took a piss, ate a few pieces of Stollen. The Oatmeal was a congealed mess. I usually use steel cut oats for the race food, these were rolled. Not the same. I either have to figure this shit out or go back to steel cut. This batch was esp thick, I also realized, it was just oats, no sugar, no salt, no peanut butter, raisins, nothing. Big container full of glue. SO not appetizing.
Oh well - wasn't feeling hungry anyway.
Rolled down, lined up, someone next to me made a comment about pre-race nerves and jitters. Me? i was the antithesis of that. Any cooler and I'd have been ice. I wasn't cold though, that was nice. Weather had stopped pissing mist on us, the wind was pretty solid but in a very beneficial direction it seemed.
Way in the back. row 10-11 something. I lined up. Flipped Nick's rear facing Go-Pro camera the bird and boom we were off.
And we raced. Was going well, dudes can drive their bikes. Lines were not sketchy, it was tight and argy bargy in that mess but it wasn't sketch. Up and down, off the bike, run through shit. Actually felt okay running. Ran most of the intestinal track, had a sweet move with the final section, totally ran past a pile of guys and onto the field. To the barriers. Oh fuck. Barriers at speed. So I took a touch off the top end. Slowed but not walked and it felt okay. Zoom zoom. Away we go. At some point the juniors started coming through. That was interesting. And I will leave any further comments about that off the record.
I was actually racing. Slowly. I couldn't hang on Keith Kelly's wheel, but I wasn't setting the sea anchor too badly. I had a few bobbles, fucked up line choices forced or brain farted, some of each. Blew myself up on a few sections - focused on recovery in a few, and just tried to go as damn fast as I could.
Mechanical free even, i think.
Came in with a lap to go, a big pile of dudes on my wheel, 5-7 maybe. I was dumping every watt i could in passing sections, and recovering and making myself as big as possible in the turns. It worked. Out of the sand trap still in front, and fuck it, dump what ever the fuck is left in the tank on that finishing hill. It hurt.
A lot.
But I held em off, put a few seconds in even.
My adductor and sartorius survived I think, but man my _____ (not sure exactly - lower left of the spine right at the pelvis) is killing me, was hurting in the race a bit. Probably over compensating for pulled groin last week and just now surfacing. I'm a mess.
Cleaned up, changed, ate, took an hour to walk to get the pit bike and get it back to the car. Loaded the car. And then went to check results before the women started. Saw i missed the first page by about 10 riders and the women were headed up the stairs. And so i walked around, cheering for them in various spots... moving around, checked out the half moon beach run up (that's not going to be fun on the first lap) walked around some more, cheered, chatted, cheered, chatted, drank, ate the last bit of stollen (i think i'm spelling it wrong), and eventually wound up back at the car when they finished.
Got the rest of my new formal kit, then Able showed up. He heard that I lost a bottle and a jersey. He found an abandoned bottle that looked like it could belong to me. (photo by Nick Czerula)
I eventually made it home. Despite hacking a lung and a sore throat, I can actually still breath pretty cleanly, no issues. Gonna load up the sore spots with some arnica gel, and eat some more and hopefully get some sleep before another long trip in the car tomorrow... Hopefully the weather blows clear and Henry can wake up to a sunrise over the bay there at Stage Fort Park.
60th is where I wound up finishing.
Time for more food.
I took no pictures today.
not sure i even managed to remember to pack the camera.
shoes are under a fan, hopefully they will be dry for tomorrow.
hoping to leave a bit earlier than this morning, although it sort of all fell into place and worked.
so good to see everyone esp that MAC contingent we rarely see. The Auer man was poking along on 95 as I went zooming by. But that Mazda with the pair of Canyons on the roof slowly clawed their way back and he was riding the bumper by the time we got off 128.
heddwch
G
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