Where to start? Not sure, racing on heavy old wheels, worn out clinchers with thick tubes. I got both bikes ready to go... more or less found what I needed and Saturday morning woke up a bit early. Made some coffee, cooked up a big pile of eggs, beans, rice and stuff. So good. ate it all. made more coffee. Then had the thought, hmm, i should check see if I have my license. Not in the wallet. WTF? Shit. I had it a ninigret back in April. Yeah. I haven't needed it since. I've mentioned I haven't been racing. At all. Not once. Sure a few TTs but those ended a while ago.
So yeah. No license. I've tried the 'don't you know who i am' approach before, not always the best luck with it. And since I'm the only person left in the NECX with a flip phone and no way to show the people at reg a web page i scrambled to print an auth to ride. Got that done.
Freaked out about something else too. Finally got my shit together and loaded the car. Time to leave.
I had the directions from the registration page. They looked like this:
From Rt 128 take MA-2 West for 3.3 mile Turn left onto MA-62 follow MA-62 for 4.2 mile Turn left onto Waltham St for 0.5 mile Turn left onto Old Mill Rd. The Rod and Gun club is at 45 Old Mill Road. Maynard MA
No big deal right?
Last year I rode up there with Bo. He drove. He had one of those map things for the car (i don't - yeah no smaht phone OR car GPS). We went via 495.
So what did I do? I got on 495. Not until exit 22 or 23 did I realize... I have no fucking directions from 495.
Awesome.
Okay 'activate carrier pigeon portion of the brain'
Bolton/stow follow signs to Maynard, oh hey this looks sort of familar, oh there, i'm on Old Mill, just when I thought I must have driven past it, there was the sign.
Found it. Lucky.
Parked next to Nick the Dick and his whole family. his daughter killed it in the first race. Took my time getting my shit together, helped Matt W fix a slipping brake 5 min before his start. Yelled at him and Derdowski in the cat 4 race. Then jumped on and did a lap or two on the Black Blue to get a feel for the course, and then quickly aired up the White Blue tires and jumped out for part of a lap. I almost hate to say it but it felt better, more stable, faster, easier. But heavier.
I got a good bit of heckling in.
Also - open apology, It takes me time to link up internet with faces. I'm easy to spot in the big orange suit (which is now washed Litka, double dose of oxyclean, hopefully it doesn't smell like a basement anymore). And sometimes people change kits (like Matt Wilson - i didn't know you were racing with the midget Carl) and I don't clue into it at first. Sorry. I'm just a moron (most of the time).
Got half a lap on the White Blue before the start, parked it with Mark and jogged back to the car. Sucked down some liquid sustenance and grabbed my brand new team waterbottle, put on the short sleeve jersey with pockets and popped the bottle in there and headed to the start. Drank a handful of swigs from it waiting for the start. After getting into the grid I took the jersey off with the bottle in the pocket and put it by a stake at the start. Lined up in Row 2 of 3. I picked the wrong wheel to start behind, he was a bit slow off the line. Bo was on my left and off we went. Bo got a solid start and then what happened? Well we can't ride 10 wide into the first corner so people pinched in. And Bo took out a big pile of people right in front of me but somehow i managed to weave past and around without getting tangled and started racing. Kind of mellow a bit but still sort of aggressively. No sitting back. I stuffed the newly upgraded Cat 3 Hendry as he took a wide line, we all rode the sand the first lap. Sure it was faster to run but screw that running crap. It hurts.
Cranking through. Pedaling. Racing. It hurt but probably not enough because I was having fun. Wilson said something about not wanting to follow his line cause he's driving like a blind grandma, so I passed him, heckled a bit and didn't see him again. Worked up and through a few people, tried to hold off a charging Doug, worked at trying to reel in a fading Coley, kept seeing Brant just ahead, and fuck I was RACING! Bike felt good. Tires were gripping. Grip=good. Was fun. The course is just so much fun. Not sure exactly why but it feels good, is hard, obviously.
It seemed short and it was a bit. I think we should have had an extra lap added on, I'd have been able to catch Cole at least then. But 21/27 and just shy of 4 min slower than the insanely fast fast dudes driving the race with zero racing or structured training under my belt. I'll am very pleased with the results. Only two of the 50+ wave caught me, so that was also a nice relief. And the race predictor postmortem only had me down one place based on my november/december fitness finishes. It gives me a bit of hope for the season.
Maybe. We'll see what life throws at it all.
Vermont next weekend. Still have to figure out travel and what not.
Post race I chatted with Bo for a bit, then headed out to grab my jersey and waterbottle from the start grid, then the girls went by, so I had to make some noise. By the time I got to the sand pit they were going to start coming around again and I started talking to friends, and then I made it another few feet before talking again, and a bit further. Finally made it down to the Start finish. Girls were still on course. And my jersey was not there. no waterbottle.
Seriously? Who takes a jersey and waterbottle clearly team shit. Hmm maybe someone else picked it up. Wandered around a bit, bummed, checked reg table, no dice there... newberry comics handed me an XPA as a condolence for lost jersey, cruised through the hup tent with chipster, up to say hey to The Wilcox and Caldwell, over to reg, back to car to see if any of my team mates had picked it up. Nope. Gone. Really? Damnit. It was a bit loose fitting... but it was a brand new bottle. Ah well. Maybe someone picked it up by accident and I'll see it again somewhere. At least it wasn't a bike or wheels or something.
Eventually I loaded up the rusty race wagon, and headed out, set the cruise at a pedestrian pace. So much easier to be the slow car on the highway, a rolling road block right around the speed limit. Cruise control on just chilling. car will go fast with bikes on the roof, just sucks a bit of fuel doing it. So no rush, take it slow.
I was that guy. Screw it.
Got home, unpacked, made dinner, farhted around on the internet too wired to sleep... then crashed. Only to be woken up by two squirrels going AT IT outside my open window at 3:30. Closed window. STILL TOO LOUD! Fuckers. Hit the tree with a bit of light and then got some water and they had finished up by the time I got back in bed.
This morning felt not terrible. Legs do felt like I race, but the rest of me feels fine. Not run over by a truck. Lets see how beat up I get at GMCX this weekend. oof, that start list is impressive.
That's a wrap. I probably forgot a pile of stuff. Like nearly crashing when a wheel washed out but catching it with a foot down.
Bottom line though, it was good to be racing again. very good to see everyone again. seriously. it was good.
heddwch
G
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