Supercros Cup 2013 wrap up

Where to begin? with a fold of course


Myles asked me to do some promo, spreading the word, about the race. I said sure, no problem. When someone asks for that, I'm happy to oblige.  Esp someone like Myles.

His Long Island races have been a consistent supporter of racer equality, paying out the women the same prize list and as deep as the men, and everyone has great things to say about his courses. And for that along I figure why not. Christine V had lots of praise for Myles and we've been social media 'friends' for a while, interacting and busting Parke's balls and stuff on the interwebs among others.

Another factor was Fitchburg. I love Alan, but I don't love that Fitchburg course. Not one bit. It is probably a good course for me but it has a bag juju feeling for some reason.

It actually took me a few days of pushing the race to realize, whoa it isn't on Long Island.  Whoops.

And then well shit it isn't THAT far away, sort of. Closer than Catamount, at least a shorter drive. The 9:45 start was a bit troubling but hey, no big deal. Right?

Promote away. Hit all the social media outlets I'm tied into, if people didn't actually show up this year, well I think they probably will next year, why? BECAUSE IT WAS SO AWESOME. Except for the cold part, but it was cold everywhere so that sort of a dumb argument unless you just stay home when cyclocross becomes the best.

Maybe I should do this in parts. Hmm.

I wasn't totally committed, but then I got signed up some how. Oh, i'm registered now? Shit, gotta find a place to stay. GeWilli totally over thought it, but Myles had asked me about sharing a mic and doing some Announcing with the legendary Joe Sailing. I dug a bit about him off the internet. God Damn LEGEND. holy shit. Pro of Pros. New Jersey equivalent of Dick Ring, except Joe has pretty much won everything and has been racing SINCE the 1950s and now in his 70s he admitted to me that while his brain is eager to keep racing his body can't keep up, but he's got some great pipes and his announcing routine is solid. But gold medals in 9 or 10 cycling disciplines is as impressive as his stature and physical presence. He was also completely unfazed by the Sunday weather. Granted he kept the corded mic close and had the shelter and the warmth of the Trailer while I roamed around with the wireless mic.

So there was that, announcing saturday? I would love to. I was nervous, very much so. But figured one day, Myles is bringing in a pro for sunday to tag team with Joe, no problem. And i got compensated with a hotel room saturday night... Doesn't make for the best racing legs, that whole getting down with your race, changing, eating and grabbing a mic and standing around talking from 11 until 4, (and well since there was still work to be done i followed myles around as re-did the course helping him focus on designing and re-routing and me translating his savant like course designing to the eager crew of Kissena Club volunteers). Day two race was pretty much not going to be more than a parade for 45 min for me. But laying out the course it was cool, a good set up and I was looking foward to it.

SO SCATTERED I AM TODAY. Oh well. What's new.

Oh so one thing, before i get back to it. Sidebar as you will.  I hadn't actually met Myles in person before Saturday. Not sure what he looks like, his FB stuff is light on personal photos. That said I've been to enough CX events, there's an aura that the promoter/designer has. A confident caring stressed calmness about them. Could be they are the ones that everyone is looking to and listening too.  But I was waiting in line and said, yeah that's gotta be myles, it was.

I was up at 4am Saturday morning to drive down, the night before was the elementary school father daughter dance, I couldn't miss that.  I had forgotten that the new venue was not serving family style, and had been looking forward to the endless bowls of salad and pasta and meatballs and roasted chicken quarters, only to be reminded as we sat down with a small individual salad that no, this was not going to be enough.  It wasn't close to enough. But it was a fantastic evening. We had a great time and then headed home. And then i was finally able to start packing and getting ready. Sandwiches made, coffee made, car loaded, bags packed. Ready to go and in bed by 11pm. Up at 4am. In the car, driving away at 4:18.

EARLY....  Smooth sailing through CT until New Haven and then there was a flashing sign saying 95 was closed between exit 6-7. What? Shit. Wait, I just passed the Merritt Parkway. FUCK. Okay Google lets figure this shit out.

Took maybe 10 min to slowly proceed to exit 8, got off with those who weren't blocked in the left lane by hundreds of semi-trucks from Exit 8 to the closure it was all tractor trailers and a left lane of cars. Parked.

Off 8 i could see the route that the computer wanted me to take was stopped and red on the map, zoom out, improvise. And it worked brilliantly, i missed all the traffic and was back on the road with only maybe a 30 min total delay. I call that a win, and I think i still had time to get there and ride the course before the next race. And I did. got a lap in, got my number, got stuff sorted out pinned up and then with the big gap between races managed to get two laps in before the start, rolled right from pre-ride to staging grid, and made the mistake of racing with leg warmers that weren't pinned. I figured the new Verge stuff would be grippy enough. Nope. Not a chance. Fuck.  Anyway.  I raced, sort of. Pretty tired, back was giving me fits and I had not a ton of power, but it was fun and i liked the elements of the course and it was good racing. You had to find the balance of being able to pedal hard and ride technically.  Not really that easy to do, and I think a great feature and change from courses where you were either just driving or just pedaling, this you had to do both.  I was paying for the lack of prep, the lack of sleep, a stressful week. But it was fun.

Got done with my race, saw Myles, changed into clothes, put on the jumpsuit, my warm fuzzy Challenge Tires toque big warm boots and headed to the announcer/officials/timing trailer at the start finish.  Introduced myself to Joe and was handed a wireless Mic. We started talking a bit, and Gnarly Monkey showed up, and said myles asked if I would do some interviews with him. And so we did. We walked around and found a pile of people to talk to. Was a hell of a lot of fun, a bit stressful but it worked out well I think. i needed a script or a checklist maybe, watching the videos back i kind of found myself saying dude change it up a bit, but i guess on one hand consistency helps with the interviews, we wanted to focus on the course, as it really was the star of the day. Anthony Wade Rec Area could totally be turned into a pro level only course could make it so challenging, so much potential.

So after the interviews then I headed back with the mic and spent some of the next race wandering around, we tweaked the speaker set up so i could hear Joe from over by the SRAM neutral pit area and I set up my perch on top of a picnic table with a great view of the biggest features of the course to call the women and the men UCI events.

We got in a pretty good groove, didn't step on each others toes too much, I messed up a few words as I'm apt do to, hell anyone who's tried to talk to me can understand. but it went really really well, for my first time calling races.  Yes. It was a f'n blast.

After the races were done we grabbed a few more interviews, then I was kind of standing around, not sure about how hotel/sleeping was going to be so I figured, shit Myles is setting up course for tomorrow, and I headed over to find him kind of frustrated. Worked to help smooth shit out, let him focus on designing, getting the crew to follow through and relay his instructions w/o him having to lose focus on the course, I thought it worked well.  The crew was great. very efficient, everyone was really trying hard and it was fun. We got part of it done and then it got dark. Really dark. Finished up the last sections competely in the dark, taping and finializing, and then it started to snow. Big heavy wet flakes.

To this point of the day I'd had since waking up one and a half breakfast sandwiches, a handful of cookie samples...  some coffee...  water...  and then after we were done, three donuts. Foreshawdowing much? No beer. No sleep. Running around on my feet standing up. Voice held up all weekend w/o problem. No issue there. Legs? Back? Yeah. not so much.

Myles gave me go ahead to find hotel that was close, I did. Wound up running into a few others at the hotel, talking a bit too late, way too late, but hey had managed to find a few beers at the gas station, probably shouldn't have has as many Molson XXX 25 oz cans as I did. I ate my taco salad thing (no lettuce just burrito filling, meat, sweet potatoes, rice, cheese sour cream) showered, soaked in tub, fixed a bike, sort of mostly i was too tired to be wrenching after beers likely and i got it just slightly off i guess, and the SRAM guys did the final tweak in the AM. But it was late, when i got to bed. Too late, way too late.  But it also meant that unlike normal hotel room stays I was OUT LIKE A LIGHT BOOM...  until about 6am. at which point i couldn't sleep anymore, despite trying to. Then freaking out thinking i needed to be there by 7:40 like the day before and then realizing oh, no that's cool I have another hour, of which i wasted most of it by laying around more in bed.  Rushed breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, loaded up on coffee, and went out to the car.

Now car. Car is not happy starting below 45 degrees w/o glow plugs. The glow plugs are completely dead. So when it starts well, it takes a while cranking it before the starter motor generates enough heat from compression to actually ignite (very poorly) the diesel. Whoops. It had gotten down to the teens.  Took a while before it was warm enough to drive. But it worked and we headed to the course.

I was absolutely NOT feeling like riding much. It was brutally cold. and windy. I had changed at the hotel, but didn't embro because it was in the car (fine, too cold for it anyway even under layers). Lined up, raced in hat and gloves, bib tights under skinsuit. It was fine. Not too warm. But I just couldn't get out of my own way. Like my body wouldn't let me get anywhere close to breathing hard.

I had fun, looked terrible out there, i knew i would but I am too stubborn to pack it in. I raced though, did have pressure to finish infront of JP, and the single speed guy, and I did. rolled off, was done, packed up car, put on every layer I had and headed back to announce after warming up drinking coffee.

My expectation was that I probably would just do the Gnarly Monkey stuff again and Myles would have the other guy doing the mic with Joe but nope, it was me again. Which was cool. And way too f'n cold. I roamed around a bit, but never as far or for as long. the wind was brutal and cutting and I could make it 45 min before i had to come back and warm up a little bit. Calling the races again was a blast. Day two definitely felt smoother for me, and Joe and I settled into more of a rhythm. Getting interviews was WAY more difficult, people were getting there later, or were cold or just flat out hiding...

The last interview we did was Timmie fresh off the podium. The two of us were shaking like crazy. I couldn't even hold the mic steady anymore. Took me until well into CT before i warmed back up. Picked the Merritt as the return due to traffic on 95 and more or less sailed home with one stop for food on the way.

Now story would normally end here and I'd go back to pedaling back and forth to work thinking about prep for Sterling. But it doesn't. End there. Monday sort of came and fucked everything up.

but that's a story for the next post...  I've rambled on long enough.

Bottom line if you've made it this far? Congrats. Well done. Sorry for the word choice, the bad grammar, the sentences that don't make sense and the typical GeWilli style. but hey. fuck it. that is what this place has been for ever. right?

oh and next year, make plans to show up at Supercross Cup. Seriously. Like put it on the calendar.

Heddwch
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