Green Mountain Cyclocross Cat 3 Day 2—2009—VT Verge

I did well in day one of VT Verge. 7th place. With the overnight rain, the abundance of rest, my front row call up and my newly acquired and recently demonstrated bike handling skills, I was confident that I would pull down a good result, perhaps even better than I had done on day one.

The course was degraded but rideable. While the moisture made the going slow, the corners remained mostly tacky. I didn’t figure it out until later, but the rain and the course conditions actually put me at a disadvantage, since it really just required power and little bike handling.

I knew that I was screwed 100 meters after the start. Riders were streaming around me, normally slow starter, Cary came around me inside the 1st 200 meters. I watched the lead group ride away on the first climb. There was nothing that I could do. I was tempted to dump it out to get on the group, but I felt flat, blocked, stuffed…

I fell in behind a known poor bike handler from MRC. He won the cat 4 Fitchburg Stage Race in 2008 despite causing a crash in the circuit race and riding sketchily. I was desperate, so I used his wheel on the easy straight sections. Normally, I don’t ride wheels in cross. Soon enough I remembered why, as we entered a greasy corner, I noted that we were going in too hot; I jammed on the brakes while still in the straight and cut tight on the inside while MRC’s wheels slipped out causing him to flail. His foot kicked one of my front spokes. I stayed up and didn’t lose any momentum or time.

Man was I beat. I wasn’t even half way through the first lap and riders were streaming around me. Tim Young passed me like I was standing still. I was about 25th.

I was scraping the bottom and still people were putting the hurt on me. I was getting pissed.

Instead of pushing harder, I eased back. I concentrated on keeping my momentum up in corners and taking good lines. In the long straight sections, I took it easier. While I was frustrated that I was losing time and position, I figured that if I rode smart, I’d take it back later.

In the second lap, I was alone. My slide was over. I felt recovered, so I began putting in efforts again. My slower lap earlier had helped me dial in the corners, so I didn’t really have to think too much about them. The only corner that I really had to lock up for was the seriously greasy and chewed off camber leading into the whoopties/rideup.

The ride up degraded every lap. It became increasingly difficult to ride. Later in the race, I tried riding different parts of it to gain traction. I found that some of the steeper sections still had grass, so riding the steep part made more sense since you could dig in.

I reeled in the Tim Young group and passed them. It was in 3rd or 4th lap. Tim put in an effort and it took me awhile to grow the gap. He had a group of 5 or 6 riders on his wheel, so I really pushed to get away, since I was fighting for 6 places instead of only one.

Wissell was fading. Or was I surging? Either way, I passed him near the end of the second to last lap. At this point, I had tunnel vision. The snot was flying and I could see nothing other than the mud in front of me.

I saw Evan Huff taking the corner into the descent. There was only about 2 minutes of the race left. I concentrated on descending fast and keeping speed through the sweeping, wet off camber corner at the end. I caught Evan on the straight opposite the finish, leading into the barriers. I attacked as hard as I could going into the barriers and got a small gap. I remounted quickly and sprinted.


Evan caught me on the slight rise and attacked. I dumped everything out to catch him in the rutted straights leading to the finishing stretch. I thought that I put in a decisive effort and closed the door as I entered the finishing sprint. Then I heard cheering. I was flagging and Huff was surging. He got me. 13th and 14th respectively.

While I was disappointed that my 2nd day fitness didn’t seem to be there, I am happy with my recovery. I felt lucky that I was able to hold on.

Even better, I will be starting on the front row of Gloucester next weekend. The whole family is coming out to watch, so I expect a piss poor performance next weekend.