Race Report: Green Mountain Cyclocross Weekend Verge 2008 Cat 3

All photos are courtesy of my lovely wife over at Pedal Power Photography.

Saturday's race saw sunny and warm weather and a dry grassy course. Sunday was misty and damp, with course conditions deteriorating quickly.

I got to the starting line of Saturday's race feeling amped. I was rested and ready. I had a good deep warm up. I was quite nervous since I felt confident that I would earn a respectable result.

I had a lofty goal for the 2009 season: beat my friend Rosey in any fair race (no mishaps or mechanicals). I have never been able best him in any cyclocross race. Every time that I have tried, I have crashed or ended up blown apart and limping in for the last few laps.

Rosey got the hole shot. He was 15 seconds ahead of me within the first 30 seconds of racing. I was in OK position after the first climb and the initial corner. Perhaps 20th. I raced smart and remained within my abilities. I have been finding that it is better for me to burn matches to remain near the front of the race in the first lap, but not to try to lead the race. My new riding cyclocross style is to settle in and reel riders in over the course instead of killing myself to ride top 10 only to detonate and slide back.

Most of my first lap was uneventful. Little shoving and jostling. Almost no words exchanged. I made a few passes. Corey Lowe came blowing by me about midway through the lap. I briefly considered getting on his wheel, since he usually finishes a few places ahead of me, but he was pushing a pace that would have left me destroyed.

There was a slight divot or gutter in the corner leading into the barriers. Going into the barriers I was about 10th. I unclipped and tried to ride into the barriers standing on my pedal. I was coming in too hot and the gutter jostled my bike into a skid; I immediately went down. I was able to get up quickly, run the barriers, and remount as if nothing had happened, but when I remounted, my chain was derailed, which required me to dismount awkwardly and put it back on. I slipped a few places and lost about 30 seconds.

Angered, I rode fast. I passed people in corners while they rode their squealing brakes. The sound of grass ripping accompanied me as I chucked my pedals as I pedalled through sweeping corners.

When I got to the the runup/rideup, my competitor's were running feebly. After mountain biking for the entire summer, I was easily able to ride over the three logs that prevented road cyclists from riding this section. Every time that I crested the top of this climb, I took back a little time on the people ahead of me or further shut the door on the people behind.

The rest of my race was fairly standard. I suffered. I put in efforts to catch riders ahead of me. I wanted to drop out. I prayed for the bell every time that I came through the start finish.

I made it a point to dose my efforts in the parts of the course where it would yield me the most speed. For instance, instead of blowing my wad on the climb leading into the rideup only to scrub all that speed on the off camber 90 degree turn going into it. I eased back a little shifted into the appropriate climbing/clambering gear and put in a huge burst over the logs.

In the last two laps, I reeled in a lots of riders. All through the race, my teammates had been calling out my position on the road to me when I crested the 3 log ride up. Steadily I went from 17th to 15th to 13th to 11th to solidly inside the top ten. I reeled in Rosey. I didn't say anything as I passed him. He looked hurt.





Taking the hole shot often does not pay.

I also reeled in Mike Wissell of Back Bay. At the Hodges Village Dam MTB race this summer, my A race of the mtb season, he put over 5 minutes into me (I rode a good race too!). So passing Wissell was a highlight of Saturday (and Sunday's) race.

I finished 7th. My good friend Cary





podiumed and Rosey hung on for 10th. The wife was on the podium in her race. My 2009 nemesis/friend Sebastien Dumont bested me with a 5th place result.

On another note, cat 3's who finished near the back of the race were prematurely pulled. The Verge organizers have decided to run the junior's race at the same time as the cat 3's, giving the juniors a 2 minute head start. When the juniors were "lapping" slower cat 3's, the officials were pulling the cat 3's so that the juniors could have a "clean" finish. While I don't begrudge the junior's their race, it is unfair to curtail the race of someone who has paid good money to race because they have been caught by another field that started minutes ahead of them.

I know that many cat 3's were quite upset that they were pulled. From a solid source, I heard that these disgruntled riders vented their rage on unrepentant sandbagger, Brian Wilichoski by booing him and yelling insults as he crossed the line in first place.

Furthermore, I caught junior riders all through my race, as did the leaders of my race. I had to negotiate passing them, as did the leaders. The juniors were polite and made room, but nonetheless, they were on the course at the same time that I was. The presence of these juniors could have also interfered with our finish, but no one (me included) would suggest pulling them of the course.

Sorry for my digression. Day one was a success. I felt that I rode well. Obviously, I am upset about my crash and the fact that I lost 30-45 seconds to it, but overall, the race went well and yielded a better result than I would have predicted for myself beforehand.

Check back for photos and a race report from day two.