HPCX & the Hurricane that Wasn't

Hurricane Sandy & HPCX: A Love Story.

(not really)

I'm not going to tell you anything you don't already know about weather systems off the East Coast of the US right now. So I won't bother trying. Where we're at: As the week wore on it became abundantly clear from Al Roker & the Media Circus that there would be rain on Sunday. Or there wouldn't. They pretty much nail it with those kinds of predictions, which is why I guess it's easy to keep your job as long as you sound like you know what you're talking about. I don't know, didn't know, but now I do. There wasn't rain. But it was sort of almost chilly and there was a slight breeze coming off the lake near the race. Not exactly the epic conditions that the weather drones would have you believe, but not a sunny June morning either.

Fairly typical cross weather, I'd say.

It's nice to have the MAC series right in your backyard for this stop on the 8 race tour. For once, I didn't have to get a hotel the night before, or wake up at some absurd time and drive 2 hours to be there. The race was a mere hop down the NJ Turnpike, a small price to pay when some of the other races are in Baltimore, or Providence, or Mars, or what have you. Nice and close. I mean, relatively.

So naturally I spent the night in Pennsylvania.

When I woke up, it was chilly, then it was chilly and raining. Then it was chilly and pouring. So it goes. Bring on the mud. But as I drove over Jugtown Mountain, speeding down 78 to the East, the rain stopped, the skies...well, they stayed gray, and the ground was dry. Totally dry. Bonus, maybe it won't rain today? One can hope. As entertaining as it is to watch others race in the mud, it's not actually as awesome when you're in it. Maybe I'm soft.

Anyway, fast forward 4 hours and I'm lining up in the second row. I drew #910, which means that 5 people did not show up who are ahead of me in the standings. It also means that I still sort of have a shot at top 10 overall if I have a good race today. Those of you following at home know that I've set this top 10 thing as a goal of mine this year. Why? Dunno. Why not? Because it's something to aim for. A good race at HPCX means I have a fair shot at that goal. A bad race means I don't have to trek down to Maryland in 2 weeks. I think I'm ok with either of these at this point.

As we line up, I'm talking to the guys next to me. Eric (Kissena) introduces himself, and we talk out the majority of the line-up wait. He's a good sport, and answers my dumb questions in stride (do you mind if I clip in both feet and lean on you? etc). Chuck also introduces himself, and asks if I was the one who did the recap after Whirlybird for CX Magazine.

Look ma! I'm famous!

I know before the whistle blows I'm going to have a poor start to this race. So of course, the whistle blows and I have my best race start of the year. Up the hill, I'm sitting in a good place, maybe around 15th or so. Things shake out a bit and I'm sitting in 16th, feeling pretty good, not great, but pretty good. I like this course, all except for that climb part of it at the S/F. I'm sitting on wheels, finding a comfort zone, feeling solid and liking the course and how the day feels.

Feeling good that I might end up with one of my better races of the year here. Like. I like this.

So this is where we flashback to before the race...

...Eric has built me some wheels this week and shows with them on race day. Nice new stiff carbon wheels with the Clement PDXs on there. We throw the cassette on but find that it needs a spacer. A spacer? Really? What gives here? No big deal. We go with the new Clement on the front and stay with the Limus on the rear. It's a Franken-combo just like this Franken-storm we have coming up the coast, or down the coast, or out of the closet...

Everyone's got that, right?

Naturally, after 1 lap my rear tire starts to feel soft. Ok, it's ok, This is cross. THIS IS CROSS! We bottom out once in a while. Ok...maybe not this much. And boy these tires are washing out like crazy on the turns. Crap, the bike isn't going to work. Losing too much air. Maybe a lap goes by as the tire slowly bleeds out everything it has. Bumps are bumpier, and I start to come close to riding the rim. Turns are totally sketchy, and I feel like I'm on the verge of rolling the tire off at any second. Not good, this is not good.

So I come up to the barrier area where the team tent is setup and I start yelling "pit bike!"

Nothing. I'm looking at Utah and he has this look on his face like, "I see you saying something, but I have no idea what."

Pit bike!

Pit bike!

Pit bike!

Pit bike!

Pit bike!

Finally, I think Brad or Pearl or maybe Utah figures it out and Utah runs over to the pit. Unfortunately I am past the pit by the time he gets there, and I have to go another 1/3 of a lp before I get to the other side. This is where we coin the term "bleeding". 

Bleeding: Dropping from 16th to 22nd in 1/3 of a lap when riding on a mostly flat tire. However, I will say that we executed one of the cleanest pits in the history of MTBNJ, at least when not involving Fred and Ben. Well Fred riding, and Ben pitting. This was a solid pit, and I felt like we got this as right as we could. I get back on the bike and hear Mandi yell for me to get back up there. 

I try. I really do. As you can see, I'm in a No Man's Land here...

But it's hard, I'm sort of sitting in this purgatory where you can't gain on anyone and nobody can gain on you and you're starting to hurt but it still feels good and you're having fun but you want to try to get that guy but he's just out of reach and this hill leading up to the S/F is so damn steep and...

4 laps to go? Ugh. 

So we go 4 more laps. I try to ride at this point with no brakes most of the time. While this is undoubtedly fun, I almost eat it several times before I come to the conclusion that I need to be a little more selective in how I apply, or do not apply, my brakes. This is all well and good until I wind up finally washing out my front and landing in the dirt right before the barriers. Naturally this is where everyone is spectating, and everyone loves this, and yells at me. I get up and do my best to run it out through the barriers and up the hill.

At the top, Rich Bauch (Colavita) tells me I might not want to do that so often. I reply, "I'm here for your entertainment." Someone laughs somewhere. 

In the last lap I am trying to catch the guy in 21st and also hold off 2 of the guys behind me. I am giving it all I have, and I think I have it covered. Not sure if I can catch 21 but as I round the corner to the end of the race, I tap the brakes and...my brake pads overshoot the brake track, get locked underneath it, and my bike promptly goes from 15 to 2 mph. I lightly pedal the bike, do more or less nothing, then say screw it and get off. I get passed by 3 more people.

I throw the bike on my shoulder and run the rest of the race. I cross the line, drop the bike, and stop right there. This isn't exactly how the race is supposed to go. But sometimes it does. I look up, and Kelly Cline is sitting there looking at me with that face, that one that sort of says, "Been there, at least you finished. What can you do?" I shrug my shoulders and mention something about the brake. As much as I want to throw the bike, it won't help. So I don't.

Overall, 25th. Given that I dropped 6 spots before the pit and 3 at the end, I'll take it. Not an ideal race but if you're going to have a mechanical, might as well line them all up in 1 day and get them out of the way. 

So...Fair Hill? I guess we'll see. 

The Providence 2 Day CX Festival, by Norm

Here I am, back for another cross recap. I won't be the first nor the last person to talk about the Providence weekend. But I may very well be the most mediocre, at least this week. Let me say, cross racing in the NJ series is fun and playful. The MAC is business. This series...is like international politics, or more specifically, like 1980's Cold War Era politics. Hard, fast, and intense.

Ok, so that analogy isn't really very airtight. But I think you get what I'm saying. If they remake Red Dawn into a movie about cross races, this is where they'll be for field research. What I'm trying to say is this. This #^@% is real. No, I mean like for real.

Why go?

The short answer to this question is either "just because" or "why not?" The long answer to this question is because Eric & Allison invited me up, as they occasionally go to this race. And really I have no reason not to. Well, the driving, the tiring weekend, the expense...but you have to live a little, which is what this season is all about. Plus, once in a while it's nice to line up against national-level racers and see what you bring to the table.

As you'll soon see, in this metaphor I bring very little. Maybe like a napkin, or a pepper shaker, to the King's feast. Maybe I'm the meal.

So Friday night I pack up the car and start my journey to Providence. To be exact, we were going past Providence to the Cape, to our secret weekend hideout where Allison's family occasionally spends the summer weekends. I planned on talking about the wonderful phenomenon that is Connecticut traffic. But, you know, I'm not going to outline something that is already well-known, which is that 95 stinks. Traffic is a given, like dung heaps in a cow pasture.

Late Friday night, we get to our destination. A foreshadowing note: I have not had to pee in at least 6 hours. So I re-hydrate with 3 beers. This makes sense, right? I also have a PBJ sandwich right before bed. I'm a pro at this. Trust me.

Day 1

I wake up and this is what I see out the back window:

In the end, one could make an argument that I should have stayed right there. But I don't, and we are off to the races a bit after 7:00, which brings us to the venue at a very early 7:53, at which point Allison rushes out to do a pre-ride lap, as her race is at 10:00. I don't remember if I did a lap then or not. But in all, I do 4 laps, and sit on the trainer for a bit. See last week's recap for my thoughts on how exciting this is.

How do I feel today? Flat. Just like Baltimore day #1. These long drives seem to leave me wrung out, and spit to the curb. Not a great way to start a race against the toughest field I have ever done. I am lining up with guys who are competitive in the MAC UCI races. Why am I here? I...don't have a good answer to that question.

Recently we have been talking about race starts on the team forum, and I am generally of the opinion that how you feel that day more or less dictates how you will start. Feel good? You'll easily sit in the envelope and hit the first turn. Feel like crap? You'll hang on like some tin cans tied to the bumper of the El Camino after a low-rent wedding.

Today, I am the tin can. All I am missing in this pic is the string attaching me to the bumper. Witness:

This was a tough race for me. One can only be left to wonder why, but things are what they are. At one point, the guy numbered 509 (9th seed in the race) is in front of me and I am about to pass. He decides he has had enough, and pulls off the course. To use the word jealous here does not do justice to how much I wanted to follow him. Again, witness that wonderful picture above to get an idea.

The course has 4 things of note. The first is a flyover, which you can see here. That's Fat Marc at the top:

Marc races the MAC 35+ with me, and we often spend some of the race together. In general, it goes like this:

* Marc starts fast, I do not
* In about 3 laps, I start to reel him in for good
* I pass him and sometimes make it stick, depending how I feel

Today I made it stick, but barely. The other course features were a set of man-made barriers, a set of 2 steps that were possibly rideable (I ran them in day 1, rode in day 2), and some concrete steps. The course was a mix of many things, some fun flow, punchy climbs, and of course turns and grass and painful accelerations out of the corners.

In the end, I am almost lapped by the junior winner, who started a few minutes before us. I cross the line before him but they pull me anyway. This is all well & good, since everyone behind me got lapped and the last lap would have been some form of torture as devised at Guantanamo Bay. I am content to not add a gratuitous lap to my race to prolong my agony.

I finish 39th, but they do not officially score me for whatever reason. That's fine, since nobody needs to know how badly I did. We can just keep that between you & I, dear reader.

That night, we eat lots of wonderful food, have a few drinks, and I saw a small mini-pint of ice cream in half to enjoy with Allison. Eric was too busy checking crossresults.com to pay much mind to our ice cream needs. So he lost out.

Day 2

Day 2 always begs some tough questions like...

...do I really want to get out of bed?
...where am I again?
...why do I do this to myself?
...wait, really, where am I?

...and so on. Sunday morning brings nothing new in this front. But I sleep in a little bit, then eat some apple pie for breakfast. I drop some Greek yogurt on top to give it the ice cream effect. It's good. I highly recommend pie for breakfast. This is cross after all, it totally goes. I decided to skip the beer for breakfast. Too Jim Morrison-ish.

Despite the dire forecast of cold, rain, mud, and general carnage, the day is crisp, clear, and beautiful.

I do feel better this morning. I don't know what that means, given the nature of these fields. Something I forgot to mention yesterday is this. The fields here are way stronger, but for some reason not nearly as deep. It's sort of like Battenkill in a way. People don't show up to race unless they belong, or have delusions that they think they belong. The top 50 guys are strong, then there are a few end-pack guys. But the usual pack fodder does not show, so you don't have the luxury of beating 50+ guys by default who don't belong. It's like every one of these guys is a seasoned cross racer.

Anyway, my start is better today, and I'm with the envelope fairly easily. I see Eric a few racers ahead, Marc, and...wait, who is this on the ground? Maurice? That's so odd. I pass him. So in consecutive weekends I have been ahead of both Roger Aspholm and Maurice. Odd, but I'll take it.

Like last week, he shortly passes me. And like last week, I try to stay on his wheel. I do a reasonable job for a while, but then...

My chain falls. This is kind of a mistake on my part. On the concrete steps I was in the small ring, and accidentally knocked it off on the run-up. This costs me 5 spots, and of course buckets of lost dignity as this is a crossing/observing spot. And given the road section is right here, I should have pre-shifted to the big ring to be ready for it. I won't call it a rookie mistake. But this is not something you should be doing in the 35+.

I felt good in this one. So then my chain fell off again, but this time got wedged between the chainring and frame. That was awesome. I'm pretty sure at least 618 people passed me here. I am frustrated now, but really there's not a lot I can do. I swear a few times, which does nothing. Eventually I get the chain out and back on, after swearing a few more times. I think swearing at bicycle parts, especially on a cross bike, is like playing classical music to your plants to help make them grow.

I then ride it out and try to catch a guy who I have already passed twice. Where is the justice in this? I don't manage to catch him, but we do sprint at the end of the race. I have to qualify the word "sprint" here, as what we were doing likely looked similar to the old people who walk the mall in the morning. I'm sure my average speed went down on the sprint. It was laughable.

Anyway, I finish 33rd, and actually get scored in this one. If I give myself a minute for the 2 dropped chains, that would get me to 20th, which is where I would have hoped to be. But I can't give myself a minute, so for the sake of making myself feel better, I'll say the dropped chain cost me 5 minutes, and I should have won the race.

Seems fair, no?

In the end, I never did get to meet Molly, which is a shame because I was looking forward to it. But it turns out that we went to the same college and grew up like 5 miles from each other, albeit 16 years apart, roughly. Small world, when it comes down to it. Though like some famous comic once said, I wouldn't want to paint it.

Norm Does the Whirlybird

Whirlybird 2012, race #5 in the 2012 version of the MAC series, which is a mere 8 races this year for no good reason. Where are we? We are in Bensalem, PA. For those not intimately familar with this place, it's kinda not really anywhere. Regardless, I get to not really anywhere in about an hour from my parent's place up the river in PA, near Easton. At this god awful time of day, it only takes an hour. Getting home would be another story, which I wont tell here other than to say it can be summed up in a few words: cars & traffic lights. We've all been there.

I've set a goal for myself this year, to finish top 10 in the 35+ class in the MAC series. Now most people who do a series know that more often than not, the series is over after 2-3 races, and only 5 guys will end up doing the whole thing. But the 35+ is different. And people seem to keep going in this one. A top 10 would be an accomplishment, at least for this guy. I came into the series 15th, and managed to draw bib #110, putting me in the second row in the starting grid. With some of my competition up at Glouctester today, I know that things will be a little thinner in this race. But the bulk of the series leaders are there, which I guess at this point includes me, for better or worse. 

So...since the series is my main goal this year, I came into this week off the Charm City double and did exactly zero rides this week. I put this in I Am Ted King's category of eating salad as a pre-race meal, listening to NPR on the warmup, and doing jumping jacks before your race. You know, sometimes life gets in the way. Life can be good like that. So we show up to the race, possibly the MAC race where I will have my best shot at a top 10, in absolutely no form, with no miles in my legs, and severely underslept. I did drink 2 beers the night before, since it was National Drink Beer Day and all. So I had that going for me. Which...well, you know. 

But first, the team circus tent gets put up:

Yes, that is me sitting down with the blue hat on, doing absolutely nothing to warm up for the race. I figure, if you're going to something poorly, might as well do something poorly with absolute authority. Shortly after this picture was taken, I eat 4 fat-free fig newtons. I don't know what that has to do with anything. But it may help complete the puzzle. I also ate 2 PB & bagel sandwiches at 8:00 am. My race was at noon. I guess I had some coffee this morning too. You're writing all this down, right? No? Well that's ok, I got you covered. 

So to warmup, I do the following:

2 warm laps before the C race at 9

1 warm lap before the 45/55 race at 10

1 hot lap before the women's race at 11

Then I sit on the trainer until I get bored, maybe 20 minutes? I forget. It was boring. 

Note: after the first lap, the lack of an actual "whirylbird" is evident. So this means that 50% of the MAC series is now misnamed, HPCX & 2xNittany being the others. No matter, it has all the elements of a cross race, namely grass, tape, barriers, and 2 miles of course in an area that does not seem able to support that long of a course. So we're good. Titles are superficial anyway. 

Flashing back to Charm City the week before...my race on day #1 was pretty poor, and I had come off a rest week, and did nothing really to warm up. So instead of doing more or less nothing, I warmup up properly today, both before and after eating the newtons. I drank some water and scientifically constructed sports drink at various points beetween 8 and 12. And I had 2 GUs. Given that I am up over 180 pounds right now, I figure those 50 grams of sugar are going to make or break my day. I consider eating 16 more, but decide I'm still going to need to fit into that dress come Monday morning when I need to go to work. 

I wheel the pit bike over and Lance offers to tend the pit for me, which is nice. I get to the start grid and do a few race starts, and check out the prolog a bit. Then I do some circles like you will often see 10-15 minutes before the start of these races. Before long, enough of us have congregated and the officials blow whistles, look at their clipboards, say the same things we've all heard 243 times, and line us up to start the race. I am in the second row, all the way to the left. Roger Aspholm is in the same row, 2 riders to my right. I have as much of a right to be lining up with Roger as I have being on the court with Michael Jordan. I actually used to have a solid 3 point shot. So maybe I actually belong on court more than this starting line. 

No matter, you get the point. 

You may be thinking at this point, boy, this is awfully long for not even having started the race yet. Just hold on, it gets less exciting soon enough. 

The whistle blows, and I feel really good, so I mash and stick up close to the top 10, which has been really hard for me so far this year. Either the warm-up is working, I'm getting used to this, or the week of not riding and staying up too late is some sort of magic potion to good race starts. I'm opting for the latter. 

Soon I am on Roger's wheel, and I stick there as long as I can. This lasts about half a lap or so. When Roger zigs, I zig. When Roger zags, I zag. But when some douche flies up and dives a corner, slams into Roger, and knocks him to the ground, I decide not to fall down and follow him here. I ride on and pass Roger. Not for long, but I pass him nonetheless. I think I am sitting in 14th at this point. 

Soon, Roger passes me, and I try to jump on his wheel again. It works for a little bit, but his acceleration out of corners is too much for me. I do end up sitting on some other guy's wheel for quite a while, and figure I'm content there, as I think I am going to be able to keep him in sight, and the waiting game of him cracking will pay off eventually. 

But that never happens. Somewhere in the second lap he gaps me a little out of a corner, and I can't respond. He manages to bridge up to a Kissena guy, and they work together for a while, basically keeping a 6 second gap on me for what feels like forever. At the end of lap 2, they have firmly established that 6 second gap. I am in 15th. 

Lap 3, nothing happens.

Lap 4, nothing happens. 

Lap 5, nothing happens. 

Lap 6, nothing happens. But Chris does inform me, "The guy ahead of you is an hour ahead. The guy behind you is an hour behind. Just ride it out."

So I ride it out. And I finish 15th. This is my best result in the MAC series to date. I came into the series in 15th, and 5 guys did not show. I figure this can only help my series standings overall. Maybe I get lucky and jump up to 13th after today. Or who knows, maybe 12th if I get more lucky. I guess we'll see in a few days when the series standings come out. I'm sure you'll all be waiting at the edge of your collective seats. 

So the moral of the story is this: don't ride, drink wine (yeah I left that out), stay up late, and have your best result of the year. I...hesitate to suggest everyone run out and do this. But science is science. And this is the data I have. Make of it what you will. 

Norm's Jungle

I'm a roadie prick. You know this. 

They say the first step in addressing any problem is admitting it. I say they're out to lunch, and the first step in addressing any problem is to open a beer and think about it, preferrably on the deck or patio. If your problem just so happens to be beer, then drink wine or something. Don't ask me, I just try to ponder as much as possible these days. 

Ok, let's rewind a bit. Well, let's see. First the Earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes.

Wait, too far. Let's go back to the winter, when Utah said he wanted to peak for Jungle. We never bring up the W word. W implies you have more control of the situation that you do. When it comes down to it, you are merely a P. That would be pawn, in game of life. Like Mongo. You can only work hard, line things up, and step up to the line on race day. Most of the rest is up to chance. So the W word never comes up. But you can try to have things lined up for that single day. Because...you never know. 

So Utah's goal is Jungle, and as many of you either know or have figured out, I've been moving around the chess pieces on his board for a while now. This is his big day, so I want to show support and be there for him. This all begins a few weeks back when we go for a pre-ride of what we think the course may look like. 

In the rain.

I had the SS that day and felt fine. It was our Tuesday ride which I'm used to by now. I seem to ride well on Tuesdays, which is funny, because most of you know that in general Tuesday sucks. Fast forward to the weekend, 1 week before the race. We meet again, this time with RU, young Rob, Jeremy, and Matty. Rob brought me an greatly undersized Jet 9 which I hated, then I did a lap on my SS which I hated some more. We knew the course by now and rode what the race was going to be. 

After 2 laps, I was done. That night at the team gathering I declared I was out of this race. It made no sense. Why would I do this? Like I said in the start, I'm a roadie prick. Rocks and trees and stuff? No chance, this course will kick my ass. And what am I thinking riding an SS at this race? That's just asinine. I can support in a lawn chair. 

Ok, so my race is over before it begins. But then this guy in Japan says that he'll make a deal. If he flies back the day before and races at 9:00 am, I have to race. Fine, I can't argue that. I'll bring the gears, dumb down expectations, and just try to make it a hard training ride. We pre-ride the course again, but this time I have gears, and I admit to Utah the gears make a big difference. In the back of my mind, expectations & goals start to build up. This happens. When we're not pondering on the patio, we usually think too much. 

I promise there's a race in here, somewhere.


We watch the cat 2s go off real quick, then head back to the cars to sit down for a few minutes.

Right before we roll we talk to Mike, Utah's biggest nemesis coming into the race. Shortly after we do a full lap pre-ride with Pearl. At his request, I do my best to keep Utah's mouth from ruining his pre-game, and we get out at about 9:35, which brings us back to the lot with about 10 minutes to spare. I want to be warm, and Utah is up for the long warm-up. I suffer from bad starts usually, and tend to warm-up too little. So I want to make this one longer than normal. In the end, it's just an experiment.

We go off as the 4th class, and I think Lombardo is gone before I cross the start line. For as much as I saw him they may have started him on the course. Our class is deep, which is why I have no expectations on much of anything here. I want a top 10, which seems a reasonable goal for me. This is only the second time racing this bike, and my first non-SS race of the year. With the deep class maybe top 10 isn't reasonable, but I don't care.

I get on Bill Romolino's wheel to start and on the fire road pass him, then get into Warthog in maybe 10th or so. The start hurts, but not as much as usual. Once in the woods I do my best to just follow a wheel, as I find that this keeps you on your game better. By the end of Warthog I am at the back of a fairly long train, and I see Pearl ahead and he pulls over to let us go. He was going to try to hold me off all race, but he only had a 1 minute head start, not 2.

In the back of my mind I'm wondering who the first 30-39 racer is that will catch me. As I pass Luke, he is floored that I am ahead of Utah, which makes me laugh. Or blow a kiss, or whatever I did.


All of the small spots that were tripping me up on the various pre-rides were not an issue today. The tight left that kicked me off every time, the first turn into Otter Slide, the big rock wedged in between the trees - none of these are an issue. Pre-riding is good. The only thing that got me was the end of that Tiger Pit, or whatever that uber rocky thing at the end was called. Cleaned it every time but the gravel at the end got me every single lap. Stupid gravel.

Anyway, as I turn on to Boon on the first lap, I hear Utah behind me, "YOU GOT THIS!"

Right, no pressure there. I do clean it and somehow gap him a little bit. We ride out the ST to the pavement and talk a little. He tells me he's pushing too hard, and I tell him to dial it back and make sure he paces properly. He says he will, then continues to push too hard by jumping ahead.  I ride his wheel most of the rest of the lap. The rocky Tiger Pit end-lip gets me, and he gets a small gap, which he holds through the lap.

As I ride through the S/F I get some yells and comments about how close to Utah I am. Well, at least for 1 lap. I know I won't be able to maintain this and he will. But for a lap, hey look, here I am!

At the end of Warthog I engage in what I would call a little team strategy. I know Utah is out ahead, and he's being chased by Mancuso and another guy. So the longer I can stay ahead of him, the more likely Utah stays out ahead. At the base of Otter Slide Steve asks me in perhaps the kindest tone if I could find a chance to let him by. He also admits that it's not a great place to pass.

I do my best to stay on my bike and hold them off. I manage to stay in front all the way up to the top, but they eventually get by and I follow them for a bit after that.

Roll through lap 2 with less fanfare than lap 1.

At the start of Warthog I catch 26er, who I had been seeing on & off for a while. He does his best to hold me off, but eventually he overcooks a line and ends up in the weeds. He gives up the fight there and pulls over and lets me go. As I pass he says, "Keep at it, Frank is right up ahead."

Me, like an idiot, "Really?"

"No."

Ok ok, eat me. I keep riding, my legs hurt. Up Otter Slide, my legs hurt more and almost-sorta want to cramp. I go past Luke and he tells me I'm catching Utah. Uh oh, not good. I was afraid he cooked too much to start, but I hope he's got enough of a gap to hold it.

As I run over the pipe, I know that 26er is behind me and is a solid 30 seconds behind me by now. At this point I know I just need to roll it out clean to hold server. I dial it back so I don't end up in the weeds, and roll out the lap. Other than the stupid Tiger Pit gravel, I ride it clean & easy, and roll through the S/F.

I see Utah and ask, he shakes his head yes. He managed to hold it off, which is awesome. I end up 8th in a deep field, so I'm happy. I roll it out a bit with Iggy, then get dressed and hang out with the crew before heading home.

But I'm still a roadie prick. Who likes to ponder.

Singlespeed-A-Palooza - The Day After the Hangover

Now that all the beer cans are cleaned up, hot dog breath is brushed out, dust is our of our pores and blue tape is wrapped up in the garbage bin, we can discuss what an awesome weekend the boys at Dark Horse Cycles put on. If you are reading this you already know how big of an event this is. People travel from all over the east coast to throw down on some of the best singletrack NY has to offer. If you haven't ridden Stewart, you need to get out here. If you haven't raced a Dark Horse event, you really are missing out!

The last two years offered wet conditions and some sloppy riding. This year brought dust from the fire roads. The dry conditions brought smiles to faces and pain to legs. I personally have never gone this fast on my mountain bike before in a race.


The race is ultra competitive with such deep fields. Sure you remember the race and remember the super fast singletrack, but what is more memorable is crossing the finish line and hanging with 250+ like minded people you just shared 27 miles of racing with.

Robin had a mechanical and was the first one to the keg!

The Maddawg himself and Sport NJ Winner Mitch

The Scene

Jeremy, Jay and The Birthday boy

Open Menu Podium with Fred, Utah and Ilya 4th-6th

Bunch of MTBNJ regulars; Martin, Mitch, Dustin, Chris and Jay in Sport NJ

Look at that smile!

Fred and Jake really know how to enjoy each others company.

A Cake presented to Pearl for his birthday from George, Mayor of Dark Horse himself.

Ilya and the rest of the people who stayed around for the festivities got to enjoy some cake.

Team Results

Open Men
4th - Utah Joe
5th - Ilya
6th - Fred
14th - Norm
25th - Jeremy
27th - Iggy
38th - Chris26er
41st - ChrisG
43rd - RobG
44th - Woody
45th - Pearl

Sport South Men
10th - Capers
12th - Matty
14th - Jake
30th - Brad
Some reason Shaggz is not on this list. Will update.

Sport Women
5th - Dana
7th - Patty
DNF - Robin (Bending chainrings!)

Here are all the results, just incase. Throughout the week we will let you know how the races went, stay tuned.

Walter's Short Track Recap

Mooch ST Series

The Short Track series kicked off on March 3 with the 1^st Walter’s No Frills ST race.  The 1.5 mile course located on the Boy Scout property at Allamuchy was the same one used last fall for the premier of short track racing in NJ. After positive feed- back we decided to stay with the same course for the spring series for the 1^st 3 races then use a newly built track built over the winter for the 4^th race. We dropped the Bagels and Bacon title and went with Walters No Frills.  This title reflects our goal going into the spring ST; keep it simple while getting into race shape on the cheap.

(Norm: On that note, we're always looking for new & exciting names for our races. If we do a fall series there may be free pickle juice for all racers.)

The 4 Saturdays in March grew each week in racing intensity.  We saw some excitement over the weeks from the top 3 finishers in the crazy men class , Rob Lichtenwalner, Jesse Epstein and Jonathan Lombardo.  Strong finishes from Ed Ceccolini, Rich Wolter,  Matt Miller, Jonathnan Lombardo and Utah Joe kept the series battle raging up until the end. The last race in the series saw an appearance from Mike Montalbano lining up for the final showdown. Last weeks ST winner Ed Ceccolini (fast Eddy) gave Mike a fight to the finish but Mike was able to pull out a win getting to the line 8 seconds before fast Eddy.

As the crazy men class grew every week so did the women’s and men’s sport class. The MTBNJ ladies were consitant in there races and getting faster each week with Robin Everson, Patty Bender and Mandi Tabbit finishing 1-3^rd in the series. It was nice to see the field grow by the 4^th ST race, thanks for your support ladies!

The silly sport class grew as the weeks went on thanks to William Lorenzo for spreading the word. The first ST race saw 11 racers while the last one was at 60 (Norm: these numbers are not real, no clue where Iggy got them), thanks guys! Congrats to Doug Alpers, Willy and Greg Heller for placing top 3 in the Silly Sport Class.

While we don’t have an official slogan, motto or mission statement for team MTBNJ ,  if we did it would say something like who we are off the bike is what makes us winners (Norm: Actually, I prefer "Beer & ice cream for dinner, thanks!").  At the close of our ST race series I am happy to be a part of a team that made this series a success.  Norm and Matty Bender were instrumental in making this happen as was Chris Ruiz (Norm: Let's not forget his lovely sidekick, Kayla), who came through all aces in the scoring. Carson, Mandi and Robin, with Shaggz floating in between scoring and registration to keep things flowing, handled registration smoothly. Filling in the gaps to take care of all the other race prep was done by the team who came together to make this event as enjoyable to work as it was to race.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the MTBNJ Stewart 6-Pack on July 1!

https://www.bikereg.com/Net/15383

Sussex TOOOOO!

At the end of the long 4 day Thanksgiving day weekend, when everyone is feeling fat & lazy, the second Sussex race comes along to give you a little kick start to get ready for that post-turkey slumber week that nobody wants to face. In a way, it's makes life easier, because the pain of the 45 minute race makes going to work easy in comparison. At least for an hour or so. This weekend we had another good crew of blue & orange up at the Sussex Fairgrounds for installment #2 of the SCCX Double.

40+ Men

Foreshadowing:

First race was Norm & ChrisG (and some other guys) where we saw Lombardo check out as usual. There was a fight for 2-3 between Eric and some other non-regular, and then the 4-5-6 was a bit of a battle with Norm, Doug Spitz, and a 3rd guy who I'm not familiar with. In the end, I didn't have much in the tank as my season feels like it wants to drop kick me at this point. So I ended up 6th of the 3. As the bell rang on the last lap, nothing changed at all. That's a tough time to try to cover anything and as usual, the lap ended as it began.

I don't have the results so I'm not sure where ChrisG ended up. He was battling behind me and I saw the trailing blue and orange the whole race, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't too far back.

C Women

After the 50+ the ladies lined up to go, with Robin & Mandi representing yesterday. Robin is in mid-stride with her training and really did a great job trying to hang on to Gerilynn's wheel yesterday. I stuck around for the women's race and got to see a lot of familiar faces in blue & orange as well as assorted other colors. Here's Robin trying to track down that tricky podium:

Alas it was not to be, as the1-2 girls checked out and Gerilynn managed to hang on to the 3rd spot. Mandi rolled in with a 7th place finish, solid times all around. I have to say that for as little as she ends up on the cross bike, she's a near pro with the remount. Here she is on the tricky downhill section:

Meanwhile, Pearl watched it all unfold:

A Men

No blue & orange in the fast class, as Fred is mired in central Jersey with no coffee roaster so spends most of his time with a Big lighter and an old wok that he found in a Carribean island. But Maurice was out there, who does wear blue & orange for some of the races. He checked out yesterday and won the A race, hands down. Here he is on the triple barrier run-up:

B Men

Feeling the effects of coaching his kid's hockey team, Ilya was forced to skip SCCX #2 which left Utah as the only blue & orange rider in the B class. He managed a 12th place finish, which is the same as last week but better since the fields were deeper this time around without the Supercross race to compete with. Here Utah makes an aggressive pass as Chris Esnes watches on:

40+ C Men

Next up were the 40+ C men, where Sean Runnette has been ripping up the class this year. Lo and behold, Rob (old not young, but I guess that's implied by the class) did his best to rip it up and he did exactly that. While not walking away with a win he did manage to land us a 3rd place and help the team cause. Rob managed our best result of the day and along with Robin (4), myself (6), ChrisRU (6), and Mandi (7) led the charge in helping us retain our hold on 2nd place in the NJ CX Cup standings.

C Men

Finally the day wrapped up with the C race, where we have our strongest presence. Chris26er was rocking a potential podium until he flatted towards the end.

ChrisRU tried to hang on to 26er and he did for a while, but in the end he let that podium slip away a little bit and would up 6th on the day. Chris has really come a long way this year and it's great to see him reaping the rewards of all the hard work he's put in.

Like myself, Pearl has about had enough of the cross season and the big rides over the Turkey weekend added up to produce a somewhat lackluster result on the day. Slipping just inside the top 10 isn't a bad day for not feeling it though. Here he approaches the sketchy little downhill turn.

Rounding out the team day was Capers, who is off his great ride at Cathedral last weekend. The 6 hour training does not really translate to the shorter, high-end efforts of cross. By his own admission he was a bit of pack fodder on the day. To be expected given last weekend.

In all a great course again, and a great weekend for the team. No idea where we sit in the team standings but hopefully we managed to hold on to the 2nd place overall. Somerset is likely too far out to catch. But there are a slew of other teams breathing down our neck last I checked.

See you next week at the Scramble!

More pics here:
Norm's pics
Mandi's pics
Robin's pics

Supercross & Sussex Weekend

That's right, 3 races, 2 states, 2 days, 10 MTBNJ racers, and 1 newly certified spin instructor. If you weren't out there racing this weekend you missed plenty of good times. If you were, then bonus! Surely you saw lots of blue & orange if you were.

Behind the ‘Stache : Super Cross Cup Edition (by Fred)


The Long Island race weekend historically for me has been the weekend that leaves me packing my car with haste and more than a few curse words about my weekends riding.  Fried burnt out, cracked.  Ya, any of those describe how I would be feeling on Sunday.  But this year I have focused on trying to keep things fresh and not race EVERY race that I could find.  This has become especially crucial with the addition of Nationals to the schedule.  Wisconsin in January?  Sure!  Sounds like a great idea!

The mid week rain had me curious to what the course conditions would be like come the weekend.  A Fast, Flowy (more so on the second day) and Fun race course are what we arrived to mid morning Saturday.  Good, hard, clean (like not muddy) bike racing was in store for us at Eisenhower Park.

Both days were just that.  Good and hard bike racing.  I hung onto the wheels of the boys at the front for as long as I could…the brutally hard accelerations corner after corner made things a bit tough to keep up with.  I’ll get there one day I hope.  The fields were not big but they sure were strong.  I was happy to finish inside the top 10 on both days.

 I am pretty happy with the weekend.  Two good rides and I am not ready to hang it up just yet.  Plus I was able to convince Linda to take the winnings on the weekend and apply them to something I have had my eye on for quite some time.

 Time for some rest, relaxation and over eating.  Madison or Bust!

Saturday:
Fred: 9 of 20 - Elite Men
Maurice: 3 of 30 - Masters 35+


Sunday:
Fred: 8 of 16 - Elite Men
Maurice: 2 of 25 - Masters 35+

SCCX#1 (by Norm & Pearl)


Meanwhile, in NJ I lined up with the old men at 9:00 and gave it all I could for a good 3-4 laps, where I was able to hang with those leaders until they pulled away from me on the run-up. For all my preaching not to bother running when you train, this thing really got me. By no means am I short, but I felt like I was 3 feet tall on this one. The last 2 laps was an effort in just riding it out, as 5th place was pretty far back. I ended up 1-2 minutes back of the leaders and comfortably in 4th place. My series is pretty much locked up in 3rd place at this point.

It was nice to have a dry course for a change. Here was the easy run-up, which was right after I slipped and almost fell.




After I cooled down and got dressed, I hung around for a bit and took some pics of the ladies. Here Robin rips on her way to 4th place, matching what I had done in the first race:



Then I had to go. Eventually some of the other guys showed up, including Pearl. In his words...

Front and center. The trumpet sounds and we are off. I find my pedal and I'm in front of everyone in sight... WTF? I easily had the best first 200m of my life. I'm 2nd into the first uphill climb behind the Knapps rider (guy who was pounding the beers at Westwood). Paul easily sneaks by me. I try to latch onto his wheel and he pulls away. Can't remember how the next 3-4 people get by, but they do. Mostly on the climbing sections of the course. I end up behind Dan Harpers wheel. Motivation kicks in. I want to give this guy a run for his money. Couple of times I try to sneak by, whether dismounting the tree turn or after he OTB's on the smaller barrier section. I have better cornering skills than Dan but he has the legs and lungs. Chris26er squeaks by and is now working on Dan. He eventually gets around him.

This happens for 4 laps, me chasing Dan around and trying to squeeze him out. The bell goes off and so does Dan. WOW. Dan and the rest of the field had another gear that I didn't that day. I lose contact with Dan and am in no mans land. I see RobG and another rider battling 2-3 turns back. I'm trying to save something as I know they will get me, but not let off the gas too much. I peak back and see RobG take a good, protecting line from me. Not sure if he knew this, but the inside line helped out with the other guy on his tail to keep his position. One last turn.

I feel as recovered as I could for the last 200 meters of a sprint. I peak under my left arm and see another rider, not RobG, out of the saddle and hammering it.



I give it all I can, for as long as I can... I had about 20 pedal strokes in my body and it shut down. I lose 8th spot and finish 9th.

What an awesome venue and course. 13.5MPH average? I was on the fence about racing next week at the same place, but holy crap this was fun.




Norm: 4 of 16 - 40+ Men
Robin: 4 of 9 - Cat 4 Women
Ilya: 9th of 24 - B Men
Utah: 12th of 24 - B Men
ChrisS: 6 of 31 - C Men
Pearl: 9 of 31 - C Men
RobG: 10 of 31 - C Men
ChrisRU: 11 of 31 - C Men