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photo:julie [more]

roger williams park, providence, ri
2005/12/10
masters 30-34
38th/66

a comedy of lowlights lead up to this race. traveled east earlier in the week for long overdue and much enjoyed visit with family. went out for a very chilly tuneup ride on thursday afternoon from my grandparents' house in meriden, new hampshire. shifting was crunchy because the bike was left outside in the car overnight. got a couple shifts out before it totally froze up. i was hoping the lube had just seized up and would thaw out if i brought it inside. no dice, so i snipped the cable, cranked down the set screws, and turned in into a 39x15 singlespeed, which is a pretty darn steep gear for cyclocross.

we decided to leave an hour earlier than planned friday morning to try to make it to a bike shop in providence and still make my scheduled 2:00 start time. it was a good thing, because we woke up to heavy snow, and it took 5 hours to make the normally 3 hour drive. thanks dad for the superhero driving through all consistancies of slop. no time to go to the shop, or even gear up in time to preride the course during the open course window. julie and i made our slippery way to registration and it was barely raining and not windy, so i was trying to stay optimistic regardless of how cold and wet lauren's friend chris looked after his 11:00 race.

huddled under the tailgate of the minivan to get ready. was already pretty wet and chilled, started to grapple with myself as to if it was worth the bother with my one steep gear on the snowy muddy course. decided to keep moving and try to make it to the start, if only for course preview. then the wind picked up and the rain turned to sleet, blowing right under the tailgate and soaking me in my street clothes. stood around for a couple minutes trying to figure out how to change without stepping barefoot in a freezing puddle before deciding that it was just too ridiculous and climbing back into the warm van. as it turned out the light rain and calm air earlier was the eye of a ministorm that quickly passed. there was reportedly thundersnow, which i didn't even know existed. ah, providence. beautiful sunset over the naragansett bay mocked me in my hotel not 2 hours later.

stopped by a bike shop that i remember from my college days and they kindly sold me just a right shifter, new cables, and bar tape. swapped them out that afteroon. found out that my race had been postponed until the next day at 11:00pm after returning from adam and maya's. (good to see those kids.) now that's some serious weather, to cancel a cross race. props to chris, jeff hane, and anyone else who rallied and made it out for the friday races.

fast-forward to the next day, and it was sunny skies, gorgeous new england park, and hard snowy mud. i still hand't seen most of the course, so i started fairly easy. despite the regulation width of the course, there weren't many line options established yet. you pretty much slowed to a near stop in the bumpy rutted snow if you strayed from the few good lines through most sections.

some highlights:

+ seeing my brother yelling his head off on lap two having just arrived from brooklyn, and him continuing to run all over the course and cheer.

+ all the other voices i heard out there cheering for me both days (julie, mom, dad, dan, jen, lauren, jeff hane, others). thanks, jeff, for the tip on the rideable left line up one of the rises. i rode it every lap and gained time.

+ cheering on justin robinson lapping me 30 seconds from the line and the win.

i rode the course pretty conservativly, and stayed mostly upright. east coasters sure aren't afraid to crash. hard. i generaly felt fitter than most of the people around me seemed. passed a bunch on the pavement. feel like i could have done more with a better start position and more course familiarity.

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