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photo:julie [more]

roger williams park, providence, ri
2005/12/11
b men under 35
63rd/128

arrived at the park at 7:30 to gorgeous sunny skies and frozen mud. every rut and bump from the previous days' traffic was frozen solid. the most-traveled walkways were skating rinks on hills. the sun was just coming into view, and i hoped it would quickly warm the course before my 9:30 start. it started to, but the course was still pretty hard and trecherous. the good lines were now slippery ice, and riding them was often still the fastest if you could hold a line while ricocheting back and forth off the frozen ruts on either side. thankfully, the sun and traffic did much to warm the course after a couple laps, and it turned into sloppy but slightly more rideable mud-over-ice.

order of registration put me midpack of 128 riders at the start. got some decent speed off the line and managed to skirt around a good number on the side. got off to run the first wide section of hard snow with off camber corners that was inevitably chaotic. shouldered the bike but the pedal was in the wrong position, sticking into my side. pushed it out of the way and kept running around the carnage. went to get back on and my chain was off. must have fallen off when i back-pedaled to move the pedal. drat. had to stop and put it back on, losing probably 30 places in the process. this is my one qualm with single chainring setups using a chainwatcher on the inside. the chain can bounce off from the bottom when you back pedal. but i don't have the chainstay clearance for an inner guard ring. i need to look for other solutions.

spent the rest of the race sprinting around slower riders on the pavement, and passing whenever i could otherwise. probably made back most of the positions i lost, but not much more than that. 1-2 punch of bad start position (unavoidable) and an early mechanical in a big field pretty much did me in as far as getting a good result.

got a little annoyed when the seriously sandbagging leader lapped me halfway through my 4th lap, much earlier than justin robinson had yesterday in the lead of the 30-34 championship! i was expecting it in that race, not in the b's. he was :51 ahead of second place and 2:12 ahead of third! i was hoping, since it wasn't a national championship event, that they'd let me roll over the finish line, but nope. got pulled entering the final stretch. i hope that guy enjoys the sandbagger jersey that they give the b winner. and i hope he got some heckling on the podium.

still, the whole weekend was good experience racing out of my element in crowds of people with different skills and fitness levels. i didn't really come into it with big goals or expectations of good finishes. i went looking for the experience of nationals, northeast cyclocross, and to spend time with family. all of which i got.

it was great to see chip ever so briefly, and to watch and cheer lauren as she worked her way up to her top-20 position in the elites. in the money!

thanks again to my brother dan, sis-in law jen (with future neice squirt in the oven), and cousin wayne (more cowbell!) who traveled from brooklyn and ct to see the races and cheer me on. to my parents who chauffered (chaperoned?) us around new england through hell and high water. to my pit crew dad. and to my sweetie julie who traveled with me across the country to the cold, white northeast.

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