Can I get a freakin race report?

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I saw I came in 7th. I was kinda eh with that, even though I was picked to come in 19th.

Nice job, considering you where sick during the week. Why u guys look at race predictions? The last thing I want in my head is someone telling me where I'm predicted to finish, I'd look at the prediction after race but never before.
Jeremy, I predict you will have a top 5 finish at some point this cx season.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I know may be meaningless (or is it?) but my cross results number is way too high. (I was predicted to come in NINETEENTH in this race).

After this past weekend, my opinion of Crossresults is FUCK crossresults. I will give you a summary of how it worked for me:

CR: We predict you to lose to these 5 guys easily and finish 86th percentile
Me: I beat all 5 and come in 80% percentile
CR: Fuck yourself, we are going to say that all 5 of those guys did far worse than you and even though you were 6% better than expected we are going to give you the worse result of the year BY FAR.

To me it's total numerical garbage.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Awesome write-up, and this needs to be your signature here on the board, if not also on your email exchanges with the boss.

There’s a nervous energy in the parking lot as I slip off pants
 

Dominique

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This weekend, I lined up with some powerful and fast ladies at the Northampton CX 40+ Women race. Although I gave it all I had and fought hard, I got crushed and ended up 23 of 25. Obviously, this result is not surprising as I do not “really” train… and only get to ride or go the gym when there are no kids’ activities, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I was not disappointed and thought I would have done better. I find myself in a spot where I’m too fast for the beginner class but too slow for the next category up. I guess the question is whether I keep racing and get mediocre results or take a break until I can actually train for these races?

8DA1154F-AEE9-4F49-9444-0AE8C920FA46.jpeg
 

vanseggern1

Active Member
This weekend, I lined up with some powerful and fast ladies at the Northampton CX 40+ Women race. Although I gave it all I had and fought hard, I got crushed and ended up 23 of 25. Obviously, this result is not surprising as I do not “really” train… and only get to ride or go the gym when there are no kids’ activities, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I was not disappointed and thought I would have done better. I find myself in a spot where I’m too fast for the beginner class but too slow for the next category up. I guess the question is whether I keep racing and get mediocre results or take a break until I can actually train for these races?

View attachment 80786
Nice job. Have you considered hiring @Norm as a coach?
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
guess the question is whether I keep racing and get mediocre results or take a break until I can actually train for these races?
Can you train during the week at all? 2-3 days a week(for about 75 minutes) doing intervals with a pwr meter. To be more competitive you have to train. Or just avoid races with 25 strong women;)
 

Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Yo! Somebody had to have raced Whirlybird yesterday. Can I get a freakin race report?
 

taylor185

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
you ask and I shall deliver.

Whirlybird
Masters 40+ 1/2/3/4
11/29

First race of the season. After two injury shorten seasons, I'm fully focused on cross this year and have been training diligently.

Left my house at 6:30am for an 8:00am arrival. Dressed and hopped on course for pre-ride and to grab number. Course was 100% grass crit. One slightly off camber tricky turn, set of barriers and one small log.

Back to the car, eat, skin suit on and warm-up.

Around 10:10am, head to start line and and we circle like fish in a tank for 10-15 mins as we await a 10:30am start. There were a touch behind the race schedule so pre-riding immediately prior to our race was a no-go.

Had a third row call up. A half way decent start had me moving passed a bunch of people down the start/finish chute. After the barriers and a few turns we hit some long straight aways broken by a few turns. I used this sections to pass a few more riders and after a 1/3 of a lap the race was pretty set for me. The front group of 8 riders were gone in a pace line and the 9th and 10th racers were a just ahead.

Lap 2 (maybe) the 9th placed guy slipped in a corner after the barriers and we joined forces for the rest of the race. We traded positions endlessly, playing cat and mouse but in the end he took me at the line. It was definitely one of those times were we both knew he could beat me in a sprint but I couldn't do enough to lose him on the straights or turns.

My goal was a top 10 finish so a little bummed but still a lot of fun spending 2-3 laps sparring over position and playing chess.

Nittany Masters 40+ next week

in lieu of pics due to a broken phone, my new bike which is rad:
72dpi-1140-x-700pxl-2018-SKYblue-FullTiltBoogie-BLACK-tires-VanDessel-P.jpg
 

SSmtbr

Well-Known Member
Coming out of posting semi-retirement for my amateur Whirlybird 4/5 Report:

"Make sure you get your Kombucha and a photo!" Seriously, I lost count of how many mentions of the free Kombucha they had yesterday.

Weather was 100% opposite of last year thankfully! Crisp morning turning into downright sunny and warm in the later races. In typical MAC 4/5 race fashion we arrive around 7am, frantically pin our numbers and hit the course for a pre-ride and warmup laps and find that we're running the loop in reverse from last year and I'm stoked. For the uninitiated, last year's loop began with a LONG flat/slight descent to a increasingly steep descent and then climbed endlessly back up to a long power section before the woods. This was probably my biggest fear going to bed Saturday night; I remember last year feeling my quads about to rupture from a super fast start and then endless switchbacks up to begin the race. For a larger guy in a roadie-friendly/fit course, this spells trouble for any climbs especially early on. They took out the woods for this year sadly (Bruce, the course designer, talked to us later in the day and said it was a combo of the large amounts of poison ivy at the woods' edge and some big downfall that led them to cut it out...As primarily a MTB guy, I'm bummed, but there's always Bubblecross).

The officials seemed to drag out the suspense of the start as we started around 5-6 minutes late after being staged. Pre-reg'd 11th (MAC Series PRO-TIP for any 4/5s out there..SIGN UP EARLY! Call-ups are by order of reg for 4/5 all season now and not by MAC placing) and I line up 2nd row directly behind Jalapeno teammate Jon who is super strong and primed for cross season (ended up finishing 7th!). The start is a relatively short straight followed by a right-hander, a wider swooping right-hander, and a tight uphill right/left before probably the most tricky uphill off-camber (more on that soon) leading into the barriers and a rhythm-section of turns making its way back to the long power section and for the Kingdom Trails fan SIDEWINDER-esque section (sadly still had pedaling uphill though but flowed nicely) before the final climb back up to the finish.

Lap 1 and into Lap 2 was spent battling in a jittery field with guys chopping lines at 90 degree angles from the racing line, causing some bumps and jostling, but I'm happy to put my Clydesdale frame in there with the lighter guys and make it out safely and even a few positions ahead.

Lap 3 becomes the point where I realize that I see more guys behind me than in front, which is far from where I was last year at any race and become aware that I'm beginning to make tactical race decisions instead of just a 40 minute survival bout. I had been battling with a guy about my size most of the race and the dude can lay down some serious power and would gap me on straights and climbs but struggled on the technical off-camber each lap as well as the corners. I knew I could take a brief recovery just before the off-camber and settle in before the barriers and flow through the windy back and forth turns before hammering it on the back stretch.

Bell lap (my goal was to finish lead lap - success!) comes and I'm still continuously swapping places with my rival with no attacks sticking and my matchbook running out quickly. I decided to make a final attack at the barriers before the handful of tight corners (not a great spot to do any passing) and ran through the first corner before remounting, far ahead of where we had done so the previous 4 laps, but managed to stay ahead and hammered smoothly through the corners putting about a 5 second gap on the exit to the power section. I catch a quickly fading KruisCX rider just before he loses a front wheel in the "sidewinder" section and put all the remaining matches I had to further the gap on anyone before the finish, maintaining the 5 second gap on my rival.

28th/62! My best result to date...3:42 off the leader (about a half-lap in our field). Between our team skills practices and faux-race, 6 week indoor blocks at Jalapeno, and a half-season of H2H racing, I had no idea where I would be for strictly cross-fitness as I didn't feel as structured in training as I did last year but came out pleasantly surprised. I'm telling myself that I won't over-analyze the race; at the end of the race I rode hard, and finished strong.

TL;DR - Cross is here, line up and find your race within a race, have fun. Sorry for lack of photos, I need to do better at breaking up this wall of text. I try to include some extra narratives directed to those considering entering a cross race or the devo racers of the cross world a more "everyday Joe" report.

Next up is Nittany 4/5 on Sunday and hoping that Whirlybird wasn't a fluke.
 

seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Well, that happened. (Day one.)
IMG_0634.JPG

That's the actual stone I passed at Nittany this weekend.
Which is a lie.
But it feels like the truth so I'm going with it.

Saturday, up so's me @Magic and I can get going early. He races at 8. AM. In the morning. And his bottom bracket sounds like the Joads' washing machine. So he's gonna be racing my bike, which isn't nearly as zippy as his Van Dessel ADD, but it's blue, and Edwin made it, so it's close.
On the plus side, getting there early means scoring a sweet m-effing parking place.
IMG_0625.JPG

Four feet from the pooper, five feet from registration, and we have to move the chair so the racers can line up.
After giving my bike a facelift, @Magic gives it the stick for a while.
IMG_0642.JPG

IMG_0644.JPG

My recently glued Vittoria Terrenos didn't come off! (I conveniently forgot to tell @Magic they'd been curing since Wednesday.)
I went to the pooper for The Poor Man's Carbon™, came back and the bike was back to it's regular mid-pack glory.
I'd been hoping it would've burst into flames, but since it didn't, I had no choice but to line up. Got a third row spot. If I wasn't nervous before, I was nervous now.
82d80ef5-db7d-4c27-ba9f-803540132baa.jpeg

That's my nervous face.
(Eloy Anzola's the Kissena guy next to me. He's never beaten me. Saturday he beat me like a drum.)
Inside the first three minutes, the race was settling into it's lil packs. The fast guys (Kline, Schlauch, et al) were giddidy GONE, leaving the rest of us to gnaw on each other and wonder why we didn't work harder in February. Bloated and sad, we carried on.
If you haven't been to Nittany, just imagine Charm City, flattened. Or Marty's, flattened. With one set of barriers and a runup. Not technically too difficult, theoretically. Around lap three though, those barriers are an effing wall.
I mention that 'cause that's one of the two places Larry Towner ate it around lap 3.
He and some Horst kids and a guy named Kevin were chasing Harry Hamilton down (pro-tip: be Harry), and I was able to hitch my busted wagon to their magical ponies. If not for them, there was every likelihood that I was gonna curl into a ball in the woods and see if anyone loved me enough to come looking. I was in a dark place.
It took four 60 year old men to bring me out of the darkness and into the light. In another culture, there would have been torches and a cave involved. Here, it's lycra and carbon.
Grrr.jpeg

(This is when I clocked that I had to pee pretty bad. I seriously thought about going during the race, but the idea of trying to relax a muscle in midst of a race seemed almost impossible. I'm sure Sagan could do it. Dumoulin, not so much.)
Anyhoo, the Day One was standard issue first race. There was some life in the legs, but it was like a first date: frisson, but not even a hope of gettin' down. I've got to buy a couple more dinners before this gets good.
End of the race, I flew to a PortaJohn like an anxious fly. And almost made it.
Ate some never-saw-daylight burgers care of @Magic. They were delicious, though I still feel bad about it. But I reallllllly needed food.
Kelly Cline bought me a beer, so sans an easy out, we hung for the women's pro 1/2/3, which Stacey Barbossa won, which made for two very happy me and @Magic.
IMG_0650.JPG

Yes, Stacey, that's a little bit of Arley Kemmerer's will-to-live on your butt.

Me, by the numbers:
Day one.jpg

There were only 40 or so of us. The glory days of 90-100 person fields are over.
But it hurts exactly the same.

@Magic played Bob Villa with his bottom bracket at my place and left with a semi-functioning bike. Which made me happy, 'cause I really really REALLY wanted to sleep in.

Day 2 tomorrow...
 
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seanrunnette

Brain Damaged Ray Romano
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Day 2, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Sleeping in was lovely. Out the door at 730ish, quick stop at the new Whole Paycheck on the way to Trexlertown for some post-race vegetarian noodles, some pre-race nosh and a super-tasty cappucino, and I'm parked two spots from @Magic. (There are some plusses to this brave new world where no one cares about cx anymore.)

There are some pics out there somewhere, but since I was only just arriving in time (9ish for an 1130 start) I was already a bit on the back-foot.
Talked with @Magic about his race: slippery and fast. I bet it felt faster on his own actual bike :)

Reg'd, attached the TNR tape (which was a DISASTER yesterday - full spinnaker mode throughout the race), kitted up and jumped in for a coupla easy laps. Found myself bullshitting with Schlauch for a bit, but realized I don't speak fast-racer, so tagged along as he and Freifelder broke down yesterday's racing. I hate them. What makes it worse is how nice they are. Quandry.

Edwin Bull, our Van Dessel guru, showed up in his Hakuna Matata kit and shredded a bit durning the 1030 40+ outing. His "I've got one good lap in me" turned out to be a strong 10th. This from someone who occasionally does the Rahway crit and rides to work.

IMG_0656.JPG

I hate him too. If only he wasn't so nice.

I used the lil 1 mile track across the street to get my warm up started, then switched to the street for the bigger efforts, cause kids on training wheels shouldn't have to see the faces I make. Then some stretching (Pigeon Pose FTW), a Clif Shot and a 4th row. Gulp.
(Noticed the guy in front of me had his chain on the 13, which meant he was gonna brick the start.)

4th row.jpeg


Solid mid-pack start. No bumping, no elbows. 13T went left, so I get shot into the middle line, where I wanted to be left going into the not-mud pit, which is a bunch of sharp 180 drops and climbs, but whatchoogonedo? I go with it and am able to salmon up to Ray Zeimet, Barry Jones et al. Also known as those guys who're above my pay grade.

IMG_0654.JPG

Ray, pretending he's nice.

Somehow, someway, I'm staying with them. Ray and I even start bullshitting coming out of the not-mud-pit the second time. 1 minute later, sitting on his wheel, it's like someone drops the Posterize filter on my glasses, and I realize how effing pinned I am this early. But with some fast sweepers, barriers and root section coming up, there are enough bottlenecks that I keep it together and start using my eyeholes correctly.

Ray!.jpeg

Wait, Ray, did you hear the one about the horse?

Until that last tight 180 at the road, where I lose the line in the shade and wash out my front tire. All of five seconds lost as I remount, but bye-bye guys. I get back to the other dudes that I blocked when I dropped, but the front end is giddidy-gone.

Spend the next lap recovering a bit from the effort of rejoining, and notice the carpet is starting to fray at the edges. Eloy and and I are trading off, but he's killing me on the stairs into the woods. With two to go, I know I've gotta get that sorted, which means making him do the work through the sweeper to the barriers next lap so I have one or two extra efforts in me at the end of that tortuous section.

Which *gasp* works. I gap him going into the woods and tag onto a skinny tire MTB dood who's railing the roots. Until he isn't and I'm on the pointy end of this little parade. I start making weird line choices and hear Eloy behind me. Full gas through the chicanes, DON'T blow the 180 at the road and I've got the gap back.

The 60+ monsters are starting to come through, so I jump on a Horst Horse for a bit, til I can't anymore, but that gets me another few feet through the not-mud-pit. Then it's full gas through the fast backside, listening to the tubulars squirm and trying to be smooth enough not to fold them.

Bell lap and somehow I'm still ahead of Eloy into the woods, but Chris Long, a MAC assassin back in the day, is coming, with Eloy hanging on like Tom Cruise from a plane in any movie Tom Cruise has ever been in. Chris is scary-fast, and can cut corners like coroner. I'm now officially in panic mode. Which is too bad, 'cause there's nothing left to give. Holding on for dear life through the drop to the finish, I give it three stomps and fold up like a pillbug.

And it's enough for 23rd.

Day 2.png


Spent some time doing what I should've yesterday: warming down. Then scarf the noodles and bail. Would loved to have stayed, esp as the 1/2/3 Women's race was looking like it was gonna be a fistfight, but real life called.

Next up, Bubble CX. Which is to Nittany what a terrarium is to a lake.
 

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Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Day 2, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Sleeping in was lovely. Out the door at 730ish, quick stop at the new Whole Paycheck on the way to Trexlertown for some post-race vegetarian noodles, some pre-race nosh and a super-tasty cappucino, and I'm parked two spots from @Magic. (There are some plusses to this brave new world where no one cares about cx anymore.)

There are some pics out there somewhere, but since I was only just arriving in time (9ish for an 1130 start) I was already a bit on the back-foot.
Talked with @Magic about his race: slippery and fast. I bet it felt faster on his own actual bike :)

Reg'd, attached the TNR tape (which was a DISASTER yesterday - full spinnaker mode throughout the race), kitted up and jumped in for a coupla easy laps. Found myself bullshitting with Schlauch for a bit, but realized I don't speak fast-racer, so tagged along as he and Freifelder broke down yesterday's racing. I hate them. What makes it worse is how nice they are. Quandry.

Edwin Bull, our Van Dessel guru, showed up in his Hakuna Matata kit and shredded a bit durning the 1030 40+ outing. His "I've got one good lap in me" turned out to be a strong 10th. This from someone who occasionally does the Rahway crit and rides to work.

View attachment 105633
I hate him too. If only he wasn't so nice.

I used the lil 1 mile track across the street to get my warm up started, then switched to the street for the bigger efforts, cause kids on training wheels shouldn't have to see the faces I make. Then some stretching (Pigeon Pose FTW), a Clif Shot and a 4th row. Gulp.
(Noticed the guy in front of me had his chain on the 13, which meant he was gonna brick the start.)

View attachment 105645

Solid mid-pack start. No bumping, no elbows. 13T went left, so I get shot into the middle line, where I wanted to be left going into the not-mud pit, which is a bunch of sharp 180 drops and climbs, but whatchoogonedo? I go with it and am able to salmon up to Ray Zeimet, Barry Jones et al. Also known as those guys who're above my pay grade.

View attachment 105641
Ray, pretending he's nice.

Somehow, someway, I'm staying with them. Ray and I even start bullshitting coming out of the not-mud-pit the second time. 1 minute later, sitting on his wheel, it's like someone drops the Posterize filter on my glasses, and I realize how effing pinned I am this early. But with some fast sweepers, barriers and root section coming up, there are enough bottlenecks that I keep it together and start using my eyeholes correctly.

View attachment 105643
Wait, Ray, did you hear the one about the horse?

Until that last tight 180 at the road, where I lose the line in the shade and wash out my front tire. All of five seconds lost as I remount, but bye-bye guys. I get back to the other dudes that I blocked when I dropped, but the front end is giddidy-gone.

Spend the next lap recovering a bit from the effort of rejoining, and notice the carpet is starting to fray at the edges. Eloy and and I are trading off, but he's killing me on the stairs into the woods. With two to go, I know I've gotta get that sorted, which means making him do the work through the sweeper to the barriers next lap so I have one or two extra efforts in me at the end of that tortuous section.

Which *gasp* works. I gap him going into the woods and tag onto a skinny tire MTB dood who's railing the roots. Until he isn't and I'm on the pointy end of this little parade. I start making weird line choices and hear Eloy behind me. Full gas through the chicanes, DON'T blow the 180 at the road and I've got the gap back.

The 60+ monsters are starting to come through, so I jump on a Horst Horse for a bit, til I can't anymore, but that gets me another few feet through the not-mud-pit. Then it's full gas through the fast backside, listening to the tubulars squirm and trying to be smooth enough not to fold them.

Bell lap and somehow I'm still ahead of Eloy into the woods, but Chris Long, a MAC assassin back in the day, is coming, with Eloy hanging on like Tom Cruise from a plane in any movie Tom Cruise has ever been in. Chris is scary-fast, and can cut corners like coroner. I'm now officially in panic mode. Which is too bad, 'cause there's nothing left to give. Holding on for dear life through the drop to the finish, I give it three stomps and fold up like a pillbug.

And it's enough for 23rd.

View attachment 105640

Spent some time doing what I should've yesterday: warming down. Then scarf the noodles and bail. Would loved to have stayed, esp as the 1/2/3 Women's race was looking like it was gonna be a fistfight, but real life called.

Next up, Bubble CX. Which is to Nittany what a terrarium is to a lake.

Cutting corners like coroner. The art of the CX race recap lives on. Chapeau, sir.
 
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