Marty Cross 2016 - Men's Cat 4/5 Old-ish Man (40+) Race
Local Race!!!! Whoo hoo..... Only a 30 minute drive with a 9:30am start time. After last weeks tummy issues, and Paella Night with some other Madison parents, I got up a little earlier than I wanted to, just to make sure everything was in proper working order. Feeling good.. nice. Out the house about 7:05, arrive 7:40ish.
@Harry Hamilton 's already there. Spots in the upper lot, near the pit area. Ooof... it's a little chilly.
Get bike down, adjust tire pressure on bike and pit wheels, drop wheels in pit, shoes and helmet on - course inspection time! Did two laps.
Similar to years past, but different. Eric, Vic, and the boys made more use of the hills this year down between the barn and the road. Usual leafy spots down at the bottom by the barn, back up, down, up, down past the barn to the lower field area. Little rocky/rooty along the side, not too bad, then the downhill sweeping left, some other bits and pieces of the usual stuff to get you to "hill-o-death". Ugh, that hill. Love to hate that hill. The downhill switch backs were in the same pace, followed by another uphill to get you back to the pit area. From there we head towards the back of the upper field area. fast down, then an annoying grind back up. The off cambers were much less off camber BUT straight into the wind. Fun. Barriers followed, then around the parking lot back to start/finish area. Ok. this is gonna hurt. A lot.
The Masters 50+/60+ Really Old Man race starts, so I get my number, take a leak and have Harry pin me, cause skinsuit.
At this point, I'm warmed up, but have 30 minutes to kill, I opt for ditching the kneewarmers and just keep the jacket on. Roll around up by the baseball field, chat with
@Santapez a bit. I point out the Cycle-Smart dood (James McDevitt) to Harry, cause the crossresults told me he was supposed to win. He is now marked. Roll another half lap before callups, then take a leak in the woods. Race time.
Call-ups by NJBC CX Cup standings. Harry & I are front row, I take 4th spot from the left to set up for the 90 degree right hand turn after the sprint. Harry's to my left, Chris LaBudde to my right.
McDevitt (Cycle-Smart guy) is last row. The vibe is chill, everyone talking, trying to figure if we're doing 4 or 5 laps. 1 minute. Garmins start beeping all over. 30 seconds......
GO! Stomp on the pedal, take an extra turn to clip in, but free foot was on from the first strike, so all good. I jostle a little with Chris, and pull out in front as we approach the first turn. I dive right taking the shortest line in, short straight, then turn two onto the finish line stretch in the lead!!! Going hard, but not oh shit hard. I ALWAYS take the far right side as we cross that patch of pavement. #localknowledge There's no bump there at all. We approach the first downhill next to the road, and I can feel a few guys right on my tail. towards the bottom there are a few quick turns that I make easy work of. As I head back up the hill, I can tell there's a little gap behind me. I drill it up, take the left side, up a little high into the corner, and bomb it down tight to the stake. As I go down, up, and back down to pass the barn, there is now a gap. I mean, like a real gap. I pass
@StayHydrated 's waffle-palooza area and SCREAM as loud as I can "WWWAAAAAAAAFFFFFLLLLLEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" as I fly by them. Points for heckling the spectators, or, at least yelling at them. You can hear it on the
race video.
I make it thru the lower section clean, hit the Hill-o-death and clear the off camber downhill switchback from hell with no problems. This hill section was where Hannah and my 8ry old son Will are yelling and screaming every lap. #awesome
Not sure if it was first or second lap, but
@The Heckler smacked my ass on the way up the hill too. That stung. Back to the race. Basically, I rode everything clean for the next two and a half laps until Harry caught me with one and a half to go. He had gotten tangled up a little at the start, and was in about 15th spot at the bottom of the first hill, and took a little time to work his way up. So I'm leading for the first two and a half laps. This is strange feeling. As I pass the Officials table on lap two, the counter card says "3". Fuck, we're gonna do 5 laps. Not gonna make it!!! Just keep going. It was only after passing the pit again that the official was yelling "Only two more!!!" Huh? Sweet.
Speaking of working his way up, Cycle-Smart was in hot pursuit. He spent some time with Chris in 3rd/4th for a little while, but never got past Harry, I think. So Harry is now leading, and Cycle-Smart is 15 seconds behind me. Harry drops his chain over the barriers and I pass him. I think I stayed in front going into the bell lap. He past me somewhere. I have no idea where. Maybe up the hill? I kept McDevitt in my sights behind me the whole time while trying to stay with Harry. In the end, I was second, 10 seconds back, and McDevitt was 6 seconds behind me. Team Marty's goes 1/2 on the podium for the home race.
What a tough race. Super happy with the result. My best bet for a good finish seems to be get out front and hang on for dear life. I'm enjoying pushing the pace, and making other guys work to catch up.
Next up is :
HPCX 4/5 on Sat and 3/4 on Sunday
Bubble 4/5 40+ Sat & Sun
Sussex 4/5 40+
Then upgrade.
SuperCross both days
Westwood!!!!!
Solstice & Limestone.
