Daymn! I'm sore...or Pilarcitos #3
Pilarcitos#3
McClaren park
11/4/2007
CAT A men -24/34
http://www.pilarcitos.com/results/CrossResults/2007/McLaren.html
It was a gorgeous day for racing! We rolled up at about 8am and it was warm enough to walk around in a t-shirt! Dave had dropped off the team tent the day before, so I rolled up and finished popping up the tent. MO got reg'd and I finished up my coffee and chatted up the roaring mouse folks in the tent next to us.
As Dave said, this is no really a 'cross race in the traditional euro style, but more of what's been labeled "NorCal" 'cross. In other words, it's very technical and more like a mountain bike race. One of our friends, Erik the German guy, was there and raced his carbon hardtail and did really well. He said it was easy to pass people as he maintained traction due to having front suspension. And man oh man was this course bumpy! However I disagree with Dave's sentiments about it being over and done with. I love this type of course, but yes it's a mtb course not a traditional 'cross course ;-)
Personally I had a fantastic race despite being stuck in my larger chaining for this first 5 laps! Thanks to Geoff for finally convincing me to take his bike. I was so anaerobic that I couldn't comprehend that he was giving me his geared bike and not his singlespeed. At one point I yelled I need gears and he was like "it's got gears damn it!" So as I rolled up to the bike pit before the double barriers leading into the run up, I ditched my bike, ala ghost riding it, and grabbed Geoff's bike, shoulder it and went bounding up the run-up. Sweet hand off thanks! An aside...man oh man, Geoff's bike handled like a dream with the Flexus tubulars, SRAM shifters and Paul brakes! I'm in need of upgrading my bike!
So by now I'm like sweet, I'll stop losing times on the hills because I can spin now. Doooh! I've never used SRAM and I can't shift into an easy gear. At this point I'm yelling at people, "Hey how do you use SRAM double tap shifter?" Nobody new. Finally Meredith, who was feeding me out on the course, took my question and did some reconnaissance and found out. On the next lap she rode along side me and explained to me how to use it! Not only do I have a hot, cycling girlfriend, but she's also a great team mate!
That's not the end of Meredith's support. Before the race I'd decide to carry a GU with me, so that I wouldn't fade near the end. Well, with such a bumpy course the little GU packet shook its way right out of my pants ;-) So I was like crap I need a GU. I yelled out to Meredith, “I need a GU." I missed our first handoff and said meet me on the other side of the course. Sure enough, when I got to the paved climb, before the descent to the other long paved section, there she was! I grabbed the GU, grabbed the water bottle and swallowed it all. Yuck, Cliff Shots are too thick for racing! All the while MO is yelling at me..."Nick is only 10 seconds up on you." I focused and applied more power to the pedals.
It's crazy, I felt so good for this race. My legs felt great and my cardio wasn't too bad either. I worked really hard and was actually hanging with the leader for the first lap. Some of the fast guys like Jason Rawles and other fast dudes didn't catch me till the second lap! I would attack all the flat and I had power. I would attack the hills, mostly because I had too for most of the race since I was stuck in the big ring! Maybe being stuck in the big ring made me push hard an have a better race? In any case, every lap I kept getting smoother and smoother thru the technical sections. My legs started to feel like they might cramp, but they never did.
In the end I put in a hard sprint finish and while aerobically I felt like throwing up, I could have done a few more laps because my legs didn't feel that bad!
I felt like I’ve recovered and am making a come back! I had a blast with the team. Watching the women’s race unfold was so exciting. It was especially cool to see both Megan and Courtney shooting up the run-up just ahead of the one-two combo of mouse girls, Dana and Marissa, followed by hot little green Jersey of Meredith about 5-6 back. Meredith had a tough race ahead of her because she had totally roadie gearing, as in 39 front ring, 26 biggest rear cog! She could’ve used a nice 34 or 36 in the front. Fortunately, no other races have this much climbing! Congrats to Courtney for a decisive victory!
Gary went off next and didn’t seem to be suffering to bad, or at least he didn’t show it. Unfortunately Gary had to bounce off to work and missed out on the festivities and Sausage roast. We also missed Gary’s delicious food ;-(
Next up was Glen, JK, and Geoff in the 35+ A cat. JK and Geoff to be having a great race, but Glen seemed to be suffering a bit. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to catch of before you bounced. You missed out on some tasty sausages.
Next up was Lander and myself in the A’s. You already know how my race unfolded and I’ll let Lander tell you his side of the story.
Then our biggest field, men’s open Bs: Matt T, Dave, Ty, Nick, and Anthony. The race started of by a spectacular lead out by Anthony. Seriously he opened his gap to like 10 seconds on the field. Just a few seconds off was the rest of the A40 crew! There are some cool starting shots that I’ll post later. A bunch green in the front line! Anthony was having an awesome race, maintaining a sizeable gap on the field. Ty was next followed by Nick and Dave. By about the 3rd lap or so all of a sudden Ty was gone. Fortunately, Geoff and I had already talked about heading out on the course in support of the team.
As soon as Ty didn’t come around I was like oh know, I bolted up hill so see how I could help. Sure enough Ty had snapped his carbon seat post in two Geoff got him his bike and was swapped my seatpost\saddle on to Ty’s bike. But it was not Ty’s day. According to him “mercury is retrograde,” whatever the hell that means. Ty you are such a hippy ;-) In anycase, a flat took Ty out the next lap and he was done for the day. I guess mercury affected Anthony too, because he flatted twice and lost his impressive lead!
In the end we had our German friend Erik in 3rd place, our other mountain bike friend, Jeremy, in 5th and then the green: Matt T, Nick S., Anthony battling back to 16hth, and then Dave, with poor Ty dnf, due to “mercury in retrograde.”
Was also cool to see some of my roadie team mates from the Mouse throwing down on the dirt. Dave Parrish, Ammon Skidmoore and Darren Leva!
The party afterwards was a blast. German Sausages, kraut and spicy mustard. Murphy Mack had the Speakeasy Prohibition Ale flowing. An then for some after racing entertainment, Timmy and I had a little wrestling match. I’m not sure what happened, but I turned around and Timmy is putting Geoff in a crazy wrestling move called the “honey mooner.” Knowing Geoff wasn’t a wrestler and wanting to defend our team honor I challenged Timmy to a duel. I took him down, put him in the “honey mooner” and said how you like A40 know beeeeatch! Not to be defeated so easily, Timmy and I went another few rounds on the hard grass. I’m so sore today and honestly not sure if I’m sore from the race or wrestling. I do know that all the bruises and scrapes are from wrestling as I didn’t go down during the race. Pure comedy!
Good time once again! A40 rocks! Pictures to be posted shortely.
Thanks for Reading…Isaias
McClaren park
11/4/2007
CAT A men -24/34
http://www.pilarcitos.com/results/CrossResults/2007/McLaren.html
It was a gorgeous day for racing! We rolled up at about 8am and it was warm enough to walk around in a t-shirt! Dave had dropped off the team tent the day before, so I rolled up and finished popping up the tent. MO got reg'd and I finished up my coffee and chatted up the roaring mouse folks in the tent next to us.
As Dave said, this is no really a 'cross race in the traditional euro style, but more of what's been labeled "NorCal" 'cross. In other words, it's very technical and more like a mountain bike race. One of our friends, Erik the German guy, was there and raced his carbon hardtail and did really well. He said it was easy to pass people as he maintained traction due to having front suspension. And man oh man was this course bumpy! However I disagree with Dave's sentiments about it being over and done with. I love this type of course, but yes it's a mtb course not a traditional 'cross course ;-)
Personally I had a fantastic race despite being stuck in my larger chaining for this first 5 laps! Thanks to Geoff for finally convincing me to take his bike. I was so anaerobic that I couldn't comprehend that he was giving me his geared bike and not his singlespeed. At one point I yelled I need gears and he was like "it's got gears damn it!" So as I rolled up to the bike pit before the double barriers leading into the run up, I ditched my bike, ala ghost riding it, and grabbed Geoff's bike, shoulder it and went bounding up the run-up. Sweet hand off thanks! An aside...man oh man, Geoff's bike handled like a dream with the Flexus tubulars, SRAM shifters and Paul brakes! I'm in need of upgrading my bike!
So by now I'm like sweet, I'll stop losing times on the hills because I can spin now. Doooh! I've never used SRAM and I can't shift into an easy gear. At this point I'm yelling at people, "Hey how do you use SRAM double tap shifter?" Nobody new. Finally Meredith, who was feeding me out on the course, took my question and did some reconnaissance and found out. On the next lap she rode along side me and explained to me how to use it! Not only do I have a hot, cycling girlfriend, but she's also a great team mate!
That's not the end of Meredith's support. Before the race I'd decide to carry a GU with me, so that I wouldn't fade near the end. Well, with such a bumpy course the little GU packet shook its way right out of my pants ;-) So I was like crap I need a GU. I yelled out to Meredith, “I need a GU." I missed our first handoff and said meet me on the other side of the course. Sure enough, when I got to the paved climb, before the descent to the other long paved section, there she was! I grabbed the GU, grabbed the water bottle and swallowed it all. Yuck, Cliff Shots are too thick for racing! All the while MO is yelling at me..."Nick is only 10 seconds up on you." I focused and applied more power to the pedals.
It's crazy, I felt so good for this race. My legs felt great and my cardio wasn't too bad either. I worked really hard and was actually hanging with the leader for the first lap. Some of the fast guys like Jason Rawles and other fast dudes didn't catch me till the second lap! I would attack all the flat and I had power. I would attack the hills, mostly because I had too for most of the race since I was stuck in the big ring! Maybe being stuck in the big ring made me push hard an have a better race? In any case, every lap I kept getting smoother and smoother thru the technical sections. My legs started to feel like they might cramp, but they never did.
In the end I put in a hard sprint finish and while aerobically I felt like throwing up, I could have done a few more laps because my legs didn't feel that bad!
I felt like I’ve recovered and am making a come back! I had a blast with the team. Watching the women’s race unfold was so exciting. It was especially cool to see both Megan and Courtney shooting up the run-up just ahead of the one-two combo of mouse girls, Dana and Marissa, followed by hot little green Jersey of Meredith about 5-6 back. Meredith had a tough race ahead of her because she had totally roadie gearing, as in 39 front ring, 26 biggest rear cog! She could’ve used a nice 34 or 36 in the front. Fortunately, no other races have this much climbing! Congrats to Courtney for a decisive victory!
Gary went off next and didn’t seem to be suffering to bad, or at least he didn’t show it. Unfortunately Gary had to bounce off to work and missed out on the festivities and Sausage roast. We also missed Gary’s delicious food ;-(
Next up was Glen, JK, and Geoff in the 35+ A cat. JK and Geoff to be having a great race, but Glen seemed to be suffering a bit. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to catch of before you bounced. You missed out on some tasty sausages.
Next up was Lander and myself in the A’s. You already know how my race unfolded and I’ll let Lander tell you his side of the story.
Then our biggest field, men’s open Bs: Matt T, Dave, Ty, Nick, and Anthony. The race started of by a spectacular lead out by Anthony. Seriously he opened his gap to like 10 seconds on the field. Just a few seconds off was the rest of the A40 crew! There are some cool starting shots that I’ll post later. A bunch green in the front line! Anthony was having an awesome race, maintaining a sizeable gap on the field. Ty was next followed by Nick and Dave. By about the 3rd lap or so all of a sudden Ty was gone. Fortunately, Geoff and I had already talked about heading out on the course in support of the team.
As soon as Ty didn’t come around I was like oh know, I bolted up hill so see how I could help. Sure enough Ty had snapped his carbon seat post in two Geoff got him his bike and was swapped my seatpost\saddle on to Ty’s bike. But it was not Ty’s day. According to him “mercury is retrograde,” whatever the hell that means. Ty you are such a hippy ;-) In anycase, a flat took Ty out the next lap and he was done for the day. I guess mercury affected Anthony too, because he flatted twice and lost his impressive lead!
In the end we had our German friend Erik in 3rd place, our other mountain bike friend, Jeremy, in 5th and then the green: Matt T, Nick S., Anthony battling back to 16hth, and then Dave, with poor Ty dnf, due to “mercury in retrograde.”
Was also cool to see some of my roadie team mates from the Mouse throwing down on the dirt. Dave Parrish, Ammon Skidmoore and Darren Leva!
The party afterwards was a blast. German Sausages, kraut and spicy mustard. Murphy Mack had the Speakeasy Prohibition Ale flowing. An then for some after racing entertainment, Timmy and I had a little wrestling match. I’m not sure what happened, but I turned around and Timmy is putting Geoff in a crazy wrestling move called the “honey mooner.” Knowing Geoff wasn’t a wrestler and wanting to defend our team honor I challenged Timmy to a duel. I took him down, put him in the “honey mooner” and said how you like A40 know beeeeatch! Not to be defeated so easily, Timmy and I went another few rounds on the hard grass. I’m so sore today and honestly not sure if I’m sore from the race or wrestling. I do know that all the bruises and scrapes are from wrestling as I didn’t go down during the race. Pure comedy!
Good time once again! A40 rocks! Pictures to be posted shortely.
Thanks for Reading…Isaias
Comments
oh, nice race...