MRC CX Race

[Briana]

I raced the Masters 40+ and finished 2nd.

I had built a bit of confidence in the first few weeks of the season with some pretty good results but then Mud Weasels kinda kicked me in the balls. That along with 7 hours of course set up on Sat and who knows how this will go.

I got my front row start barely since I missed the call up, that hasn't happened before. Thankfully Pare let me slide in (wait is he supposed to be here anyway hmmm). I took the holeshot and led Miles, Brant, Colm, and Tony around for a couple laps. Being in this position I was able to ride the entire course which was nice, no dismounts the entire race . On lap 3 I had a couple second lead coming out of the "sand" and dropped my chain. I had to stop to put it back on (actually my only dismount) and was passed by Miles and Brant, then Colm and Leo. I was able to get on Leo's wheel and stay with them until the pit, I got past Leo and Colm pulled us a little closer to the lead group. Miles is a little slow in the turns which I'm sure is the only reason I could catch back on. I'm In 5th coming past the finish for the start of the 4th lap and destroy myself to get back into the lead by the kink after the start. Thankfully I can get my HR down a little from 196 while we go through the mulch. In the back section we start to lap riders and Miles takes the lead with me and Tony following. The rest of the race we stay in that order. Thinking back if I would have ran the logs on the last lap and sprinted to the top of the hill past Miles, maybe I could have gotten through those last couple turns a little quicker and held him off for the win. I guess we'll never know. Either way I'll take 2nd to that group any day. See you in Gloucester where the old guys race with the fast young guys.

Brian A.

P.S. the atmosphere and the layout was awesome! Even if it wasn't an MRC event it would be a race I would really want to do. Nice job everyone!

[dantelman]

Good job Brian!

Want to also say great event, man there were a lot of turns in that course...
No podiums for me, but I may have finished first in mosquito bites.

Mosquitos can bite right through your lycra jersey and shorts... Fortunately they cannot bite through the padded chamois.

[fowleezy]

I thought the race went off really well: the course was fast and fun (I'll even admit Don's dirt pile of death worked really well, kudos for Don to overcoming the skeptics), coffee was mint, and my son had a lot of fun riding the kids course and wooden pump track thingy.

I raced the 4/5 in the morning as my last 4/5 race (I swear this time, upgrade to cat 3 was approved today!) because I wanted to race and couldn't make the afternoon. I got a front row start and ended up like 3rd wheel out of the whole shot behind Juan L. from 545 velo and another dude. I sat pretty comfortably in this position for a couple laps before passing 2nd place, and slotted in behind Juan with a couple to go. I was getting more and more gassed each lap, but I was able to stay close enough to him that I decided I was going to try to pass him on the long uphill straight away heading up the hill before the logs. I think he might of anticipated this somewhat because he really got on the gas coming around the corner into the hill, and it took me until almost the top of the hill to pass him. I was ready to try to put a little gap between him and myself in the next few turny sections, but unfortunately I rolled my front tire in a corner and burped a decent amount of air, to the point where it was rolling every corner I took. It was bad enough that I was washing out in several corners through the turny section and got some unsolicited advice on how to turn from a guy in the crowd. Luckily I saw Pare not to far after that and yelled "front flat!" at which point he sprinted to the next corner to ask "What kind of wheel do you have?" and by the time I got to the pit Busick was waiting there with his wheel, he helped me change it, and then I was off. I think I lost the lead either right at the pit or just before, and then I lost maybe 4-5 more while at the pit. I was gassed after that, and definitely didn't have the watts to catch back on. I ended up finishing like 8th overall/4th in my class. I think someone else ended up catching Juan, it would have been cool to see if I could have battled it out with those guys, but that's racing.

Big thanks to Tim for meeting me in the morning so I could replace my seized mud weasels bb and race, and also to Pare and Busick for the race saving hustle/wheel change as a likely would have dnf'ed without it. I owe you all beers.

[ppereira]

congrats to Brian, Mike, and Peter for their performances! And of course to everyone else for getting out there, Minuteman really has the best representation.

I did the 4/5 under 40, got off to a really solid start up that initial hill (although maybe not as well I could have since I had to slow down to avoid the crash buildup), although got slowed down a bit around some of the turns by some careless pedalpower guy bumping into me to pass me (I eventually dropped him). The rest of the race for me was kind of odd, as I think I was mostly riding among the over 40's, so psychologically and physically I just kind of settled in instead of trying to chase down people. Looking at the strava segment for the course, this is kind of evident, as my 2nd lap was 7:56, whereas the rest of the laps were on average 8:46 (+/- a second or two each lap), had I kept the pace up I could have finished 2.5 minutes sooner and been more in the mix.

But it was super fun, love the venue, and the little power hills seem to suit me (at least where I am, I do the damaging to others as opposed to getting beaten up). I finished 27/48, so my streak of top 50% is broken lol. If I were a year older and with the 40+ I would have finished in the upper half again!

[ppereira]

Also, took some photos while supervising the course, never really tried to take any racing pics before, but managed to get a few decent ones. my apologies for not getting one of everyone, I was taking them very sporadically! and much respect to those, like Katie B, who turn out such high quality and consistent stuff, it's tough!

https://pgpcx.passgallery.com/-mrccx2018/gallery

[Mkidd3]

password protected

[ppereira]

d'oh! should work now

[Mkidd3]

Great shots Phil!

[cbusick]

Also, took some photos while supervising the course, never really tried to take any racing pics before, but managed to get a few decent ones. my apologies for not getting one of everyone, I was taking them very sporadically! and much respect to those, like Katie B, who turn out such high quality and consistent stuff, it's tough!

https://pgpcx.passgallery.com/-mrccx2018/gallery

Phil,
Those are some great pictures. Katie approves. I like the one of Brianna leading Miles around the tree.

[cbusick]

Oscar,
Reid did 2 laps in 19:26? That's 9:23 lap times? I knew he was sandbagging on Saturday when he was turning in 15 minute laps even though he said he was at 'race pace' and faking heavy breathing.

-Chris

[pace21]

man there were a lot of turns in that course...

I guess it’s all perspective, the talk in the morning was all about how much more of a power course this was compared to previous iterations. I thought we finally nailed the Goldilocks of power-to-turns ratio this year.

We will always be turny-er than Midnight Ride, it’s in our DNA

[strat]

My notable numbers from Sunday:

5 - My finishing position in the 4/5 40+
6 - The number of Elite racers who crashed in the sand on the 180˚ corner (the surface was getting cut up)
9 - The number of times I had to repair the tape/stakes (at the exit of thousand pit) during the men's races in the pm!
37 - The number of mosquito bites I counted this morning...the actual number is likely much higher, these were just the ones I could see (this was with using repellent)!!

Great job by everybody!

[oscarp]

Oscar,
Reid did 2 laps in 19:26? That's 9:23 lap times? I knew he was sandbagging on Saturday when he was turning in 15 minute laps even though he said he was at 'race pace' and faking heavy breathing.

-Chris

Yea he brought it when it mattered!

The cubs could have done the full course based on their times! Maybe next year if its a dry course they do the whole thing and if its wet they cut across.

[peterkuhn]

I started off like 4th row which I am no longer keeping track of because despite good results I'm still seeded 29th for Gloucester and I am definitely fine with this and do not at all plan to be a huge queen about it. I can't complain too much for this race though because we went with the pro/1/2 field and got scored separately, which is As It Should Be. The main reason I am seeded 29th for Gloucester (which I am not mad about at all) is that there is a choice between results/upgrade points (3/4 field) or crossresults points (1/2/3 field) and I love to make the WRONG CHOICE. By the time I get low enough points for a good start position I'll have been automatically upgraded even though it's not a big deal and I totally don't care.

The difference between starting in the back of a 3/4 field and a 1/2/3 field is that instead of people just kind of being in the way, they're in the way but going as hard as you, so I had to be more aggressive with passing. The front of the race walked away and I was surrounded primarily by fellow 3s in the first few laps, so I'd find a group, chop my way up to the front of it, gap it somewhere and repeat. I low-sided on the 2nd turn before the finish line early on and lost four positions which then had to be made up again over the next lap. This also snapped my left shifter body so it was only being held on by the brake cable from that point and provided a few fun and cool decelerations.

It sounds like I have Don to thank for the dirt pile with logs in it. It occurred to me during course cleanup what kind of brain you would need to have in order to think that an additional 600lbs of log placed just far apart enough to keep anyone from clearing the gap is just what the course needed. Nice work Don, I loved casing these with both wheels somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCJmGH1KDGM
Godspeed, Mark

Speaking of casing, my lack of 'casing' out the course well enough during pre-ride led to me 'casing' the log run and coming to a near-stop every time I rode them, which was probably still faster than running them which I did the first lap and got passed. There was a rhythm to going up these and I never got it, watching me ride them probably felt like when you see someone fail while going for the high note in the national anthem. I was embarrassed for how embarrassed the spectators were for me. This is how I know I have advanced as a rider.

I also got passed running the barriers the first lap, so I hopped them the next few, then hung up and flipped over the bars on like lap 3 or 4 which was great, my shoulder loved it. Remember when I was Mountain Bike Guy, and everyone thought I was good at technical stuff because my bike weighed 30lbs? Lancaster Fairgrounds remembers.

This race felt super hard, much harder than Night Weasels. I have heard this means I am good at running. Discovering that you are secretly good at running is like finding out you are secretly good at testing asphalt viscosity, or patent law. Like, cool, but why couldn't I have been good at surfing or doing drugs on a cigarette boat.

Anyway coming up to the front of our little field within a field I noticed that riders were starting to race a lot harder for position when I'd start coming after them so there was much more of a fight to get by the RaceCF and AP riders. I didn't know it but we were contesting the podium. By the last lap I was in no-man's land once again, with nobody within reach, so I rode defensively and hoped my brake lever didn't further disintegrate, which turned out to be good for 2nd in cat 3 and 10th overall.

See you all at Gloucester! (490th row, nbd)

[BikeRider]

I'm glad everyone liked the sand logs of death section. Next year I was thinking maybe a 1-2 ft gap (with a B-line snaking around to the left for a 2-3s time penalty). This year's intent was to force a second hop or similar maneuver over the last mini log. I wanted to add some forced thinking to what would otherwise be a hassle free pile of sand. I mean, who among us has not thought about what a waste of sand it is to just run or cleanly ride through it. Add some logs to the sand and NOW you've got yourself some serious CX memories.

On a more personal note it was hysterical watching the 2 or 3 riders that convinced themselves they could make that gap. Pure gold.

https://www.pinkbike.com/v/embed/477069 ... er=%270%27

oh, and lastly, Peter "Monster Truck" Kuhn is the last person I would have guessed would take exception to the flow section I added to the course. A select few people did try to ride straight through the first 450 lb log (unsuccessfully), but I thought a person who rides on pure adrenaline (and smarties) would either bunny hop the entire thing or just lift his front wheel and pedal. Go figure.