White Park...

[MarkMiller321]

White Park is an incredible race. If you’ve never done White Park you are missing out. White Park is awesome! Next time you race the Concord Crit gander at the awesome park that the race circles and think to yourself, “I’ll bet that would be a gnarly CX track!”

Being the New Hampshire guy on the team I am always going to be more than a little biased for home races but all of the statements above are true. White Park is pretty awesome and in some ways it is the most Euro course that you will race in New England. Depending on your skill level you will be off your bike anywhere from three to five times a lap which is crazy compared to the grass crits that we see week in and week out.

Heading into the race I was confident. I’ve been able to put together a good string of races lately and my Cross Results points are at 242 which all but assures a front row start in the Elite races. The one limiter that we all needed to contend with on Saturday was the heat and humidity with race time temps hanging out in the mid eighties. I lined up next to Andy Scott who has been on a tear ever since I beat him in the mud at MRC CX last October. That day I honestly thought I was taking the upper hand in our racing relationship. A few UCI points later Andy is clearly in the lead at this point.

At the whistle initially I thought I had a good start. Well it was a good start until some dude in pink came kamakazi from the second row and almost put me through the tape. I adjusted but missed the good line on the first couple of turns which set me back outside of the top ten. Fortunately White Park has some long uphill power sections and I was able to move up quickly. Immediately after the first longer uphill drag there is a steep run up. Check and check on the strength followed by strength drop down menu. The far end of the course is marked by another couple of fast sections and a longer all power straight into the second run-up.

The second run-up is rideable but it’s a maximum wattage effort. I took advantage of the early adrenaline and rode up at the back of the lead group somewhere still in the top twelve or so riders. After the mount there is another technical dusty section followed by another steep root infested hill. Following another section of roots there is a stone wall that acts as a rideable barrier. I held my ground though the technical stuff and once over the wall I went full gas on the paved section and then went all in on the fast downhill. The final feature of the course is a cool down and up with the up requiring once final run off the bike before a mountain bike drop onto a baseball field where I really put down the power.

After the first lap I really had no idea where I stood other than the fact that I was feeling good. I was so preoccupied with catching the next rider that it was hard to process where I was standing in the overall. Mid way through the second lap on the long power section I caught Nate Morse who was fading from his fast first lap. At that point I got locked into a great back in forth for a couple of laps with Trent Blackburn and Jean-Francois Blais. While they were both slightly better in the technical stuff I was distancing the duo on every power section. Slowly I inched away from them and was riding solo in fifth. My best estimation was that at halfway I was roughly thirty to forty seconds behind the leader.

Despite my seat slipping and constantly having to pull up on the nose of the saddle everything was lining up. I was however getting absurdly hot and I could feel the wattage waning as the laps counted down. After the fourth or fifth lap I had abandoned riding the second run up knowing that if I kept pressing my luck that I risked cramping up.

The last twenty minutes was a battle on multiple fronts. Being absurdly hot turned into teetering on the edge of a heat related emergency and a rider was trying to come across to join the fight. Just before the heat really started to hit me I started harboring thoughts of fourth because Keller Breeze was in my sights.

With three to go Brendan McCormack had clawed himself to within three seconds so I decided to throw down the gauntlet. With two to go I had the gap back to well over ten seconds. At the bell he was there and we engaged in a good old fashion bike race. We hurled some big bombs (ps why don't we have access to emoji bombs in here?) at one and other and were wheel to wheel the first half of the last lap. On the long uphill power section I went full gas hoping to establish a gap before the second run-up. I had the power and I had the line but apparently the McCormack’s are a big deal and that gives you certain entitlements. In this case that entitlement was putting me into the tape with an elbow to take back the line that I had established. Heading toward the run-up I decided that my best option was to abandon my run strategy and try to ride up at full gas. The combination of the heat, effort, and anger totally screwed me over. I rode dead center into a root and came to a dead stop. After an awkward dismount and run the gap was established.

I desperately tried to chase but warning lights were flashing everywhere on the dashboard. I was totally gassed but I decided to keep fighting. I went no brakes on the decent and went full gas into the last technical off camber running section. Before the singlespeed race I thought this section was rideable and decided to give one last ditch effort to bring down the gap. I totally botched this and the gap stretched. Don’t try to ride unrideable features when you’re cracked, it never works! The instant I hit the baseball field I went into a full sprint in the drops trying to make it look like a good fight.

Over the line in sixth I was smashed. I was so hot that I couldn’t form complete sentences without considerable effort. I was so thirsty that I would have drank an Old Milwaukee if the opportunity presented itself. You get the point, it was hot! I was covered in sweat and spit caked on dust that took considerable effort to remove back at the car. I briefly contemplated a cool-down but the thought of more effort cooling me down was laughable so I cleaned up and retreated to the air-conditioned comfort of my car with a bottle of water.

Sixth was solid but I was a little miffed at my Cross Results points for the race. After a couple of beers I briefly contemplated emailing Collin but decided that I didn’t want to be that guy heading into the meat and potatoes of the season. If anyone has mad math skills let me know your thoughts on that one.

Oh by the way White Park is awesome!

Mark

[cbusick]

Great report. Is it worth doing White Park?

[tsavage]

The math has been debated a million times. Here and elsewhere. You have to look at it more long term than each race. Anna was 3rd of 30 in the 3/4/5 Women and got 437 pts. Another girl her age did the P/1/2/3 and was 8th of 13 and got 490 pts. You'd think the Pro race would give more points But Anna is 14/1 with her. To confuse it more, the other girl beat Anna's time by a minute. Same course, same time, 30 seconds difference in start.

Don't let the numbers take the fun out of it. Just go hahdah

[Briana]

Thanks for the detailed race report Mark, I won't miss White Park next year. Colin recently posted a blog on how the points are calculated I can't remember where I saw it, maybe on crossresults or USA cycling site, it was informative and if you're are really chasing the points it's probably worth reading. It could help with choosing which races to focus on.

[KTeves]

Great report (as always), and great racing Mark (again, as always)!

White Park sounds hahd. Which I kinda already knew based upon Tai Sutliff's 12th place finish (he's usually more top 5), and his telling of the tale. Based upon this I gotta think I made the right decision not to race WP though, as my old arse would have been whipped, and unlikely to finish Sucker Brook as well as I did.

[Jacob]

Great job Mark!

[NateMorse]

It was great to get to race with you for the first time last weekend, Mark! I really enjoyed that course, as challenging as it was. I was glad to see you finished up so well. I was definitely a bit overzealous taking the start as hard as I did. I totally paid for it after lap two and couldn't bring myself back to life in that heat. Absolutely looking forward to the next race!

[MarkMiller321]

Nate!

Awesome getting to know you the past week! Looking forward to crushing some races with you this season!