Night Weasels 2017 race reports

[dantelman]

Night Weasels Cometh (Race 5 for 2017)
The hardest CX race to date, because it ended up as 5 laps and has a lot of climbing and a ton of turns. (the race is held on a ski slope). So this race started very well, while there were 100+ riders (cat4/5 40+ and under 40 raced together) and I was probably staged 2/3 of the way back I managed to move up quite a bit in the first lap and was pacing a decent group of riders.
However after 2 laps of riding at near max HR, I think my bike handling started to deteriorate a bit and was getting sloppy in the corners and slower through the dismounts, barriers and remounts.
On lap 4 my front wheel hit a burned up section of grass on a downhill turn and boom I was on the ground. Not so bad though got up got back on my bike and discovered the derailleur was jammed (the bike fell onto the derailleur). Back off the bike pedal the chain back on and on again, by that point I probably dropped 10-15 places
At the end of lap 4 I crossed the start-finish with the race leader just 5 meters behind me, so ended up being the LAST rider to be allowed to ride the 5th lap...
I am definitely improving with each race, but I've yet to perfectly execute a race without some kind of error that cost me a bunch of time. I think I've fallen down in every race except one....
Night Weasels... requires 100% focus the entire race, not only to keep the cranks turning and lay down more power on the straights and uphills but as you inevitably get more tired in the last 2 laps to focus on not falling or making cornering errors. It's easy to lose your focus when you're hypoxic....
Next up Mansfield Hollow on Saturday

[Briana]

Be aware that the don't usually do call ups at Hollow Cross. Get to the start early and you might get lucky and start near the front. FYI, same goes for Blunt Park in August.

[Mkidd3]

I miss the Canton scrum. 100 Dudes lining up 30min before the race start all for that front row start.

[BikeRider]

Great result for Peter, but I really cannot believe this photo of him:

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=5A452871

I pictured him monster trucking everything out there. Especially after the bada$$ bunny hops over the barriers I never would have guessed that this happened. /smh

[peterkuhn]

Man, you skip pre-riding the course and decide to find out if the fastest way over the steps is running or riding on like lap 1 or 2 and OF COURSE there's a photographer there to record your shame.

Here's the story of the drama and pain of cat 5.

I rode this race on a Canfield yelli screamy with a 140mm fork, which may have not been the ideal victory machine (this is called "foreshadowing"). I do this at all cross races, because I don't have a cross bike. Usually what happens when you race a 30+lb mountain bike is that everyone swarms you at the holeshot and on the straights, and then you have to follow their plodding lines through corners after which point they drop you again and you're trying to diesel back on their wheel. Sometimes you get a big advantage at certain points (on the loose steep downhill at KMC, I passed, no joke, 6 riders on lap 1) and sometimes it's a big disadvantage (like the loose steep runup at KMC).

But this time went differently. I started on the first row and got the holeshot for the first time ever, which I owe to the crummy surface and bumpy first few corners. Then we went up the hill, and being aware of not prematurely overheating I thought I'd keep a pace slightly below the limit, let someone else catch me, then pressure him the entire time until he wore himself out or binned it on the downhills. A flaw in this strategy became apparent when an ECV rider slipped by me at the top of the hill and proceeded to do a fine job descending, right up until he low-sided on one of those fast off-camber corners that course designers probably become aroused at the sight of. I was lucky enough not to plow into him, and pressed the advantage for the next lap or so, but with all the sharp turns in this course you know exactly where everyone is, and I knew he was catching up.

He passed me somewhere around lap 3, we stayed close for a bit, but he was just a faster racer than I was. Knowing that the last lap would be moment of truth time, I tried to make lap 4 moment of truth time, but only succeeded in hitting a new heart rate high (193! Hello to my future tachycardia!) and keeping him in sight, more or less. Pretty sure I got super sloppy on those chasing laps too.

Finished in 2nd, about a minute behind 1st and minute ahead of 3rd. NOTE: I hopped all the barriers, delivered some half-hearted wheelies that the announcers blatantly ignored, and rode the steps for all but one lap, where a cunning photographer was evidently lying in wait.

Can someone fill in what happened in the 4/5 race? I had to leave early when they were on lap 2, but I'm seeing Antony kind of roasted the field??

[Deltabrian]

I think there's an error in the cross results. Unless Anthony grew a beard during the 4/5 race, that's not him.

https://twitter.com/NightWeasels/status ... 3230280705

[rraymond]

Turns out that cross racing is not like crits. You can't take a free lap and you can't cut the course to get to the pit.

I got a my chain caught in the second half of the race. Managed to get it back on then as soon as I jumped back on the bike it happened again but this time I couldn't get it unstuck. I was at the top of the hill and after a while I started zig zagging down to the pit. After a while I said F this and walked straight downhill. Shimano fixed it in less than a minute and I was off on my way again. Then as I cross the finish the official tells me that he has to DQ me. Oh well. I loved the course and will certainly do it again next year.

As to the podium for the 4/5 race, the announcers actually asked the rider if he thought he got second because they weren't sure.

[pcollins]

After a two-year hiatus, forever scarred by the first experience I had in 2014 (just watch the highlight reel) , I returned to Ski Ward to race Night Weasels, only 5 min from my house with hopes of making the podium. The night before I had terrible stomach issues from my continuing battle with food poisoning and got very little sleep.

I lined up with Mark on my left and Ryan Trebon on my right, who was surprisingly taking the race very seriously, as he took the holeshot and led the race for the first lap or so. I was around 4th for the first lap after a good start. Tobin Ortenblad, the stud who won both days at KMC, attacked the second time up the climb and I followed, stuck on his wheel for a lap or so, which in hinssight, was probably not the best idea because he can pedal harder than me.

3rd? time up the climb Mark was on my wheel but unfortunately flatted. Right about then was when I started to suffer bad, imploded and unsuccessfully held off a charging chase group led by the JAM Fund, with several in tow. I tried to stick with the group but really didn't have much left in the tank and faded further back to 8th, where I finished. I wasn’t happy with the result but the first few laps were fun while it lasted and the overpriced beer afterwards tasted really good.