The racing at the USGP in Trenton, NJ was an absolute blast. Lived with Matt, Kenny and Kerry for the two nights. Hung tight with Josh, Sarah, Chris, Brant, Ryan, PVB, Cary, Jeremy and all of the other New Englanders who traveled down. Finally got to do a race that had some slippery mud on the surface. Actually got two really good numbers in the random sort (25 and 36 on the grid Saturday and Sunday, respectively). But, I'm falling back into my old routine. Passive manners have never won a bike race. I am getting spooked by the starts again. Today was silly. Going into the sandpit (about 7 minutes into the lap) on the first lap, someone yelled 46 to me. 46. WTF? How did I get there? Simply put, I let people by. I don't know where my head was at, but it wasn't in Mercer park. The 46 woke me up. By the end of the second lap, I had moved up to 23rd and was closing fast on the top 20. And then I started falling down. I crashed three time on the 3rd lap. I lost a few spots, but hung onto 27th. Why didn't I ride harder at the start? Beats the hell out of me. Yesterday was a similar story. After a very passive start, I was 38th going into the 2nd lap. By lap 6, I moved up to 20th, was with my teammate Josh and felt really good for the final lap. But I sucked my chain up coming out of the sandpit with half a lap to go and lost 8 places. 30 seconds was 8 places. That's racing folks.
Don't get me wrong. I had a blast. Those MAC guys are swell in my book. A few quirky things happened in the races that don't typically happen up here. But they are great hosts and a lot of fun to hang out with. And the course goes down in the top 5 of my favorite course of all time. One particular Devens course and the old UMass course are my favorite courses that are now defunct. And Warwick, RI is my favorite course that is still an active race. But this one was a lot of fun. Some hard false flats, lots of cool off-camber corners, an 80 meter sand pit, a cool fly-over. All good stuff.
Anyone know a good shrink?
See you at Sterling. Maybe Tom Turkey will have some advice for me.
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2 comments:
Buck up Z!! I know exactly how you feel as I was there about 2 weeks ago...the dog days. I took a little break and am now completely amped. Trouble for you is, there is no time for siestas now...it is on! Sterling, PDX!!, a double dose of that incredible Casters Venue, NATZ....Worlds!? We're blessed with full caliber races and the weather is getting downright belgie!
I want to hear more about quirky MAC people. You'll be fine Zanker--use Sterling to come back online.
xo
m
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