Water? Nah...

Trattoria Owner: Posso offrirle qualcosa?
Me: Il Vino rosso della casa, per favore.
TO: Aqua?
M: No, grazie.
TO: [in English] Water is for washing in the morning anyway.

TK rules

So what's on my mind 8 days prior to our departure for Treviso? My pal TK sent me this and it sums it up just about perfectly.

GO USA!!!

Simple setup tricks

After assembling hundreds of bikes over the years, I have refined my approach to how a bike should be cabled. I have two goals when running cables on a bike.
1. Create the cleaniest, most efficient route with very easy loops rather than harsh bends.
2. Keep the housing off the paint.

First, cut the front sections of housing so that there is one arc around the head tube. A lot of riders will try to have the rear derailleur housing on the right side of the head tube. All this does is force the housing onto the head tube and the paint. And it creates another bend in the housing. A SRAM setup will look the same as the Campy setup below. A Shimano setup will have even easier bends coming from the STI levers.

The rear brake enters the left slot, the rear derailleur enters the middle slot and the front derailleur enters the right slot. Then, cross the derailleur cables. This allows the rear derailleur cable to exit from the right slot. On bikes with down tube routing (this includes road bikes of course), the derailleur cables will cross under the down tube. On some frames, the layout of the braze-ons will not allow this. In that case, you will have to run your cables the more common way.

Create your housing loops at the seat cluster such that the housing rest on the seatpost rather than the paint on the frame. And better yet, you may put a wrap of tape on your post for the correct saddle height and then have the housing rest against the tape. Nothing gets rubbed by the housing except the tape. Also remember to run the housing in such a way that you can get to your seat post binder bolt.

And that's it! You are left with very tidy housing runs and none of the housings are touching your frame.

Tim's new kit...

Courtesy of singlestoph over on the WW board. This was the Swiss cat 1 race where he finished 8th. Interesting race venue. Imagine racing on a runway in an airfield? Reminds me of Jalabert's win on the runway in Mende at the 95 Tour .

The slowest month of the year...

Look. I don't complain much. But the boredom is driving me to do this.....

Father time slammed on the brakes. Doesn't January feel like slow motion?

Time began hitting warp speed in August (August!) this season. The anticipation of the weekend cross races made the weeks fly by. The day job was tolerable, for there were great times that lie ahead on Saturday and Sunday. Trips were planned. Friends peppered each other with texts and emails. Things were good.

Cross season ended, but the Christmas season began. Parties, road trips, and plenty of other fun to keep one's mind occupied.

Then, my least favorite day of the year. January 1. The cross season is over. The Christmas season is over. The work season has arrived. It warps space-time worse than a super-massive black hole. And sucks the fun out of the room in a similar fashion.

This blast of nice weather has certainly helped. But can someone please hit the fast forward button? We leave for Treviso on the 24th. It feels like months from now. Thank God our vacation will carve out a week's worth of the slowest month of the year. Just get me through to February.

On a happier note, JP is starting to kill it over in the Motherland. A fine 5th place yesterday ahead of some top runners. And it looks like Tim and Jeremy are finding their legs too. I have to say I am not a big fan of Tim's new National Champion kit. Please just give me the traditional stars and bars in the appropriate colors. I don't think trying to incorporate the national colors into the existing team kit ever looks good. But what do I know. Here's what I know. The last good National Champ kit I can remember was Freddy's Domo kit. Proper.

I'm off to take some freakin' happy pills.

What's worse than golf?

Being put into a foursome who you don't know and having to pretend like you care. Yup, I'm being pissy about it. I hate golf. It bores the living hell out of me. Throw in a little forced small talk with other sales people I don't know and I am in my own freakin' purgatory.

Maybe I need one of these. The golf sucks survival kit.

It's a new year...

Last year was a good year. Lots of great fun. I reflect back and try to figure out ways that I could have had more fun and then set goals based on that. If I was going faster, would that have made the races more fun? Good question. Probably not. How much fun I had at the races this season (and every year in the past) depended largely on the gang of people at the races. I guess that is why I have had more fun at cross races than mountain bike races over the past 5 or 6 years in general. I don't know many people at the mountain bike races anymore. In the early to mid 90's, there was a large group of us from Berkshire County that went to every mtb race. When I was at UMass in the late 90's, a bunch of us from the team went to all of the Pedros races together. We had a blast and it was very much like how the cross scene is today. A lot of those folks don't race anymore. Some don't even ride. Now when I go to a mtb race, I typically go, race, and leave. Hopefully I get to see Kerry, Karen and Jeff, CTodd, Colin R, Rosey, PVB, Milliman, Doug, Sean C, the Oakes family, Johny J and Donna and a few other very friendly folks. But the vibe is just different. So one goal for 2008 is to get to know more of my fellow mtb racers better.

The cross community is just unreal. And I was very privileged to get to know quite a few people much better this year. By the end of the season, our gang of hell raisers and crazy super fans grew to ridiculous proportions. I can only hope the races in WI, MN and IL are similar. Going to the races can't be just about the race itself, can it?

OK, so maybe I lied above. Yeah, it would have been cool if I was faster towards the end of the season and could have hung with Kenny, Rosey , Colin, Cort, Ronnie, Christian and Chris B. They got faster as the year went by. Surely, racing tête-à-tête against your buddies is much more fun than racing some dude you don't know. So yes, I want to get faster.

I know, I know. I'm not going to be racing in New England during the 2008 cross season. I will be racing a bunch of people I don't know, so what does it matter anyway? Well, I still want to get faster. My buddies will get faster this year and I don't want to be way off the back when I get to race them in 2009. Achieving these goals ought to help make that happen.

Goals
1. Get down from 71 kg to 65 kg (there is plenty there to lose)
2. Increase my FTP from 240 watts to 260 watts
3. Increase my 1 min power from 535 watts to 575 watts
4. Increase my 5 min power from 350 watts to 375 watts
5. Increase my 20 second power from 840 watts to 900 watts.

For cross, I think the shorter duration max power numbers are more meaningful than 60 minute FTP. It's not a 40 km time trial. There isn't much steady effort happeneing in a cross race. It's all about hard accelerations followed by 1-3 minute periods of riding over threshold, rest in a corner and repeat. So that is what I am going to focus on. During the spring and early summer, I will focus more on FTP and threshold for the longer mtb races. But I have no use or need to go out and do 4-5 hour L2 rides. Frankly, I don't have time for it and I don't really see how it will help me get faster. I won't be racing at 175 watts. Why the hell do I need to go out and do 175 watts for 5 freakin' hours then?

I don't know if the power goals are attainable, but I think an improvement of 7-9% seems reasonable. I really just started training again in July after quite a few years of just riding (and not riding). So a good step up should be within reach. I think the weight goal is attainable though. I was still pretty chunky at 156#. And looking back in my logs from college, I was down around 145# when I was riding well.

I didn't put any race results in my goals because there are too many variables that go into the outcome of a race. But I would like to win a Sport mountain bike race and earn my Expert upgrade. And I would like to win a cat 3 cross race in WI and earn my cat 2 upgrade. I would like to make it back east for Gloucester. I would also like to make it to KY for the GP and Kansas City for Natz. OK, one stretch race goal would be a top 15 finish at New Belgium Worlds.

So that's it. The main goal this year is the same as every other year. To have fun with the gang, make new friends and hopefully bump into a friend from the past. I don't get paid to ride my bike. I'm not going to act like I do. There's nothing to get stressed out about. After all, we're adults riding bicycles. Why the hell would you want to turn that into work?

Cheers!

Here's to a great season. We will miss you all next year. But we will be back to good ol' New Belgium for 2009. In the meantime, if you find yourself in Cheddar Country after August 1st, look us up!

Catching up

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. I am behind in everything. Work, bikes, riding, the house, etc.

A quick recap of Sterling and Palmer before the PDX report.

Sterling

I got my head on right for this race. I started hard, rode in the top 10/15 for the first few laps and faded as my lack of riding and lack of fitness caught up with me. But it gave me great hope for next year. It was fun going that fast for 20 minutes or so. I did what I could to hang on for a top 30, and 29th is where I landed.

Palmer

Super fun course, as it always was all those years in the past. A few of us racked our brains trying to remember the last race there. I was pretty tired from the day before and started pretty conservatively. I got into a groove and started going by a few people. On the last run up I just tagged onto the back wheel of the guy who won the 4 race the day before in Sterling. I gave him a little run for his money but he had some good tactics to keep me behind him at the line. I didn't feel like going straight into the cone at the line, so I backed off. No need to get hurt over 6th place. 7th was fine with me.

I am working on some photos from PDX. All I can say is it was fun, muddy, and well worth the trip out. Portland is an amazing cycling city. Some of the things they have done there to incorporate cycling and bicycles into the daily culture simply blew me away. New Holland? Yeah, I'll take some shit for that one, I'm sure of that.

Preview pictures from last Sundays course after it rained a few inches the night before.

I'm ready

Warning. Sappy ramblings ahead. Mostly for me as therapy.

Lot's of thought over the past couple of days. Hey, I know I'm not making my living at this. But I have always been a competitive person. Primarily competitive with myself.

A timeline

First three races of season

No expectations. Rode as hard as I possibly could. Left it all out on the course. Didn't care if I crashed. Didn't care if I blew apart. Things were good.

Gloucester

Quote from yours truly - "Everything from here is icing on the cake"

What a dumb thing to think or say 5 weeks into the season. I was basically setting myself up for accepting lower results.

Middle of season

Complacency began to set in. I started having expectations. High expectations for 3/4 races and low expectations for 2/3 races. Began looking around more than forward in the races. Became conservative in the first laps. Interestingly, Southington stands out as a race I dug really deep in. I rode as hard as I could for the full 60 minutes. It was a 1/2/3 race. I had no expectations. Just gave it my all. See a pattern developing here?

Trenton

What a learning experience. For the first 5 minutes of each race, I didn't want to risk anything. If someone wanted the line and was prepared to push me for it, I backed off. After there was some sorting out, I started riding and running hard. Hard enough that the top 20 was in reach both days after coming from the mid 40s. The legs were good, but I didn't give them a remote chance of showing it.

Conclusion

So what does all of this mean? What the hell are you getting at zank?

Occam's Razor approach. Take out as many variables as possible. I think it boils down to this.
Good legs + Good mind = Good results
Good legs + Bad mind = Less than Good results

Big surprise, right? Sure, hindsight is 20/20. But it's tought to figure out what's going on at the time.

I'm ready to have some fun again this weekend. A couple of days ago, I thought I peaked at Amesbury. The truth is I think my legs are better now than they were then. My brain just needed a taper. Insert cone head joke here_________________

Happy Thanksgiving to all! And to all a good night.

The legs are there. Same can't be said for the head.

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.

Quick report

More later. I am running out the door for NH and ME travels this week. Quick thoughts.

Two awesome races. Finally some biting cold temps. Some sweet slick-as-snot mud at Putney.
The Hup women are riding out of their minds.
Jimbo, Matisonic and Jay looked awesome flying the Hup flag for the men.
Great to see Bob T getting some great results again after his battle with Lyme.
GeWilli makes fantastic cookies.
The Waterboy and his son Sean get stronger every freakin' week.
Brant had a storming ride at Putney.
Cort is now making quick work of the Bs. That didn't take long. Sandbagger :-)
I have to re-glue Josh's other wheel for him. There must have been a glue shortage in ME when these were originally done.
Don't underestimate an expert mtb racer's tactics in a 4-up sprint.
Don't make a tactical blunder going into a 4-up sprint and expect anything better than 4th in said sprint.
Chris B has a big motor.

Socially Challenged

OK, two things I have witnessed in my work travels this week. Both guarenteed to make your life as someone trying to sell something harder. Sales 101 here people. Don't do either of these things if you want to keep the attention of your customer for more than 5 seconds.

1. When you are sitting in a room with a customer, please turn your freakin' cell phone off. Yes...OFF. Not vibrate. Do you really think that having the damn thing bounce up and down on the table in vibrate mode is any less annoying than having the ringer go off? And beyond that, if you are dumb enough to keep it in vibrate mode, don't just stare at it when it goes off. Freakin' push the button to ignore the call or email. For crying out loud. What message are you trying to send to the customer? Because they are certainly thinking to themselves "wow, she must have some other stuff going on that is way more important than me."

2. Take the dumb bluetooth thing out of your ear when you walk into a meeting. Nothing says "I'm waiting for someone more important to talk to to call me" more than leaving that ridiculous thing in your ear. Not to mention that you look simply foolish with that blue thing flashing every 5 seconds.

Now, both items can be translated to real life. I have been known to be a prick, but only when you are violating a rule of common sense and being socially inept. Don't start a conversation with me with one of those damn bluetooth things in your ear. I will (and have) ask you (tell you) to take it out. Or if you're constantly checking your phone while we are mid-conversation because I'm not important enough to talk to with your full attention, don't be surprised if I walk away.

Honestly, what happened to common courtesy? Give people your full and undivided attention when you are with them. And if you don't, don't be surprised when they tell you to flip off and walk away. You may think the other person is the a-hole, but you are the one who is socially challenged.

Dog days of cross?

Lots of long-faced race reports from the weekend. What's up? Come on fellow racers. We just turned the half way point. There are still at least* 10 more New Belgium races left on the schedule. I can understand. Going into Agawam and Sucker Brook, people were psyched because cross was finally here. Then, New Belgium Worlds in Gloucester kept people full of piss and vinegar. But the intesity is hard to keep up with. And expectations grow. And we are all a "you're only as good as your last result" type of crowd. And the races are getting harder on the legs. And there is less daylight to ride/train in. Hey, that's cross. These are the things we look forward to from January until August. So turn that frown upside-down. You will be a better person and bike racer for it. Stay focused. Work really hard on your recovery after races. Be efficient with your riding time. Make it count or simply rest. No time for junk miles now. Consider this weekend. Two of the longest running and hghly touted New Belgium races of the year at Plymouth and Putney. Race on the courses where legends were made and souls were crushed. Then we are treated to either our "local" GP down in Trenton or the choice between 3 great races up here. Then Sterling, which is quickly becoming a classic thanks to the design and organization talents of one Tom Stevens. The return of the Palmer race! Another grass roots weekend to work off the left-over turkey (or tofurkey) sandwiches. And the culmination of season at the final Verge weekend. Make it hard! Combine the two beach sections at Warwick! We aren't sissies!

So for Runkel's sake. Would ya smile? Stop being tired or sick or bruised or bleeding or whatever. It's cross season. The greatest time of the year.

*stay tuned. RFLCS is trying to put something together.

Hard weekend

Instead of the standard blow by blow, I wanted to do something a bit different this week. Kind of an overall account of Chainbiter and Cycle-Smart. Frankly, it is because I had two pretty boring races. They both went like this. Started slow. Got faster in the middle. Felt great for the last two laps. I wish they were both two laps longer.

At first I was a bit disappointed with my results (24th on Saturday and 35th on Sunday). But looking back, I am very pleased. I think both of the races were harder and more selective than Gloucester. The courses, Chainbiter in particular, were much heavier on the legs and I think bike-handling skills counted more. And I think the competition is pretty fierce in our group. Everyone is pretty tight. On a sharp day, when you have those hard accelerations in your legs, you can get top 20. On a duller day, when you lose 5 extra seconds a lap, you are back in the 30s or 40s. It's relentless. I love it.

More later. I am headed to Syracuse for work this week. I will be on my trainer in the hotel room pissing off the people below me.

Congrats to all on their fine finishes this weekend. It's been awesome seeing our band of merry bike racers get bigger every week. I don't know what Rebecca and I will do next year when we show up to the cross races and not know a soul. My voice won't be as roughed up on Mondays from all of the yelling. Who will we share cake with?

Get this monkey off my back

My last go in the Bs at Framington. And I remember suffering like a dog.

11/12/05
Chainbiter
Place Time Bib Name Team
85 pulled 202 Mike ZANCONATO HUP United

Much junk in the trunk

Today, I was supposed to do one of my favorite workouts. One hour at tempo with a 10 second sprint every 3rd minute. I usually have a lot of fun with this one, because it's fast and I am constantly trying to get the peak watts number up higher on each succesive sprint. I felt tight and labored even during my warm up. I gave it a go, but 15 minutes in I was fighting to keep the watts over 200. The target was 225-240. And the sprints were barely breaking 900 watts. I am usually at 1050-1100. Canton chewed me up pretty good I guess. I backed off, enjoyed the crisp autumn air and took in the sunset. Not a bad day on the bike. But really...is there ever a bad day on the bike? Think REALLY hard before you answer that one. Barring crashes and accidents, I would take a horrendous day on the bike over lots of other things...

Just past the half way point

Damn. This season is going by fast. Time flies when you are having fun. Surprisingly light attendance this weekend. I didn't see many familiar names in the Kentucky results. Where were you guys??!!!

We just past the half way point this weekend and I past the half way point for my cat 2 upgrade. There are 6 awesome weeks of racing left before Nationals.

Dayville was a good warm up for Canton. Lots of rain, 60% singletrack and very small fields. There was one moronically placed set of hurdles that claimed the season of one of our good pals. They put a set of hurdles in a covered bridge with a downhill dirt road approach. Hey, I'm all for a challenging course, but not dangerous. With the rain, you couldn't see in there. Matt Simpson (Feltslave) took a nasty crash into the barriers and was left with a concussion, a broken nose and 7 stitches. We wish him well on a quick recovery. We probably should have spoke up before hand. But nobody wants to be the one to do it. Next time, I'll be the one.

Canton is becoming a monument on the New Belgium calendar. A race to show at. Lots of hard riding, fast corners, the famous Boston Cross mini-hurdles, and much wind on your nose. Polar opposites, with on exception. Awesome people all around.

We got to Dayville in time to see Dan and Tony finish strong in the cat 4 race and then we watched GeWilli kick some butt in his Masters race, eventually earning a nice 4th place. Nice rides, guys! The Women's 3/4 race looked like a Hup cross clinic. The good doctor focused hard to earn 2nd, Sarah came in just after Rebecca in 3rd and Kerry looked super-strong despite not having a warm up and a bit of a frantic pre-race preparation. Our race got underway with 10 guys on the line. I knew that Ronnie, Josh, Colin and Matt would be the guys to watch. I grabbed the hole shot and led up into the sandpit and through the first bits of singletrack. Josh pulled through for a brief moment before losing his front wheel. I don’t recall seeing him again. Ronnie pulled through into the run up and then I took over again after the start/finish for the start of lap 2. I controlled the pace for lap 2, feeling the effects of not riding since last Sunday. Colin came through on me in the sandpit of lap 3, got a gap and pegged it. That was the last time I saw him. Ronnie and I shared the work for the next 3 laps, but I botched the remount and little downhill after the run-up coming into the bell lap. He got a gap and I rode hard to close it down. I just made contact going into the sandpit, but he rode away from me. Ronnie has a big motor. I conserved on the last lap and tried to ride smart to hold onto me 3rd place.

Canton was a great show. It was a little odd that the cat 4 race had over 90 guys and the 2/3 race only had 50. Did a lot of the 3s do the ¾ masters race? I got there in time to see Tom N have a sterling ride in the cat 4 race, right up until a flat on the last lap. He was rockin’ in 5th. That fella is consistent. Nicely done, Tom! Mattison showed some good legs with a strong finish and Tony did well in what I think was his first double weekend. The ¾ women’s field was very large at around 30 I think. Smiles (Dianna) showed everyone her killer remount skills. It’s nice to have a great teacher for a new hubby. Sarah rocked for another top 10 and Kerry looked really good after a better warm up for a top 15 I think.

I thought I won the first race of the day getting to the front row. Then they put the IBC and NAV teams on the front. Oh well. Second row ain’t bad I guess. It was a pretty stacked field. But we missed Yash, who was on the sidelines with injury, and Scott, who was probably hung over from a wedding the night before. Yash was there cheering like a mad man. He’s the best.

The gun goes off and it’s a mad dash to the field. I got a bit swarmed and entered the field pretty far back. I think Josh was on my wheel and he said he was in the 40s. I took every opportunity I could to move up on the first two laps, but there was a lot of soft pedaling going on due to traffic. I eventually worked my way up to a good sized group that contained Kenny, James and a few other familiar faces. Colin M integrated with the group at the same time and then proceeded to shred it with a good attack going up the start/finish hill with now 3 to go. That was just what I needed to get me going. Kenny was right there and we latched on. I kept seeing Myette on some of the switchbacks. He did a storming ride for 4th. He got pipped at the post though by one of the NAV guys I think. Back to where I left off. Poor James had a bit of a fumble in the low hurdles and his derailleur got sucked into his wheel. Total bummer. And then Kenny got a flat. Again, total freakin’ bummer. I got caught behind James a bit as he was suffering his mechanical, so there was a gap to Colin and NEBC Scott. It took some work, but I caught on going into the hurdles by the pit. We got 2 to go and it looked like our group of 3 might work well together to catch Thom Parsons just up the road. But Scott crashed going into the run up and I wedged my front wheel between his down tube and front wheel. Thankfully, we both had the calmness to get things untangled quickly, but Colin was up the road never to be seen again. I buried myself on the last lap trying to catch him and I could feel Josh starting to come up on me as well. That youngster is getting fast. I had a feeling that after he got the mechanical gremlins off his back, he would be a force. But, there was’t enough real estate left for either of us to accomplish our goal. I had to settle for 8th just 3 seconds behind Colin and Josh was just behind me. I was very happy considering the last time I did a B race at Canton a couple of years back I was 42nd and thought I had a great day.

Next weekend is the huge Chainbiter/Cycle-Smart Verge weekend. I am already feeling pumped for it. The goal is to improve on the 30th place I had at Gloucester. The stretch goal is still that one Verge point I want so badly.

Send some good wishes to Yash today. He is going under the knife tomorrow. And also to Matt, who is recovering from his crash on Saturday. Heal quickly, fellas!

A good scrap is in store

Tomorrow will be fun. 7 or 8 of us will fight tooth and nail for the title of Dayville Adventure Sports Cross Cup cat 3/4 champion. The easy call would be a Ronnie, or a Colin, or a Josh, or a Kenny to win. But there are some other scrappers in the mix. Oscar could surprise, Feltslave could destroy souls and Matt could put someone's heart in the blender. I see this one getting personal. Much attacking. Much name calling. Much bumping. Much down and dirty, take no prisoners, spit in your opponent's eye racing.

Whatever the result, one of us will be able to stand tall at Canton the next day as the DAS Cross Cup cat 3/4 champion. If I win, I am going to have a special skinsuit made.

ups and downs

Two great CT races this weekend presented a couple of opportunities to prepare for Canton next week. Two great courses. Mansfield is always a blast and I encourage everyone to consider it for next year. They had HUGE payouts (as in money) for most fields. A really hard course. Free food. Good tunes. The most under-rated race on the circuit. Southington was also a great race. I really like this course too. Very few sections to rest. Three sand features. Lots of good turns. Just a blast.

Also got to do some carpooling with Myette and Kenny this weekend. And I was psyched that the bride was able to come down and spectate on Sunday, even though she just finished an overnight shift and slept for only a couple of hours. It's so much more fun to drive with someone than drive alone. I get enough of driving alone for work. We had Matt's kids, Charlie and Cory, on Saturday and they are so much fun to have around. So darn cute! We also got to have Hup teammates Josh and Sarah stay with us Friday night. We ate burritos, watched Spinal Tap, and laughed about the generation gap. I think we figured out that I did my first cross race when Josh was 4. Time moves on.

Mansfield Cat 3/4
No comment. Well OK, small comment. Flatted in the first corner. Watched everyone ride away. Got to the pit and changed front wheels and then checked on Matt who was stopped on the side of the course. We rode the rest for training. Hands on the tops. Go hard when you want. Saw Oscar J off in the distance on the last lap. Decided to catch him. Led him out for the sprint. Good fun and a good training ride. 18th out of 32 starters.

Southington Cat 1/2/3
60 minutes. I haven't done a long one like this yet. The first three laps were a blur. There were some fast A racers in the group and they got an immediate gap. There was a group forming just ahead of me. Looked to be about 7 riders strong. It included Rosey, Kenny, and Sean C from Bethel. Super fast, super nice guy that Sean fella. They didn't show lap cards until going into our 4th lap. 6 to go (total of 9). Funny thing happened at that moment. That group shattered. I think some of the guys were just a little demoralized by the lap count. So, while I never caught that group ahead, I went by some of the splinters. I think I gained 3 spots on that lap. All that remained from that group ahead of me were Rosey, Cav, Kenny and one other fella I didn't know. They popped Kenny with 2 to go and I caught him. We stayed together for a bit, but I wanted to dish out a little revenge for Gloucester and charged up one of the harder pedalling sections. That's how it all settled out for the last two laps. Cav ended up getting the better of Rosey, the other guy finished between me and Rosey and Kenny was just behind me. End result was 14th out of 32 starters. I was pleased that I felt good going the extra 15 minutes.

From here on out, all of the races are 2/3 races except for the 3/4 races at Brockton, Plymouth and Putney. So my cat 2 upgrade points chase may be over for the most part. But it will be awesome battling in those fields. Next up is a fun race on Saturday and one of the best races of the season at Canton. Hey, thanks for reading!