10/23 #3 @St. Vincent, Masters, 2cd.

 Can't believe I was able to find this video from 2009. I led the charge fueled by the Team Segal mayhem at the top only to tear a hole in a brand new pink silk Dugast tubie about half way through which sent me from the front to the back. There were some heavy hitters there that day. 

Apparently the years haven't been kind to the trail section and St Vincent and it's overgrown, which is unfortunate becuase that was a sick course. The course this year was bumpy, the surface was rock hard and there were only two brief sections for any kind of recovery. I definitely trained right thorugh for 3 weeks and everything felt hard but that's surely because Anthony and Harre were leading the charge and Jon Bell was pressuring me for most of the race.

I rode pretty well and had one wash out on lap one but nothing else really to speak of. Jon was pretty close up until the last few laps and I was keeping the same distance from Anthony for most of the race. At one point I gained on him a bit but it was short lived. Harre came though us a lap or two in and rolled though to win overall. 

Thanks to the help from the Hub I've got my new rig built up and it feels like I've got it close to dialed in fit wise. Amazing to me that the Fuji has significantly more aggressive geo than the Ridley. A slightly lower BB on the Ridley, different ST HT angles and I'm assuming a different rake make it more stable and predictable. Looking forward to getting more time on it in the woods tomorrow. Might be a wet one on Sun!!!

10/16 #2 @Sylvan Springs, Masters, DNF.

 This one stings. 

Extremely hilly track with lots of technical turns. Given the fact that I only ride the Grants trail I wasn't expecting to feel like I had much for the hills, but was wrong. I knew I had my work cut out for me with Sweeney and Jon Bell there, a few faces I didn't know, and TK behind me.  We started without much warning and I jumped out quickly, but it didn't feel fast. Looking back once or twice up the paved climb I already had a gap and was second guessing how hard I was pushing but decided to keep the pace and see what happened. By the top of the hill on the backside Sweeney had caught up but I pressed on. Everything was clicking and by the top of the paved climb I had another gap, which continued to grow. At one point I say TK and his competition pushing closer but by the top of the paved climb on the next lap I had started the descent into the bowl and there wasn't anyone on the paved climb yet, so I assumed my gap was close to a minute. Just before crossing the line with 2 laps to go my mind began to wander and it crossed my mind that this would be the first race I had won since 2010 and felt a jolt of enthusiasm followed immediately by regret for thinking that before doing it. With 1.5 to go on one of the acorn turns before the descent back to pit I turned hard and the brakes jammed on as my rear tire had almost completely separated from the rim. That was that. 

I removed both tires, sanded the clear coat of the rim and have re-glued, with solid results. I've got a new frame coming from the UK in about 2 weeks and hoping to put the cursed Fuji behind me!

On to No. 3

10/10 #1 @ Bellafontaine, Masters, 4th

 Great day for CX! Great course layout with mostly large radius turns, a few tight sections to keep you on your toes, but mainly a power course. After riding the re-glued tires a few hours during the week I was feeling confident they would stay on, which they did. I had my first two workouts of the year during the week and was feeling like they were easier than they should have been and recovering quickly. They get a bit harder this week so hoping the trend continues. 

Started in the second wave after the 4 SS guys and I think there were 8 of us total. I had a fairly conservative start, by my standards, and resisted the urge to push to get to the front (of the group behind Anthony). Coming through the barriers on a lap one I was sitting on 4th or 5th wheel with Harre coming up into the group. I tripped over the barrier but recovered quickly latched back onto the group sitting and moving up to 5th or 6th with the SS riders mixed in. I must have kicked my through axle when I crashed which began to loosen up considerable (unbeknownst to me at the time) and my bike started ghost shifting under any load but as long as I stayed seated it was bearable. 

We hit the back paved section with about 4 to go and there was a group with a few SS guys and the group of 3 chasing Anthony. I made a move before hitting the grass and was sitting in 4th. I kept in contact with 2/3 up until 2 laps to go when I realized I couldn't stand on the 2 hills without the shifting being an issue and managed to increase my lead on the group chasing me, but not to gain on 2/3, which is how the rest of the race went. 

All in all I'm super pleased and felt good/motivated to push the whole race. Barring the shifting issues it was pretty clean and that didn't change the outcome any, I assume. 

Highly optimistic about where my fitness is headed. 

Treehouse CX, Treehouse Brewery, Deerfield MA DNF

I was driving back to Cape Cod to stay with my parents and do some fishing and ironed out details with Roberto-san to stop in western MA and kick off my season. I maintained my focus of riding pretty easy in September to get rested up to ramp up the intensity (having done none of it with the exception of the Dirt Crits) once CX season starts here in October. Then it's 10 weeks all out. Regardless, I was feeling pretty pretty fit and  jazzed about the whole experience. I had just glued up some new FMB's and naturally feeling PAF as I registered for the Cat 4/5 race. 

We got there a day early and after 2 days driving I was pretty happy to have some time to preride and stretch the legs. The course was great with two big power sections through the field, two wooded singletrack sections and a 45* camber section with multple 90* turns that skirted the brewery walls. 

Lap one of warm ups I went into a turn and heard something weird which I thought was my tire slipping on the rock hard ground. The same thing happened on the next lap and I realized my front tire had rolled. I was pissed for not having brought my tubeless setup but just swapped out the front wheel and went on with warmups. After an hour of so or riding the rear felt fine and I thought one FMB was more pro than none at all so decided to rock it. 

There were about 75 people in the race and I got a good start and put in the effort to get into the first wooded section in the top 5. By the next wooded section I had moved up into 2cd and was feeling good. I clipped a pedal on the one of the off camber turns and got kinda trapped on my bike and slipped back 10 or so spots. Once again I moved up and was back in the top 4. 

I think it was about 25 minutes in going though the off camber sections again when I heard the velcro like noise of the day before. This time almost the whole rear tire peeled off the rim. Game over. 

In all my years of riding (for one season TRAINING on tubies) I had never rolled a tire. One remarkably different experience I'm having with this string of bad luck/crashing compared to the old me is how I respond to it, which is refreshing. I didn't chuck my bike into the woods or dwell on it. I was happy with how I was doing and to iron out some issues before my fitness is better and I care a little more about how I think I should be doing. 

Roberto-san had a bad start but, true to form, worked his way back up and had a respectable race.