Time Management

Time Management might be the hidden skill that you really need to succeed at cross. With races every weekend, the clock starts ticking on Sunday as far as what you need to get done-bike washing,clothes washing, bike repairs, more training, and, most importantly, recovery. 5 days. And that is for only doing local races. Never mind if you have to travel and you lose a day to that. Never mind when real life interferes-work, car repairs, lawn mowing, ahem, blogging....
To do all this you need to be pretty ruthless with your time management. Priorities need to be taken care of and the other stuff can wait until January. Make a mistake or pick the wrong priority and you will pay for it on Saturday or Sunday or both.
So that was what I was thinking about when I bailed on watching the Pro races today. Too much to do. Which sucks cause watching the races on a sunny day is a fun time, but it wasn't meant to be.

Day 2 at Providence had me experimenting with new techniques like the parachute assisted reverse hole shot, the pull you foot out of the pedal trick, and semi-pro dirt surfing. 42nd. Not one for the record books. My camera died so no Interbike pictures. The paint job on the new Fuji Cross bike is rad. The Fuji SST looks insane in real life (redefining massive bottom bracket cluster). Overall the tents were pretty underwhelming. Some cool bits, but I didn't have the eye of the tiger.

DNS the hard way...

Today my car rather than my bike decided to malfunction. 360 degress of failure. Missed my start by minutes. Course looks awesome. Try again tomorrow. Is this turning into the FAIL Blog?

There was a race, and I tried to take some pictures of the course,but I pouted for awhile and then rolled out.






Time to watch some Zombie movies and get ready to try again! The barriers seem pretty short-not a bad thing!

Best How To on Gluing Tubulars

Here it is.. Good Photos(with unrelated cool stuff in background-Bridgeport,Classics Pro rims...), good attention to detail, and cool twists like the syringe make this the best how to on gluing that I have read. Even if I don't use the belgian tape.
How can a picture of that many FMBs not be cool?
Embrocation mag/website has really been stepping up on the content. Good Job

A few last Gloucester shots

Found a couple missed shots on my camera. Mens p/1/2. From these photos you would never guess how gnarly the weather had been only a few hours earlier-never mind the day before
We have the cyclocrossworld triple threat chasing Page through the barriers.(pre drama).





Myerson and Anthony



Dugan


today's theme? Yellow Mavic Shoes......

not likely

It's a race not a group ride. The subject of our pre and post race commute
discussions centered on dudes who call out "on your left" in a race. What are they
expecting? It's a cyclocross race, if my handlebars are in front of yours
it's my line to choose. My race is in front of me, not behind me.
I have my hands full dealing with driving my bike,making it go where I want and trying not to black out or have a stoke-so what you need is not high on my list of concerns. It's up to you to pass me. The end. A good response to "on your left" is "not likely"-just ask Nick

Gloucester Day Two-more failed photos

If day one was stalking Richard Sachs, day 2 was stalking the Back Bay Bike 4s. I was so stoked when Nick came through in 3rd that I failed to get a good picture, but here are some of him, Ryan, and Harrison.




There is some good racing in the AM Hours-they could use more heckling so people need to get up earlier!

Conditions were miserable in the AM. The mud was like cement and the lines were pretty hard to find. Running it backwards was also a punch to the mind. There were fewer places to recover and it was pretty tech and hard. Sand Pit was not quite as terrifying as the slick mud run up, but hard just the same. Harder than Saturday for me. I think I left my game face in the parking lot with my shoes on Sat! 2.5 laps in and I had a malfunction with my new cleats which I had been fidgeting with all morning.
I couldn't clip in and DNF'd which is pretty much the fate that anyone dumb enough to lose their shoes the night before a major race deserves.
The course changed so much over the course of the day and it was wild to watch each field deal with something different.
Both the P/1/2 Mens and Women's races were amazing. Couple shots from the women's



I didn't realize my memory card was full so this is the only worthwhile photo from the men's pro race. Pretty much a cyclocrossworld.com beatdown. Page and TJ were so strong.


In closing, Gloucester was fun, I was good on Sat, shitty on Sunday, Nick killed it and Mike October Rules

Gloucester Day One

A few photos from today. Not really a good day to pretend to be a photographer, but it was pretty epic. Details to follow.... 52nd on the day.
Lined up next to the guy who has this bike. Cool.

The stalking Sachs series