Last shots from Orchard Cross

Just want to say again, this was a fun race and I hope it runs again next year.
barriers.


you could go fast enough here to forget how much the rest of it hurt.

Nice corner

corner with stoked master.

Captain Arty becomes one with the mud

Another section you could rail through and pretend to recover in. Corn zone.

End it with that black and white. real classy.

Fail

At least I didn't get worked when it rolled. Gotta run out for some acetone and more acid brushes........

Mud,Apples, Sun

Woke up to the sound of rain, and was not stoked to get out of bed. Legs were feeling yesterday's racing(all right, suffering). Picked up Nick who wasn't that much more motivated and off we went. On and off rain on the drive up but it seemed to be clearing. Got to the Applecrest Orchard with plenty of time to preride. No matter what, whenever I preride a course the lap feels long. Orchard might not have been as long as Canton, but with no pavement it took just as long.
The course snaked through the apple trees and up and down some dirt roads. One set of barriers, I run up with a barrier, and one nasty rutted detour through a pumpkin patch.
Got a shitty start and slide back over the first lap. I was hating it, but there were sections where you could motor and then the other parts were super fun and twisty. Cross is always fun-even when you suck. Dry and sunny, but lots of mud. There were 2 sections of really soul-sucking boggy grass and mud that were killer.
All race you would be running over apples.
Finished in 31st. Nick got 5th. The results had me listed as lapped, but I didn't see any of the top 5 come around me. Whatever. Who Cares. Well, I did. After throwing some apples, and almost having a temper tantrum looking for cider donuts, I decided to talk to the officials. Protesting a result like that, probably makes as much sense as hoping your vote gets counted in Afghanistan, but I did it anyway.
With that off my chest it was time for some photos of the course. Masters were racing when I was taking these photos.
The combination of grass, mud, and a sun made for some dirty bikes. Nick should have fun cleaning this....

The apple floating in the mud on this corner really got my rapha artiste out... Black and White.


This was also soul sucking mud section one.

Rutted pumpkin patch of hell. For something short, this sucked so hard.

Somehow the Jack O'Lantern seemed to be laughing at you....

Children of the corn zone.

My interweb is super slow. I have a few more photos, including soul-sucking mud section 2 for tomorrow.
A sunny fall day does a lot to put people in good spirits. Cross and a fistful of cider donuts doesn't hurt either.

Canton. Double Down

Saturday was Canton. 4 race early with plenty of time til the 3/4. We sign up for the 2nd race right aware before brains, fear, or common sense can get involved.
4 race has a huge turnout. Lots of MTBs. Start and 1st corner are not too sketchy. With a 30 minute duration. 3 laps seemed likely. I managed to slide back pretty quick and was feeling all right on the 2nd lap. I overcooked a turn on the bikepath and did the a full 14 year old on his first bmx bike worthy powerslide. Stayed upright so I felt OK. In one of the twisting sections later, I rolled my rear tire. Fuck. Pride cometh before the fall, and I had been a little too proud of my glue job holding up. So much for finishing this race. Walk back to the pits to discover that Nick has had his own malfunction a la Fabian Cancellara.


No big deal, there is a 2nd race to seek revenge, but wait.... a second race full of dudes way faster than you. Suddenly, the 3 hours til that race started weren't the relaxing chill time I had envisioned, but a countdown to destruction and trying desperately not to get lapped.
My mismatched tubulur/clincher combo for race number 2 did not bolster confidence.

I was off the back and solo pretty fast and it was sad how hard I had to work not to get lapped, but I didn't so small victory for me.
The course was long and had a little too much pavement, but was fun. The run up was pretty rad. My lack of speed and lone arrival at the run up garnered me some sweat accolades. Thom was always ready with a High Life hand up, but the fear of getting lapped put a stop those antics.
Here is a master on the run up. It was steep.


Good day out. Ate some hot dogs, did some racing, and most importantly.....It was sunny and almost 70! Nice change of pace compared to some of the other races this year.
Up to is Orchard Cross....

Doper's Classic?

I was watching LBL 09 on the trainer and it got me thinking. Even after the EPO fueled Gewiss team put their supercharged stamp on the Ardennes classics, Liege Bastogne Liege remains a race you may not want to win if you don't want to get busted down the line
Year Winner Busted
1999 VDB RIP Which time?
2000 Bettini No
2001 Oscar Camerzind Multiple from Festina on. Now a Postman
2002 Bettini No
2003 Hamilton Twice
2004 Rebellin Doomed
2005 Vino He's back
2006 Valverde He's hanging on
2007 DiLuca Gone baby Gone
2008 Valverde Busted, but racing
2009 Andy Schelck -maybe there's a reason the Italian cops
were searching your dad?

So out of ten years there are 3 years and 2 riders that have not been sanctioned
for doping. Not a good winning percentage for clean riders.....
This also highlights the winning tradition of late 20s/early 30s thinning hair'd euro pros Bettini/Valverde/Rebellin. If he hadn't got caught, Schumacher was a shoe in for the podium!
La Doyenne or La Dopage?

Unsane First Three Singles

Don't know why I broke these out, but I am glad I did.
I remember seeing them at Hampshire college and they were one of the loudest bands I had ever seen. They had this goofy little A frame thing practically falling apart. Since I was a straightedge goodie two-shoes, I imagined these guys to be as crazy and fucked up as the graphics. They had that total NY vibe. Totally disgusted and disgusting.

This Town b/w Urge to Kill. Treehouse Records 1989. So right off the bat you've got the Zodiac Killer artwork. Brutal. Feedback, Wah-Wah, buried vocals. A winner.

Concrete Bed b/w El Mundo. This is the one that really stands out to me. Glitterhouse 1990. Concrete Bed is a total ripper with a Big Black kind of vibe.
Maybe the hit single of the bunch.

Sub-Pop was the home for 1990's epic Vandal-X b/w Streetsweeper. All the elements of the first 2 singles are pushed to the limit. Harsh, trebly, buried vocals. Pummelling assault. Nevermind the graphics which were some over the top sickness.

Jungle Music came out in 91 too, but it didn't grab me as much as the first three.
The first album was pretty rad too, but they kind of started to live off the hype. Maybe there was just too much competition for the hateful noise crown as you had Drunktank (naptime!),Red Bliss,Whorl, Zeni Geva, Hammerhead... I getting giddy just thinking about it.
I guess there is a singles collection of these on Matador, but it appears to be OOP and going for dumb money on amazon. I would guess those without the records are savvy enough to track it down and poach it on the web.

Boris 7's 1+2. Call off Pavlov's dogs

Is it just hype? or is it their uncanny ability to keep putting out records in ways that make you want to jump through hoops to get them? Japanese Heavy Rock Hits? Mailorder all three singles and get a free one sided single? Call me a dork, herb, whatever, but sign me up. These three have figured out how to push all the buttons on record collectors. They might even have one upped the Melvins with their ability to make people buy almost anything with there name on it.

#1 shows up. Graphics are too goofy for words. A-Side has me thinking it's a Swirlies record at first. B-Side "Hey Everyone" would be a cool track if it came up at the right time on shuffle.
#2. Nice underpants. "H.M.A". Heavy Metal Addict. Just like the Melvins-they got me wondering, are they laughing with me or at me? For a track called Heavy Metal Addict, I was expecting a little more shredding. B-Side starts off with a drum machine and maybe a nod to all those Blank Dog type bands with kind off a english/english disco vibe. Might be the best track of the 4 as I wasn't really expecting it.
Southernlord is the place to get it.
Probably will get more spins than Solomon Overlooked, but not by much. I will dig through a lot of trash to find a classic and Boris come through enough to make it worth it. Even if it it hasn't happened yet with these 7"S