devil is in the details

28th or 32nd? Which is a better result and which feels better? Hard to say. Loon Mt was a survival fest for me so finishing 28th out of 38 was not the end of the world. 32nd out of 94 looks better and maybe even feels better, but you have to weigh terrain and competition and your own performance. In the end I am stoked on each result. Loon was a total unknown and despite crashing, I was able to hang onto the lead lap. Hard training. Epic terrain. Just like on TV....
I had raced Suckerbrook the year before so I had a benchmark. I finished better than last year and rode better as well. Despite the other people, so much of cross is internal to me. The results tell the story, but there are so many other ways to judge and experience the race.
A new race and a New England classic. Good way to spend a weekend.
This week has been a blur or tire gluing and Gloucester prep....
Craziest week is on deck with 5 races in 9 days. Get stoked

boston handmade bike show

Not sure why everything cool bike related has to happen at the same time,but regardless there was a Boston Handmade bike show last night. All the usual suspects (IF,Seven,Igleheart,Geekhouse) where there-although not with too many bikes in tow. 13 builders total.
2 new(to at least me) builders caught my eye. First up is Royal H Cycles. They had this road bike that was a nice mix of old and new-quill stem with Campy 11. My pictures don't do it justice, but this is the kind of bike my inner retro-grouch could get down with


nice detail work

front end

rear end. love those brakes. please excuse the elf.


Next up was Budd. He had a couple disc brake cross bikes on display. I saw the blue one racing in Williston, but couldn't get a good look at it. Very intense seat stays.


this was a big bike

this was the bike I saw getting raced

Brews were flowing and the DJ was making it happen, but I didn't last too long as we have another away game weekend of cyclocross.
I saw a real photographer there so hopefully these bikes get documented a little better than this.

behind the scenes

Parbo looked super pro on the carbon Leopard wth gold accented everything. Looks like Superb gets the credit. Back story here.

road trip to vermont with some bike racing

Nick should once again be manning the race report on the team blog, so I will bloviate here. Fact-no matter how old you are, road trips rule. Load up some dudes, drive a bit, and let the hijinks begin. For us one hijinks started too soon. We lost a wheel of the roof before we were out of MA?? FML.
Driving into Burlington around 10. The last hour of the drive in full Translyvanian Hunger fog. Hit the youth hostel where we were staying-fear of bed bugs be damned. Right off the bat, I got off on the wrong foot with the inn keeper-apparently zombie jokes are off limits up here. Any way, we sacked out with dreams of race success.
We departed early and arrived at the Catamount Family Center in more fog.

And it was fucking cold. Fact-there is never a wrong season to bring winter hats to Vermont.
As the fog cleared,the dread set in. Course tap snaked its way up and down an hillside.Wet grass was everywhere with no pavement in site.
2.5 preride laps resulted in some grass covered bikes and an increased sense of impending doom.

Pinning on 3 numbers made me feel super pro. Before I was ready, it was call ups and time to get it on. Early reg'ing got me a front row start. I was ready to drop anchor and reverse hole shot as soon as possible.
Saturdays race was a 4 lap suffer fest with a lot of climbing and a cool ride up a bmx jump the wrong way. Hard as hell, but rad. Race was tough lots of climbing.
Blew up after 2 laps and pretty much chalked up the rest of the race to hard training. 16th was the result.
Parbo on the jump

We got to hang for the rest of the day, get sunburned, and watch people crush the course. Nick was running the camera so I just got to chill.
We headed back to Burlington with thoughts of Flatbreads pizza dominating my mind. I get grumpy when I am hungry and I was in dick mode. Standing next to and empty table for 15 minutes before getting seated at the same table did not help. Couple beers, a salad, and half a pizza later it was back to happyland and time for bed.
Up early enough to sit in a Starbucks parking lot for 20 minutes before we arrived(no surprise early) to the race. Sunday's course was less of a kick in the nuts as far as elevation, but the challenges came on some tricky downhill corners and medium length run up. Why do people try to get all 300 on things like this and try to ride up them only to flounder and die? If you can't ride it every time in practice-run it. It will be faster. At the start, I somehow found myself accelerating away and coming close to getting the hole shot. At which point I let of the gas and lost enough positions that I spent the rest of the race trying to get them back. Lap 2 found me passing Nick which would have ruled if he wasn't running with his bike. He made it to the pits and got himself together and was off. The course doubled back on itself enough that I was able to try and yell some encouragement to him. Maybe too much as he caught and passed me! Way to go Nick.
We managed to finish 12,13,14 on Sunday.
After a little chill time we packed up and rolled out. Really nice race. Good weekend. Good road trip. Hopefully a good warm up for NH next weekend.

extra power?

"Make good lines and use extra power to get through loose gravel. If you steer with your hips, push hard on the pedals from the back of the saddle and use the front wheel as a sort of rudder; you can clean most deep, loose gravel. " -Ira Ryan

Gravel riding tips from this article. Just need to find my extra power and I will be good to go.

Quad Cross

I was stoked to do this race cause it is one of the only races of the year that I can ride to. Riding to a race-outside of Wells Ave isn't really an option so this was a cool thing. Packing for a race with a car means you don't have to think too much-just throw it in, but when you are carrying everything you need on your back, you need to put some more thought into it. I could think all I want, but I still needed team mates to come through with things like a floor pump and pit wheels. It takes a village for one man to ride....... Speaking of team mates, Thom and Nick headed out Saturday night to help with course set up.

2nd time doing Quad Cross. Weather was pretty similar. Dry and cool. Course was a little tougher-they ran it into the woods and found some sand to make the run up a little tougher.
We had the whole team there. Billy,Nick, and Thom were in the 4 and I was in the old 4s. Had a decent start. Starts are not ever my strong suit so decent is an improvement. Took a lap or 2 to get it together, at which point I was in a group of about 8, and we proceeded to beat on each other for the remaining laps.
People definitely came out to race and were diving into ever corner and sprinting out of ever turn. Dusty as a hell-which I was reminded of when I laid down for a quick nap on the last lap. Crashed in a completely unremarkable left hand turn. Chalk that one up to last lap jitters. I get more uptight and nervous in the last lap than at the start. Once I realize it's the last lap, I tend to think to much and what handling I have goes out the window. Tons of people were out and it was nice to get a pretty thorough level of heckling throughout the course.
Hung out til the Pro race and then road home.
This was an extremely fun day and I think Quad Cross has earned it's spot on the calendar.
Nick has a race report on the team blog. Check it out. Maybe the other slackers on the team will have something to say soon. VT weekend with 3/4 of the crew on deck.

Friday Night

This video rules for some many reasons
1.Joe Lopes. Sad that Joe and Dave are both RIP.
2.Skaters vs BMX. Took rollerbladers to get us off each others backs
3.The Dutch what? As if the Rabo friendly Orange and Blue color scheme wasn't good enough, Vanderspeck has the nickname "The Flying Dutchman "
4.Vander-Roll? Is it as bad as the street plant?
5.The 80s tv dude-Stay Classy!