Watching the Weasel a non-race report

My ribs and ankle were still pretty banged up from Gloucester and with 2 more days of racing in Providence on the horizon, I decided not to race the Night Weasel. That said, there was no way I wasn't going out to support this event. Rolled out in a downpour which fizzled out the closer we got to Ski-Ward in Shrewsbury.
Course looked fun. Technical wet and hazardous as well. I was glad I left my bike at home-cause I would have lined up if I brought it and I would have crashed for sure.
Nick,Billy, and Thom lined up to kill it. We posted our tent up on a nice muddy corner that would deteriorate nicely over the next few hours.
I got my heckle on as the other dudes raced. Buying a new camera before cross season seemed smart, but trying to learn how to operate it at the races is not a good plan. I got a couple hundred blurry shots from this race.
Races continued. Beer was drank. Veggie burgers eaten. Rad night. Elites were killing it.
Amazing prizes. Where else are FMBs on the prize list? And not for the winners either-sick!
Pedros did major community service on the bike wash front.
SkiWard deserves major props for letting this happen, and Colin,Linnea, and Chip deserve even more major props and thank yous for making it happen.
Packed up and rolled out. I really, really hope this race happens again next year. A New England Super Week seems like a great idea.

the curious case of Judas Priest song titles

cheater
ripper
deceiver
sinner
starbreaker
exciter
invader
grinder
steeler
troubleshooter
jawbreaker
turbolover
painkiller
night crawler
devildigger
demonizer
hellrider

To the casual observer, this might seem like a list of things ending in "-er", but to a true metal maniac, it is clearly a list of Judas Priest song titles-all with one thing in common.
At work yesterday, most likely thanks to an Ipod's shuffle mode, I heard Exciter followed up by Invader. Couldn't remember if they were on the same album or not, but thought it was weird. Which was all it took to get the gears of my mind spinning towards some useless record nerd analysis. The results of which are the list above

10% of all Judas Priest Songs end in "-er" 17 out of 167
69 % of non live or greatest hits contain at least one "-er" title. 11/16
28% percent of the songs on the live Unleashed in the East end in "-er"
0% of my childhood favorite Screaming for Vengeance's song titles end in "-er"
4 out of 4 of their 1st 4 lps contain an "-er"
This does not include plurals or phrases like Defenders of the Faith
I also cannot explain the 1997 dalliance with "-or" titles (juggalator and abductor)
I guess that since the singer's nickname was Ripper they felt safe to experiment. It does have a Halfordian precedent in Dissedent Aggressor from 1977's Sin after Sin....

I can be fact checked here

I suppose I could have written a race or non-race report, but variety is the spice of life.

This video does not stand up to the test of time very well

better


best

things I learned at Gloucester

Everyone should already be OD'd on Gloucester coverage, but here are a couple observations.
It was always my impression that barriers were meant to be leapt over with the grace of a gazelle. They are not to be climbed over like Visigoths storming a castle. This year at Gloucester, I realized that might not be the case. Wave after wave of riders were planting their foot on the top of the barriers as the went over them. Fast guys were doing it. Pros were doing it. And they all seemed to be getting over them faster than I did.....


Another observation. The one armed javelin carry was very popular this weekend. Whether over the barriers or up the run up, it was seen in it's full glory in almost every race


Last observation is the escalation of pre-ride wardrobes. Last season the NBD preride in jeans seemed to be pretty standard. It seems like by the end of the season the elites will be preriding in suits or tuxes or maybe some fully articulated Patagonia preride suit. Sorry no good photographic evidence of this sartorial trend, but watch it's trickle down effect into the 4s if you get up early enough.

Oh and Mark McCormack is still wicked fast

What about a race report? Gloucester wasn't a great race for me last year and that may be becoming a tradition. I DNF'd one day and got 54th the next. Walking wounded-rolled my ankle and bruised some ribs crashing after riding like an asshole. Weather was perfect and it is always an amazing weekend no matter how you ride. Good kick off to the Mega-Cross Week.

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.