Sucker Brook Cyclocross
Enclosed are some photos that others took of me this past weekend racing at Sucker Brook cyclocross (thanks to Elaine and Abel).
It was a great course with a little of everything: technical loose turns, run-ups, power sections, a sprint on pavement into a head wind, and a sand pit!
My writeup on my team's website consisted of the following:
I rode the Matsers 35+ 3/4 race today. I couldn't believe people were lining up 30 minutes before the race. I decided with Scott it's best to keep warm and continued riding our bikes while people raced to get a decent starting positions. About 12 minutes before the race started, I got in a nice row with Paul, John, Scott, and myself near the back of the field. I didn't feel bad about starting far back because that's where I'm positioned next week in Gloucester and I wanted the practice the clip-in-under-pressure-and-pass-like-a-mad-man on the outside during the starting sprint. The only notable person behind me was Rob Bauer, where he should have stayed. But in classic Rob fashion, he rubbed his hands and cast a spell on me. He said, "I have two goals for today: 1) that Bungie does well in his race and had fun so I can continue to race CX this year....and #2) to beat Prekaski."
"Rob, you should make more realistic goals...like work on not getting lapped," I replied.
And then the whistle blew.
I met my first challenge of getting a decent clip in and having a solid start. Passed a bunch of people up the side and continued moving up until we hit the fisrt turns on the grass. I made my marks and slowly moved up the field. Scott Sweeny, John, Paul and I were all together in pretty decent position taking pulls, though I noticed that they had me lead into the head-wind starting stretch.
The race progressed and I was feeling strong for the first time in a couple of weeks. Scott and I kept swapping positions and taking spots working on up...
Then, after the sand pit pit, it happened. I jumped back on my bike on the off-camber remount and my tubular rolled off. "$@%%@$%^%#^^@^@$^!"
I picked up the bike and started running. Someone shouted that I should try rolling the tubular back on. I stopped running, and began fiddling with the tubular. Couldn't get it back on, so I let some air out. Then the tubular rolled back on but was now flat. I could here the bell-lap ringing in the distance. Dang, so close. I guess I'll get a wheel in the pit. So I rode slowly putting most my weight on the front wheel and while riding to the pit, Bauer passed me, spouting some unintelligble grunts. I got a wheel and finished the race as a small personal victory as I almost packed it in, calling it a day.
Still had a good time. Would of, could of, should of. At least it was a mechanical that took me out of this race...and Rob's voodoo.
