Disaster at Granogue

I have been waiting for this day for over a year now. Over 2000 base miles logged in for the season, a top 5 in the Camp Hilbert endurance race, a Top 3 at Leesburg Baker's Dozen, one of my top goals for the season was to go out and crush it at the MASS Enurance opener, to top that this would probably be my last MASS race, so this was important. I set the race bike up with a brand new Set of Maxxis Ignitors, they stuck to the greasey mud at granogue like velcro.

Last night we went out to a graduation party, that had an asian theme. Erin's Aunt Judy pretty much always goes overboard on these types of things. You see they had these killer Korean Ribs that she has to drive 30 minutes away to pickup from a shop that only sells ribs to Korean Americans, so she has to camp out in the parking lot until she runs into a stranger who speaks English and Korean and then has to beg them to go inside in pay for them. I guess thats life in Princeton.

Well anyway a few hours later I started experiencing some explosive diareaha, about 2AM I headed out to pick up some medicine from WAWA. As i approcahed the cashier things weren't feeling right. I could tell I was going to blow chuncks, but I was really hoping the make it home. I drove for a bit, but had to pull over open the door a blow some chunks, I did that a few times, but I was paronid a cop would pull up and want to investigate a DUI so i tried to keep driving with the window open. I let it rip one more time, but out the window. It should be noted that things down below were not looking to good either. Anyway,after hosing the car down at 3AM, that was pretty much it for the evening, I figured I would have to Bail on the endurance race. I was really pissed. When I woke I decided to head on down, and if things would hold out I would race. I got to the race rode around and things seemed ok, so i was going to give it a try. The race kicked off and everyone took off, I let the top 10 go, usually I can sprint with them, but i figured given my status i would make it a race of attrition. Turns out It just wasnt happening, I start falling to the back of the pack, i was winded on all of the climbs and soon the entire sport class would pass me. After that I finished my lap went to my car and laid down for about 30 minutes. I thought for a bit, i never really quit anything before and it was pissing me off quite a bit. So i saddled up and headed out for 2 more extremely slow laps, Its was quite a humbling expereince trying to keep pace with some of the slowest riders in the field, riders who have laps on me, riders who i can usually lap multiple times.

It is what it is, the course was beautifull so i stayed positive and enjoyed the ride and tried to mingle as much as possible with others. I particularly enjoyed it when the Expert Women kicked off. Oh i hung with them for a while, believe me ;) Another reason I kept on going was that regardless of the place I came in, I would score points for the Team competition. All enurance points are counted regardless of when you come in, as long as you finish.

After finishing I rolled up to my car, changed and grabbed a cup, as the Beaner Keg had arrived. I layed down on the grass and told tall tales of my epic day in the saddle while sipping on some victory.

On The Rocks

French Creek was a blast this weekend. First off let me say that it was awesome to see everyone again! For me it started out with marking the course on Saturday, with the Bean's crew. We headed out on the trail around 5:30, and soon found ourselves getting soaked in the rain. We pushed on putting up arrows and tape and the rain didn't let up. Before I knew it, I found myself riding with mike in the dark and in the rain with no lights, the epitome of Zen. It was kind of sketchy riding those trails, clearing rock gardens and logs that you really could not see. After climbing our soggy asses up the last big climb, we beat it on the road and headed to the bean's camp where we were welcomed with food and some beverages from our sponser Victory brewing. We were joined by some other friends and definately blew it out harder then I really needed to.

I woke up pretty sore from the wet night epic and a little hung over-but racers were about to arrive and I had to get everyone parked in the limited space..That seemed to work out fairly well, I liked that job-you get to talk to everyone, but everyone thinks the parking nazi knows whats going on-

The Race

I lined up with the Sport S2 guys, it was good to see some friendly faces. We took off on the fire road climb to the single track, Kevin from sickers started to make a break and I went after him, I put about 20 yards on him and hit the single track first,immeadiately passing the last S1 racer. Kevin was right on my ass. I probably didn't need to go out so hard, but oh well too late now. I let Kevin pull ahead for a bit, but I kept him in check and was able to keep the gap tight on the down hills. I was starting to regret riding the night before and drinking all that beer. I was suprised to look over my shoulder and see Matty mo hanging on after all of the bitchen Ive heard from him on hour training rides. He closed in for a bit and we started to pass some more S1 Riders on the down hill, I took the bad line to pass and matt followed.Mistake #1 It totally derailed us and resulted in a crash, Kevin was no longer in sight, So i put the after burners on and was able to shake Matt off my tail. Perhaps i got a little bit to aggreseve but Mistake #2 came along and resulted in a wicked crash and battle with a tree, this put me down for at least a minute and really killed my momentum. Matt wizzed by as I dusted off and tried getting back on the bike, cramping ensued-but I fought it off. 5 minutes later and i was able to start kicking the throttle full again as the pain of the crash disintigrated. As i Hit the Fire Tower Paved Climb, I could see Matt about 100 Yards up the Road, he didn't look like he was enjoying himself, I looked over my shoulder and saw the pack behind me, not where I wanted to be. Shocks locked out I started to stand up and let it rip, About half way up the climb I caught Matt. He responded by staying on my ass. I was able to put a gap back on the pack and as We hit the first false peak, I was able to pull away from Matt for a bit. I was back in the game. The road leveled out and I let it rip, I think I was able to get out of sight for a bit, but it wouldn't be for long, I threw it in the big ring and started ripping it up, but someone must have crashed through the course markings and ended up following the S1 guys in front of me......Mistake #3as we sat there with dicks in hand, there was matt again, We fumbled around for at least 2 minutes before navigating back to the trail. I pushed on again and started to get out of site for a bit. I got to the woooden plank bridge that ran over a real mud section, when another S1 rider just layed his bike down in front of me....damn this was a really fast section and now I was Picking up my bike and running across the thing cramping up...more time lost and you may have guessed I got to reunite with matt again. I tried like hell to put the gap down again, but matt started to reel me in on the Last Orange Climb. At this point I was sitting in 3rd Place when another rider past me, putting me into 4th. I let him pull away on the climb but once we got to the top I started to pull him in. I could clearly see I was a better decender. Every downhill i got closer and closer. Finally i was able to pass on a techy section, it was big ring from here on out, I hammered down with this dude only 2 seconds behind me when some wicked branch caught my bike, it hit me like a rubber band and stopping me dead in my tracks....i got lucky cause the guy behind me caught it too, I remounted a put the hammer down and was able to finsh third. The last mile of the race was quite the wicked sprint for third place. My legs didn't let me down, but it was a real crappy performance with all of the crashes and missed turn. Regardelss I was very happy to beat all of the riders from bikeline and guys racing that crushed me last year. I hate these short events, Im looking forward to the marathon at granouge next week!

The Beaner's

The beaners kicked some serious ass this weekend, preliminary calculations may put us at least a thousand points above bike line with 6 Podium Finshes! Not bad with a lot of our crew not racing.