I offer nothing.

Ok, so I haven't written anything since I raced Wilmington-Whiteface. I started to write a post about the Off-Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell, but that became derailed somewhere. Rather than try to remember races from several months ago, I'm going to bring things up to date...

Following Whiteface, I did Fitchburg-Longsjo. I didn't quite have the time trial I wanted(36/111), and I didn't do super well on Mt Wachusett (15th place), but I finished 18th overall on GC in the cat2 field, which is ok by me. It was nice racing against only cat2's, and not being outrageously humbled by future pros (well, there are probably future pros in the cat2 field, but you know what I mean). I'd like to train more intelligently (maybe do intervals!?!?) and get at least a top 10 next year. If I'm smart about my early season, I think it's doable.

Thus ended my road season for 2008.

I followed up Fitchburg with ORAMM in North Carolina, did Tandem Track nationals with Steve, an open track day, and two ECCC track weekends, but have not officially raced my road bike since. Track had varied success- we raced faster than last year on the tandem, but still fell short of winning any races (and no one let us run away in the 5k scratch race). My first two track weekends, one after Tandem nationals and the other at Kissena, were nothing to speak of. I finally was able to muster some speed at the final track day at Trexlertown, where I placed in both the the points and scratch races. Allegedly my performance garnered me an on-site cat3 upgrade, but I have yet to see about that.

All in all, since Fitchburg, I have only done a few long rides, a bunch of fixed gear track rides, some time trials, and some low-key mountain biking. Here and there I threw in a Tuesday night race. I guess the point is that I was preparing to concentrate on cyclocross- I learned my lesson last year when I started CX totally burnt from summer racing, especially GMSR.

Then, last weekend I started racing again with the ECCC MTB season opener at Lehigh- again with varied success.

Saturday was the XC race. I naturally signed up for A's, since I they got cool plastic numbers and the other classes got paper. Also because I figured my fitness could carry me through whatever my bike handling couldn't. Since it had rained a little the previous day, the course was pretty slick, and the rock gardens were proving to be quite a mess for me to deal with. I lowered my pressure to ~38 psi...I figured that was reasonably soft enough to get traction, but not soft enough to cause pinch flats. More on that.

After the bottleneck saw the race leaders well up the trail, I settled into almost DFL with a couple other riders. Soon, we caught up to the field ahead as we went into a short climb and followed with some small rock gardens. I made a couple passes and settled back into the line. Unfortunately, since I couldn't see the line ahead, I plowed right into a couple sharp rocks which pinch flatted BOTH my wheels. Race over. I tried to fix them and continue on, but my mini-pump broke. I raced 1 mile of collegiate mountain biking and proceeded to walk a useless bike back to the start.

Sunday was the short track XC, which was held on a ~800m loop with 500m of climbing and 300m of a switchbacking descent. If there was ever a course made for me, this was it. I could reasonably manage my losses on the downhill and make my time on the up. And the race was only 35 minutes.

Right out of the start, someone fell in the middle of the field, causing a small pile-up, which I quickly navigated through. I looked ahead to see a small group of 5-6 riders up the trail. Beyond them, I couldn't see anyone. Either the first few guys really flew off the line, or I was actually near the front of the race. Over the next couple laps, I made up the gap and joined their group. While catching my breath, I settled in behind Vanya, who had avoided the earlier crash altogether.

Over the next few laps (before they started showing lap cards), I moved my way up, passing what I believed were the remaining leaders, including a rider who I saw got third on the previous day. This race was going pretty well by all accounts. I kind of thought I was winning, but I was not sure. At this point we began to lap some riders, so I really could not tell what was going on. I began to wonder if the 'officials' were paying attention and that I woulnd't get screwed in the confusion of riders being lapped everywhere. In any case, I kept pressure on the pedals.

Unfortunately, I probably gave too much too early, as I began to get caught by a UMass and UVM rider I had passed earlier. As I got more tired, my already limited ability to descend the hill began to get progressively worse. With 3 laps to go, I was passed and really didn't have the ability to respond. Oh well, I still am on the podium, right? I mean, I don't see any others ahead, and I haven't been passed/lapped myself...

As it turned out, I ended up 7th...apparently one lap down(?!?!). At least I guess that was the case, since they placed me behind a rider marked as being down a lap. I personally find this highly improbable, since I was only passed by two riders whom(who?...I don't care) I had previously passed. It's a good thing I don't care too much about my collegiate ranking, because otherwise I'd be a little more bitter about it. However, I'm feeling pretty positive about the race with cross around the corner.

This weekend is Swandrome cross, then next weekend is the official season opener in VT. I think I'll be able to stay on top of race reports now that the races are actually exciting...