Zank was primed and ready to go in the foggy, wet, steamy countryside.
Solo rider warming up early in the morning through nice, fresh course tape.
Cool little climb on gravel past the barn.
Start line off yonder.
Rutgers friend of Meg? Very green!
Good to see teams sticking together.
More course, more tape. Some great looking country roads off in the distance.So I lined up with the other "beginners" in the C race, partly because yes indeed I am a beginner and feel that's where I should be and also because of time and the need to race early and hustle it back home.
C race had something like 45-50 entries--by far the largest field of the day--and some of them looked pretty damn fast. Could it be that because the winner of the Hole Shot would get a new Van Dessel frame had something to do with both the size and quality of the field? Hmmm....
Anyway I was very pleased with my race. I purposefully hung back at the start and just wanted to ride my own race and see if I noticed any results from my weeks of practice. My run-ups and barriers were very strong. My turns not so strong. And I felt like my last two laps were my best by far, which again made me feel good. At the end of it all I was happy and finished near the middle of the masses.
So...this morning I got a mass email from the promoter--who, by the way, did a great job with the event. Turns out the first seven times/lap times from the "beginner" race were faster than the winner of the B race. Sandbags anyone? Oh well, one of those lucky speedsters got a new frame.
Serious good will to promoter Bob Cary! Beautiful venue, well-designed course, great organization, super friendly people--first-rate all the way. My only gripe was the horrendous drive back through NY City to get home (two hours to get there in the morning, four and a half to get home). Apparently the GWB needs a new road surface and so traffic crawled for miles. Next time I think I'll go out of my way and cut across to the Tappan Zee to get back to the island....
Finally, another sling of good will to Mike Z who built me a frame WAY BETTER than the hunk of aluminum Van Dessel they gave away! The Zank was tight, tuned, and flawless. I'm the one that needs to catch up to it, which is a great challenge to have this year! There were lots of compliments on the Zank, Mike. Only other bike that came close was the pearl number built by Sacha that was at the race (didn't have my camera for that one, but it was nice too).
8 comments:
Nice work, MIF! Congrats on a strong race!
can't read this shit man...
make the letters white or something
making my sensitive eyes bleed...
i guess the option is just to not read it...
or cut and paste...
but then that takes work (avoidance or mouse clicks) on my part
"Turns out the first seven times/lap times from the "beginner" race were faster than the winner of the B race. Sandbags anyone? "
part of the "rules" i was reading last week specifically stipulated that no financial incentives should be given for the beginner category to discourage the practice of sandbagging.
sounds, well, like this kinda proved the point.
Your course looks nice and wide there though!
OK, maybe white. Still fahkin around. Yeah, serious sandbagging in that one. I could sense it before the start--the greyhounds were lined up early with fangs showing. Been thinkin: was the promoter naively well-intentioned? The frame was only up for grabs in the C race. Prolly should have instead had some sort of random giveaway/game at play in the Under 18 race and given the thing to a kid.
By the way, G, gotta compliment you on "The G Plan." I've employed your advice of repeated, repeated, repeated dismounts/barriers/etc. 100-150 at a time. Telling you, I still suck, but I suck way less than others now.
hey!
Yes! That is vegan mark, a bud of mine. and he and his bike are indeed very very green. . .
great job on your first race!!
i can read your print fine--perhaps it is my superior Apple liquid crystal display. . .
xoxo
m
Was that course as flat as it looks? Maybe I need to head down there to race after all.
Nice work.
Yes, mostly flat and fast. One steep run-up, two gentle climbs on the flats, one tricky off-camber-around-the-trees. Other than that, flat grass and blacktop.
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