I love the Winchester cross race. I've done it every year. It's a super fun course, and this year they took the steps off the "wall" so it was rideable for some (me). It's got a great section through the woods.
Liam had Sunday school so it was just me and Jake today. It's a beautiful drive out there through the mountains. We got there in time for me to do a lap before the 9am race and 2 laps before the 10am race.
Based on my poor results at Tacchino, I was staged in the 3rd row (out of 4) in the "elite" 45+. I got a decent start and was able to pass a few people during the first 1/2 lap. I heard people saying to people around me that we were
around 15th. I was able to ride the “wall” every lap and that
helped drop Pete Lindeman and George, who were running it. I started to
move forward catching up to some people. Soon I caught up to people
like Chris Huhn and then Scott Stahl and Sean Downing who were fading (Scott had apparently crashed). I
was able to move forward in that group of 4 or 5. On the final lap I
followed wheels into the wind on the start/finish road, then sling-shotted
around them at the 180 turn at the end of the road; that put me into 2nd
behind Stahl. I stayed 2nd wheel, defending the corners while
we were going all out. Shawn Downing tried to come around at the
barriers, but I re-passed him on the remount, then I cut inside stahl on a turn
with about 5 turns to go from the road, I just went all out, pedaling all the
turns; I had been going into the big ring heading to the road and I threw my shifter
over but I don’t think it went up, but I was just dropping down through the cassette as I sprinted all out for the line. I held off Stahl and the rest
of the group for 8th which was a great result for me given my recent fitness.
In between races I had a nice chat with Joe Dombroski about his upcoming move to the European pro peleton.
"I haven't ridden since Worlds" - Well sure, you hear that all the time
photos and videos with my new iphone 5.
Jake talked with Connor Bell who was at Junior Worlds for mountain biking earlier this month.
Jake had a good race, generally. He started with a front row call up based on his Tacchino result.
Starting line up
Video of the start with my iphone
But he fell back a few spots in the first 1/2 lap, to maybe 11th. But by the 2nd lap he had moved forward to 6th. But in so doing he had dragged some guy from V-Day the whole time. The guy refused to work (of course he ended up 4th). By the 4th lap, he ended up in a group of 5 guys who were 4th through 8th. But Jake was on the back of that group. He tried to come around on the road, but again Mr. V-Day blocked him. Then coming into the pits the guy in front crashed (oh look it was the guy from V-Day) and that gapped Jake from 3 of the guys (the NCVC guy was stuck).
That seemed to throw Jake off a bit, and coming back through the pits after the back half 2 guys were catching him quick.
I was yelling at Jake to protect the corners to block the one guy, but the guy got by. (In the parking lot later he told Jake next time to elbow him).
Technically Jake was 8th. But Larry Miller had jumped into the start about 150 yards down the road (you can see it on the video above), so he was DQ'd from his 4th (it's a shame, it was a good ride by him, but definitely a no-no; he was a real class act about it, I will add; admitted that he had only himself to blame; he's a good guy). So Jake was officially 7th (worth an Cat 2 upgrade point). He got some nice prizes including a cool scarf.
contemplative after the race
Jake wanted to do better, and I'm sure he will. It was good experience, and the guy who won is getting a mandatory upgrade to Cat 2 because of 2 consecutive wins.
A big thanks to Ken Morris and Steve Breeden and all of Winchester Wheelmen for a great race. And what super "swag" bags; each one included this cool knit hat.
It's Sunday night in late September, so that must mean I need to do a blog on a cyclocross race. This weekend was the Charm City Cyclocross two day race. It's a UCI race for the elite race, so it has slightly different categories for the rest. Of special note, they have an "Elite" Under 19 race for boys who are Cat 3 or higher.
Saturday:
Liam, Jake & I all filled up the CR-V at 6:30 to drive up to Baltimore. My race (45+) was at 10. Crossresults.com predicted I would finish 26th, and I did. My fitness is slowly improving but I struggled a bit mid race. No one takes photos of me any more, so we'll move on.
Liam's race was immediately after mine. It was a big field. I think that there were over 25 kids in the "regular" Under 19, including jake's teammate Luke Klaussen, who Crossresults predicted would win (but he had already done the Cat 4 race). They send them after the Cat 3/4 and Masters women, so it's a pretty significant mess of mixed categories. Liam did pretty well. I got some video of him dealing with the little wall that is a long-running feature of the course.
He was struggling a bit and going back and forth with another younger boy.
Another time over the wall
On the final lap Liam rode the sand pit that he had been running. Unfortunately, when I went to film it the memory card was full. Damn. But I was really proud of him for riding it.
A shot of Liam entering the sand thanks to Doug Graham
Liam finished 12th, easily beating the crossresults.com prediction of 17th.
Then it was Jake's turn in the Elite Under 19. It was a small group of 9, but it included a 17 year old Cat 2 from New Jersey and the youngest of the Keogh brothers from Massachusetts, and Tanner Browne, who of course Jake has been racing with since they were both 9. They started them 20 seconds after the start of the 35+ elite race.
Well the boys caught and started passing the 35+ group immediately. This is video of Jake at the wall after only 1/2 of the first lap.
He had caught and passed half their field.
The problem is that gaps had been created between the boys based on traffic in the 35+ race. 17 year old Noah Granigan from NJ had slipped away and initially Tanner and Ian Keogh were about 10 seconds ahead of Jake. Jake eventually caught Tanner and they were together w/ 2 laps to go when some idiot 35+ guy didn't like being passed by juniors and put Tanner into the tape, crashing him, which put Jake home free for 3rd (not the way Jake would have liked to take 3rd mind you; really sucks people are like that).
This is what the crowd looked like photo thanks Doug Graham
Here's a split second of Jake & Tanner approaching the wall together (camera issues made it stop too quick)
Here's a photo of Jake and Tanner over the barriers together thanks to Dennis Smith
So Jake was 3rd. He won $40, which he was very happy about. Incredibly, we think he was about 30th in the 35+ group.
It was great to see everyone. I introduced myself to British national champ Helen Wyman. The drive home required us to drive through a section of Baltimore that is like driving through an episode of The Wire.
Sunday (sadly lacking in multi-media)
Liam had Sunday school so it was just me and Jake for Sunday. We had just pulled onto I-66 when I said to Jake "Do you have shorts & jersey?"..."oh no" that's right, he forgot his shorts and jersey. So we had to go to the next exit and turn around. That kinda cut into my pre-ride time.
The course was reversed from the day before. It was a bit wet from some rain over night, but a cool wind was drying it fast. My race was a lot like the day before, except I didn't feel like I had a big let down mid race. The course was getting faster every lap. On the final lap I was able to duke it out with some guys I didn't know. One from NCVC had been up ahead the slipped back. I ended up 28th which surprised me. I thought I was a little better. I think I passed some guys but got passed by others because I was starting number 29 on the grid.
Jake started at noon again. Same basic cast of characters. The gave them a little more gap behind the 35+ men which helped a little. This time Ian Keogh slipped away. Noah Granigan was 2nd and at first Jake was only about 5-7 seconds back from him. I though he could close it, but he says that once Noah got through a pack of 35+ Jake got stuck behind them for a bit and that allowed Noah to open the gap. Jake had a 15 second lead on Tanner and Sam Lear that he extended to 30+ as Sam & Tanner battled between themselves. Jake ended up riding the last 2 laps in a group with Kimani Nielsen who was on Coppi last year and had won several Cat 3 races, finished 2nd in the 3/4 series and is now a Cat 2. Jake lead that group up through the open field sections but Kimani got him by a few seconds. Still, Jake rode really well and was with fast guys (that he had caught up to). I think it bodes well for the rest of the season.
This time we got a podium photo:
podium photo with blackberry by me
I'll update with more photos if they get posted on the web.
And we're back. After a little break following road season it's time for the most wonderful time of the year...cyclocross season. Jake may tear up the road, but at heart, we are cyclocross people.
The Tacchino is put on by my club, Squadra Coppi, every year. This year I was out there all Friday afternoon laying out the course with Dave Pedersen and Jim McNealy. It was actually a lot of fun.
Saturday morning, me, Jake and Liam all loaded up to go to the Park to work on the set up crew. We were out there until around 4pm. When we started home we heard that there were severe weather/tornado warnings in the area. Then I got a message from Loren that she was in the basement because there was a tornado warning over Arlington and moving east. So, basically, we would be driving into it. We were on Suitland Parkway when the wind really picked up and the rain started. It was so bad that I pulled off and pulled in on the leeward side of a building because I was worried about Liam's bike on top of the car. So we sat there for 15-20 minutes waiting for it to pass. On the way home, Loren called to say that we had lost power. We had no power all Saturday night.
Sunday we got up at 6AM and me and the boys packed using flashlights and
candles. It was the 3 of us, 2 bikes in the car and 2 on top (and
that's no pit bike for me). We got out there and the weather was beautiful (as it always seems to be).
I ran around dealing
with some course logistics until it was time for Liam's race. He lined
up with his friend Dustin Goodwin who is strong and did some triathlons over the summer.
Another great turnout in the 10-14 race. Over 20 I think
Dustin gives "the look" to a competitor
Oh, did I mention, current National Champion, Jeremy Powers was in attendance. He was doing a clinic that was on Saturday and also then during the race.
Jeremy is a former house guest of Team Thompson and actually slept in Liam's bed. It was May 2005, wow.
J-Pow 7 years ago behind Liam and Jake out in front of our house
Anyway, Liam had a decent start. He had a good race but needs to work on his remounting and a little extra general fitness. Here are a bunch of videos of him and Dustin (who is strong) in action:
and
The official results show Liam 17th. But there was trouble with the results. They had put at least one boy we know ahead of Liam and Dustin even though he was actually so far behind them he got pulled a lap early. The officials wouldn't listen to Liam and Jake and I was busy racing during the protest period. Liam was probably more like 15th I think. He had fun and liked the course. He's looking forward to more races.
I "raced" at 11am in the Category 123 45+. Based on last year's series rankings I was on the front row and somehow clipped in quickly and took the hole shot. I hope someone got a picture because it was all backwards from there. I haven't trained and don't have the fitness yet to be competitive in the "elite" 45+. I literally didn't look at my result. I wasn't lapped, but I'm pretty sure I was dead last (PS: turns out I was 26th, 1 place out of series points, damn). It was a good workout. We'll leave it at that.
Jake is skipping the junior races this year (generally) to do the Men's Cat 3/4 race (aka the "killer Bs") with fresh legs. His race was at 2. But....he found out that Jeremy would be racing in the 123 race (immediately after the Cat 3/4 race) so he had me register him for the 123 as well. Based on getting a few series points last year, Jake was lined up on the 3rd row. There were 106 guys pre-registered but I don't know how many day-of. Jake was lined up with Cody and Eric (you'll remember Eric was a great teammate and riding partner with Jake in the 3s last year, see report HERE).
It was chaos at the start. After the prologue and first 1/2 lap, Jake was around 25th. Now, I should say that Jake has not started his cyclocross training, per se. The last month has been a lot of base training and a bit of recovery from the long road season. Until last week, there have been essentially no intense/hard intervals that you need to compete at the highest level for cyclocross. The plan is to ramp him into top end fitness later in the cyclocross season. So, the goal was to ride a smart race and hope that his general aerobic strength would allow a finish in the top 25 to secure series points and a staging spot in the front 3 rows in the next race. Just to understand, the "prologue" took the race into the back 1/3 of the course, so everyone did about 1/3 of a lap before passing the finish to start a full lap.
Here's Jake coming through the tight turns at the end of the first 1/3 lap.
He was looking good and surviving the chaos. Then...he started to move forward....
He was top 15 by the middle of first full lap:
And then he moved into a group of 3 who were in 7th, 8th, and 9th. There was another small group of 3 or so 10 seconds back of them. Jake seemed to climb better than them and would emerge from the long climbs in front.
Unfortunately, Jake mis-read the lap cards and miscalculated, so he made his move with what ended up being 2 laps to go (now I will note that the officials mis-calculated lap times and sent them 1 lap too many, creating a close to 54 minute race). He looked real strong when he made his move to gap his companions.
Unfortunately, the extra lap hurt Jake and he lost 2 places, falling back to 11th. Ultimately, it was a great result in terms of the season long "plan," and bodes well for where he should be in a month or two after he has a bunch of racing and intensity pushing his fitness and power up. He was satisfied and pleased, except for the fade on the last lap.
So, we quickly changed his number and he downed some water and gu to line up against the National Champion in the 123 race. Jake said "as soon as Jeremy laps me, I'm pulling out." It was purely for fun and a little extra training. But his legs were toast with extra jelly.
"oh, me and Jeremy go way back to when we were both kids"
Stars and Stripes at the front of the Tacchino, Very Cool
Unfortunately, Jake's legs were not recovered and he basically rode his own tempo at the back. He got a couple of dollars in hand ups, and also a pastrami or some other "cured meat" from the "Suitcase of Sausage" as he played to the crowd (I heard the MC saying "Jake, college fund"). His legs cramped up before Jeremy could catch him and he had to pull out, which was too bad. Jeremy won the elite race. Jared Nieters and Wes Schempf put up a good fight. It's really great for our little home town series to have the national champion as the current series leader.
Special thanks to Jim McNealy who devotes his heart and soul to the race, to Dave Pedersen for moving up to help Jim, and to all of my Squadra Coppi teammates (and former teammates like Kimani, Jake, and Luke) who pitched in to make the race so hugely successful. 600+ racers. National Champions. Awesome.
