You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2007.
(I do this everyday)
You have to admit… these sideburns are lookin’ good… There is only one problem though. A gap. There is a gap where no hair has ever grown before. The only thing keeping these burns alive is the length of my normal hair bridging the gap. Otherwise, these things would look rediculous. I guess Im not cutting my hair for a while…
… “Tomorrow’s race in Palmer is really technical… like Mt Bike technical.” Ohhhh Boy! That got me excited and contemplating whether or not I would race it. This college student is running out of money fast. Racing every weekend for the past couple months with no income… except for selling random things on Ebay here and there… sucks. All the money saved up from summer gets thrown at gas, race fees, bike repairs … the list goes on. So the decision I made last night to race Palmer was hard… especially since I raced Sterling yesterday. Because this course sounded technical (with roots, rocks, and dirt) I knew I had a good chance of placing. I like technical stuff and most people s don’t. So throwing more money into gas and fees I went.
I woke up at 4:30 am. That’s so early. I’m never doing that again. Since I was heading back to school I had to pack. I should have done it the night before but I was having wayyy too much fun doing nothing. So I get up early, pack the car, eat, and was off at 6…
I get to Palmer at 7:30 just as Gary is heading out to pre ride the course. It took him like half an hour to return! He reports back the details: roots, three run-ups, triple barriers, all single track, and a river crossing with a few planks thrown over it. Oh baby. I’m excited. Now Steve and I tag along with Gary for another loop. Nuts. It’s just as Gary described. I’m in love. I found my lines quickly and was floating over everything… almost effortlessly. The only really hard place where I had to dig deep was the last run up. This thing was straight up, long, and hard as a rock. After the first couple swift steps my quads wanted to throw in the towel.
So the race starts and I grab the hole shot… oh wait… Steve’s creeping up alongside and takes it away! We head into the downhill single-track in the 1st and 2nd positions. Everything is going smooth and then Steve takes a digger going into the 2nd run up. I pass him, run-up, mount and ride the berm on the right side of the tree. Ok, I’m in 1st. On the next corner I take a look over my shoulder and see the Red White and Blue. Awesome! Steve is still here!
The next single track section was fast. Like real fast. It’s a slight downhill section filled with loose rocks, tire popping roots, and meanders through the trees. Bam! Another awesome berm you could tear around! So much fun!
Now into the barriers… These were fast! The approach was fast and flat and the barriers were set up perfectly. Swing the right leg over, two steps, UP, two steps UP, two steps, UP, two steps, mount, IN. I felt like a gazelle … a smooth gazelle.
Ok now onto the river crossing thing. Hop over the single barrier and shoot left over the river (it was really a stream…actually a dried up stream). I decide not to remount on the 1st lap and ran with the bike to the run-up which was fifteen or so yards away. Horrible idea. I’m not a runner. Why would I try and run before the “run-up of death?” I’m stupid. But I appear out of the first lap in the 1st position.
Nothing too eventful happened in for the next couple of laps. I was feeling great and sitting pretty.
On the 4th (?) lap, my buddy Matt managed to get a small gap going through the lower field area. Not cool. I head to the front of the train and reel him in. By the second run-up I caught him and made a pass on the inside line, get to the top, and with a smooth mount I’m off again.
OHHHH FRUSTRATION!! This is where everything went wrong. I shift, I pedal, my chain decides to tie itself into a knot. This is not a normal knot. It’s one that basically wrapped itself around the crank, my frame, the drops of my bars, and basically everything else. WTF… I get off my bike and survey the situation while six or so dudes fly by me. I couldn’t even tell what I was looking at. It was disgusting. I tried untangling it with no success. Game Over for Brad.
While walking out of the woods I bumped into some familiar faces and mingled a bit. It looked like over the next few laps the group fell apart and split up. Steve and Matt were right up there.
So I exit the woods and walk through the pits. WTF?? Neutral Support!?! We had neutral Support?! Since when? Damn it! I was just a mere 200 yards away from there when my chain decided to commit suicide… Neutral Support had like 10 sparkling bikes which I could have hopped on… Bummer. Anyway, I had the dude there take a look at my chain. He had to basically pull my crank out in order to free up the chain. Nuts. Also, the chain is now bent. I need a new one if I want to do any races on it in the future… Yay. Spending more money…
So in short, today went from Grrrreeeeeaaaattttttt (say it like Tony the Tiger) to DNF.
Now I’m depressed. I got back to school and stuffed my face with a blueberry muffin (muffins are God’s greatest gifts) to make myself feel better.
Well, well, well. Sterling… Verge Series race #5. What a doosey that was…
Just like Lowell, I LOVE races close to home. Hop onto rt2, a mile later hop onto 190, and 10 min later…SHAZAM!!… I’m at the race site. Awesome. I got there at 7. Just enough time to relax and get ready at the same time. The course was like a rock. Frozen. Nothing soft. Just crunchy. But what a cool course this was… I have watched my brother race here many times so I kind of had an idea of what I was in for. Plus it was really cool to be the one racing in it this year.
Going into this race I had some high expectations since I have been placing consistently in the top 10 for the past handful of races. Also, having a front row start definitely increased my odds of placing well. MRC had the field stacked. I think that the majority of the first three rows consisted of MRC! Nuts! 15 second warning… GO GO GO. Steve W grabbed the whole shot and I jumped in right behind him. Making the right turn around the track I could feel my tires sliding out a bit. I let up… but not too much. Just enough speed to hold my position and slow enough so that I don’t end up sliding across the track. Ok So its Steve and I leading it out all the way up the run up, down the hill, up the 4 foot wall thing, and out to the road. A couple people make some passes, I stick with them making sure that they don’t get too far away. Going into lap two the Cycle-Smart guy appears. Crap. He’s strong and had been placing consistently in the top three. He passes me. I’m stupid… Why didn’t I try and stick with him? I settled. Ride harder Brad! Damn it, ride harder! Some other rider seized the opportunity however. So I waved bye to the two of them as they left us all in the dust. So now it’s a race for 3rd.
There was a train of us, about 10 or so, and we jostled back and forth for a couple laps. 10 is too many. On the technical sections, which I was riding well, I would put in short little surges every now and then just to try and thin everyone out a bit. A few more laps go by and the train is widdled down to Steve, three other dudes, and yours truly.
Ok final lap. One of the three guys zooms by attacking in the start/finish area. My buddy Matt, who is one of the “three other guys” latches on. They were flying! Too bad they forgot that there was a sharp left hand turn ahead! They both hit the ground!
Ok ride smooth Brad. Ride hard. Don’t mess up. Drop Steve and the other dude 
I knew that’s what I had to do and I had to do it in one of the technical sections. So just after the 180 degree turn I GO. Tight right turn, swooping up and down left turn, through the trees, up-hill 180 turn… I got a gap! It was nothing too huge… maybe 10 bike lengths at the most. Now into the barriers, over the barriers, mount, found the pedals quickly and I’m off again. I’m holding the gap down to the baseball field, through the chicane, past the pit, and down the straight stretch by the lower parking lot.
Then it happens. On the 90 degree right turn, you know the loose gravel one, I hit it fast… faster than I had hit it in the other laps. Crap. Front tire washes out, a foot goes down, and the gap closes. I’m still up front…but since this is going into the final stretch I am merely just performing a lead out for Steve and the other dude. We turn left and into the final sprint and I go. I had no other choice. If I waited for someone to come around they would have dropped me… So I GO! Up on the pedals and I’m out of gears! With no time to shift into the big ring I go as fast as my legs will spin. I see a shadow on my left creeping up. It’s Steve! As long as the other dude didn’t get third I was happy. Steve crosses the line in third and milliseconds after the other guy and I cross. He got me right at the line. Bummer.
I snagged 5th though and three more points too! Now I have 20 (Crossresults.com has me down as 16 but also left out the results of the second Plymouth race…where I received a point).
Ummm what else… I stayed the whole day and watched all of the races.
I just decided that I’m racing Palmer tomorrow. Because it’s now in writing… it’s official. Or at least that’s the plan… see you there?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! GET FAT! 
SNOW FLAKES! SNOW! IT’S SNOWING! IT’S LIKE A FREAKING BLIZZARD!
….I gotta go mow the lawn now though.
Ahhh, I LOVE close races. Lowell was just 30 minutes from my humble abode which allowed me to “sleep in” until 5:30! I got there nice and early at 7, layered up, and got out onto the course to pre-ride with Rich. Fun course… Starts off on a dirt track thing (which later turned into a mud fest…MUD!), then heads into a 180 turn, followed by barriers, a hill, a downhill, a left turn , another left turn, a 90 degree turn into the run up, some more turns, some downhill stuff, a bump (jump), some single track, and then repeat.
Luckily for me, I was one of the few who managed to get a spot right up front. Rich and Steve W were on either side of me and right behind me were the other MRC guys. Nice. This was going to be fun. 45 seconds to start. One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four one-thousand… WHISTLE!! Wait what? He just said 45 seconds… there was NO WAY that was 45 seconds. I wasn’t expecting the whistle that soon but whatever… we’re racin’!
I sprint up to about the 10th position and can’t see a damn thing! So much wet gritty dirt flying up from the people in front of me…nuts. We get to the first sharp turn of the course and I take the outside line passing the dude who is on the inside. This dude scrapes up against the tree and then tips over… blocking the rest of the field. This is good… well for me and the 10 guys up front. So we hup hup hup! At the moment, Steve is riding in the #1 spot and looking strong!
Going into the second lap I start to feel like crap. Not like you’re supposed to feel when racing… but like I’m actually sick. I’m holding back fluid from coming out of each end… oh no. Not good. This goes on for a couple laps and I’m loosing positions… dropping back to the mid teens.
Then all of a sudden I feel great. Awesome! I’m getting back up there and FAST! Riding hard finally feels great! I work my way up to Steve and we are riding around the 5th and 6th positions. Then out of nowhere Mike from FCC comes tearing past us and Steve and I hold on for the ride. The three of us race together for a couple laps, Steve pops of, and then Mike attacks me once we start getting caught up in some of the women riders. Ugh. His gap further increased on the run-up when I was forced to dismount when one of the women riders decided to dismount on the left side and run across into me on the right side. Not cool. I must say that that was the only time where I had to run up it. Every other time I rode it.
Nothing too eventful happened from then on. No one passed me and I didn’t pass anyone. I rolled across the line in 5th place. Followed by Steve, Rich, and Cookie close behind. 4 MRC riders in the top 10!! I received 3 more points… boosting me up to 16. Maybe sterling will be my last race as a 4?
I’m home AND I’m on vacation (Well, technically I shouldn’t be… I still have classes on Monday and Tuesday…but I’m playing hooky). There is no way that I’m heading back to school for just two days of classes. So I’m skipping. I’m a badass, I know.
Know what makes me even more badass? Sideburns. That’s right I’m growing sideburns. My face has always been as smooth as a baby’s bottom. That’s changing. I am becoming a man and my hairline is now working its way down around my ears.
This is a huge moment in my life. Be proud of me… thanks.
For 4 hours today I rode my bike
In 4 hours I rode 71 miles
For two hours I was riding into a strong headwind
For 3 hours I couldn’t feel my toes
For 3 hours I was lost somewhere in MA
For 3 hours I wanted to fall off my bike and curl up into a little ball.
I have no endurance in my legs. I feel like a wimp.
