Cheshire Cross Tailgate

Saturday morning was cold. So was the entire day for that matter. I'm not even sure that it ever made it above 30°F. The sun was bright, which added some sense of warmth at times, but the wind was blowing a lot, thus adding quite a chill. This would be the first really cold 'cross race of the season. The cold tends to be extra painful, since by the end races at these temperatures I usually can't feel my toes to well. Thank goodness they're only 45 minutes.

The Cheshire race is considered my 'home' race since it is only a short drive from my residence. Because it is so close and because my race as well as Taylor's and Jake's race were late enough in the day we decided to throw a tailgate party, hoping to snare some of friends into coming and cheering for us. With the added lure of food and booze a few were willing to brave the cold day and cheer. A BIGGEST THANK YOU to each of them!

I arrived at the park to see Matt from the Devil's Gear Bike Shop already there. We set up our little tailgate area and soon I was off taking some photos with my new camera. I got a look at a few sections of the course before heading back to the tent to greet the arriving friends. We ended up with quite a crowd around our tent.

Just before I raced, Taylor and Jake went out on course for their race. I was able to shout and watch them come around while warming up on the trainer. Both had a great race. Then I headed for the start. I was good and warm but I found myself in a second row starting position. The start didn't go too well either, somehow I was near the back of the pack after the first turn. Not only that everyone seemed to be pulling away. I had nothing, the legs couldn't turn the gear I needed to push over. (I had realized the night before why I'd felt so slow lately, I've only been putting a quarter of my regular time on the bike over the last month and a half; at best.)

Needless to say, I had no chance of keeping up. I watched most of the field just pull away from me and there was nothing I could do. At this point I was a bit disappointed in myself, all my friends had braved the cold and I was going to be doing my best not to be DFL, instead of doing my best for a top 5 or better. I figured I might as well try to please the crowd and have some fun. On what is probably the longest run up of the New England circuit, almost everyone was running. The log at the bottom and the log half way up made for a difficult ride. Plus there were numerous roots strewn about the lower half. I saw maybe 3 guys ride the hill earlier in the morning. For the first few laps I got over the first log and about half way to the second log, losing traction in some loose dirt on the right side or getting hung up in the roots on the left. The crowd of people that had gathered there loved my attempts though. They would scream like crazy as I made my attempt to ride up the hill.

Finally on the last two laps I made it to the second log of the hill. On my first attempt over it I just didn't have enough speed to get the whole bike over. On the final lap I managed to get the bike over the log, but didn't have enough momentum to keep the bike moving. The crowd seemed to love it though.

My friends were all over the course. There was hardly a spot where there weren't screaming at me. That alone made this race about the most fun I've ever had with a race. I was way off the back just trying not to be last, but I was having quite a bit of fun with all the screaming and shouting. At one point I rolled towards the edge of the course as Mike was running beside me yelling, I gave him I nice push in the shoulder just to play back a little. At another point, after I'd failed to ride 'the hill,' I pumped my fist in the air while running the rest of the way up through the crowd.

All in all, not a bad day. My results were far less than stellar, but introducing a new group of people to Cyclocross was great. Watch for next year, the tailgate is likely to be back.

Many thanks to Lee who shot some video for me. Some of the videos he got are posted on my Vimeo page. Some of the shots I got with the new camera and some of the shots Kevin took with it while I was racing can be found on my Picasa page.

My friend Adam was there taking photos as well. His shots can be seen at this page.