Apples, Cheesesteak, and a Break.

The week after Hartford Cross came the West Hill Shop race in Putney, Vt. I had a great start to the race and was hanging with a group of guys that fluctuated between 3 to 4 of us for a few laps. I'm guess we, as a group, were holding somewhere in the range of 4-8 positions at any given point. I was feeling good with the group, but the other guys were rather strong. There were places on course where I was faster, and there were places they were faster. Strangely enough, I tended to be faster in power areas, and most of them in the slick corner sections. I finally cracked at the top of the run up one lap though. When I jumped on the bike, the legs just couldn't turn the gear over that I needed to turn over. I faded back for two laps, at which point Jake bridged the gap I'd had over him. He brought one other guy with. I figured Jake was riding much stronger than I at this point, so I decided to get between him and the other racer and block for Jake. With one lap to go Jake was pulling away, but then with a half lap remaining I managed to close the gap on him, then power away through the soft feeling corn field. I placed 8th, Jake 9th. Our prizes, sacks of apples.

I eventually made apple pie with them.

The following weekend was a planned trip to Philadelphia, a city which I'd never visited. Since my friend Sarah and her boyfriend, Matt, live there it was a great opportunity to visit them and see the city. Before I headed for Philly, I needed to make a trip to my home town to pay my final respects to my Grandmother. She and my Grandfather are together forever now.

I made it into Philly Friday night, and after some brief hellos we ventured to a local pub to catch up over some beverages. Saturday morning we headed into the city. We started with a great breakfast at a small restaurant/cafe which gave very large portions of very good food. It was obvious the food would be good from the line outside the cafe. We then ventured to some historical sites including Independence Hall and Elfreth's Ally. We rounded the night out by living the scene from Rocky and running up the steps of the Art Museum.

That brings me into this weekend, in which there were no trips, and no races. That's not to say there wasn't any riding. Sunday was a beautiful day for a bike ride after a very rainy Saturday.

Where's my helmet?

Full on into 'cross season and I've only managed to do one race since Gloucester. I'd have done two, but I managed to forget my bag with shoes, helmet, jersey, et cetera right by the door. Since that was the case, I worked as chauffeur for Lee and Taylor to the Mansfield Hollow race. It was a rather picturesque Autumn day, but I have no pictures. I left my camera at home figuring that with Jake, Lee, Taylor and myself riding the same race we would be able to get any pictures. My bike did get used though! Jake's shifter stopped working midway through the race and he was stuck spinning in his easiest gear. He shouted at me and replied back double checking his style of pedals, which were compatible with mine. I sprinted back to the car, got my bike together, and got to the pits to make a bike swap with him. It was a little funny watching him on a bike that was too small, but he managed to gain some positions back after the swap.

Then came Hartford Cross. Woohoo, I remembered everything this time. And I took a camera just in case. Hartford didn't have much in the way of technical features and was a bit of a power course. Had it been dry, the place would have been super fast. Heavy rains the day before left some soft ground and mud holes in places. My legs weren't feeling very chipper, and the conditions weren't making things any easier. The one awesome feature about the course, was that we went straight up a rather steep 40 foot levee. During warm up I managed to ride up it, maybe the only person to do so all day. During the race though, I was too gassed to get the whole way up. I'd managed to get about halfway then I'd have to run the rest. The best part was that I was much faster up it than anyone else I was around. Between the up and the off camber, muddy, rut filled down hill that followed I was making time there.

I was battling with a few guys, and they would pull away for the half lap leading up to the levee. At that point I would catch back up, stick with them for a little while the slowly get dropped. I thought I'd had it at one point when they'd built a lead at least 100 yards on me. But I managed to surge through the levee and the following section in the woods to catch back on. With one lap to go I was determined to minimize the lead they were pulling, which I managed to do. They didn't get far ahead and I put everything I had into attacking at the levee. I passed them and pulled away. I kept driving for the remainder of the lap and held off the one guy that was slowly surging back up to me. All in all, not a bad race considering I never felt particularly good the whole time. 13th of 30 guys with 2 nonfinishers.

Cheshire Cross is coming in about a month. We're trying to get some of out friends to come out and have a tailgate party yet again and cheer us on since it's sort of like our home field race. I put a video together to go along with the invitation I sent out to hopefully garner more interest.
Check it out.

Cyclocross - be there from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Diving into Cyclocross Season

So here's the recap since vacation since I've failed to stay up to date with it all.

I returned from vacation and on September 19 headed for Rocky Hill, CT for a race. Actually two races. I competed in the Cat 3/4 race then rode in the 1/2/3 race for training. I was doing well enough in the 3/4 race but just didn't have enough gas to ride they way I did for the first 20 minutes of the race. I faded pretty hard after that point, but still managed to finish well. During the 1/2/3 I was just trying to survive the entire hour of the race.

I was scheduled for another race the following weekend but I needed to pay my final respects to a truly great man. My grandfather was quite the role model. I hope he's putting in a good word for me in heaven.

Then this past weekend was the Gran Prix of Gloucester. The third year that I've attended New England Nationals, as it has so been dubbed. Competition is fierce and many. Saturday was a complete mudfest. It rained all day. Jake and Taylor suffered through cold temperatures and rain during their race at 8 am. By the time I raced the rain was intermittent, but the course was a complete mudbog. I didn't have the most particularly awesome race, I was still feeling a bit worn down from the events of the past week and a half.

Day 2 began far nicer. Jake, Taylor, and Lee raced at 8am on a changed up, cleaner course under a dense fog. Jake even pulled of the victory in a solo break away. By 1pm, the sun was out and the course was drying out where it had still been wet. The corners were tacky and everything was fast. I'd rested up well too. Despite starting in the back, and I mean the waaaay back of nearly 100 guys, I managed to fight my way through. Place by place. After some aggressive passes in turns and putting the hammer down I managed to work my way up to 48th.

It was quite a weekend, and now we are full on into 'cross season. More cowbell!

Pictures from Gloucester can be seen here.

Vacation!!

The Thursday prior to Labor day weekend I began my trek South towards a much needed vacation. I stopped in the D.C. area and stayed with Derek and spent the day Friday relaxing around his place. Saturday morning he and I ventured further South to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. We were meeting numerous other friends at a house that we were all renting on the beach of the outer banks for a week. The house was fantastic, and huge, perfect for a week long relaxation fest. Okay, maybe some parties too. It was a much needed break, that much is for sure.

The weather was wonderful to start the week, then turned slightly less that desirable for much of the week. We were blessed with a fantastic Friday to end our week there though. After spending a while at the pool, we moved to the ocean to finish our day.

I managed to get a few bike rides in as well, though some late nights and rain stopped me from completing some of the rides I'd planned.

On the way back through we stopped to see two old high school friends in Newport News, VA. After spending a few hours there we continued back to D.C. I dropped Derek off and then spend the night with my sister in Arlington. The trip worked out to be a great opportunity to see a lot of people.

There are some pictures from the trip at this link.

Time to ride. A lot. Again.

The properly functioning bike and enthusiasm for the sloppy weather were short lived.

I warmed up on the stationary trainer for a bit at the Palmer cross race, though there was no protection from the steady rain that was falling. I was damp to wet before I went out for a course inspection lap. I'd been hearing people talk about it being a very mountain bikey course, something I was happy to hear. I usually do relatively well on such courses. My pre-race lap confirmed the reports, and also left me soaked and muddy before the race had even started.

I felt good from the warm up lap, I felt good on the bike though all the mud and water. Then I got stuck in the back for the start, not the most favorable place. Well, everything was pretty dicey off the start, and I didn't make up much ground, it was hard to be aggressive in such slick conditions. As things thinned out I started to move up little by little. Then, I crashed on some slick roots. Shwwooop, in a semi-over the handles bars kind of move. My right hand hit the ground hard as I tried to catch myself, three fingers went into a painful, numb kind of state (my pinky is still swollen and sore). My right shifter hit the ground and moved slightly inward too, though not horribly so. My shifting capabilities seemed to disappear though. I had maybe three gears in the back as I started back out, but quickly lost those. I was down to shifting with only the front chainrings.

My brakes faded, a lot, my hand was numb, the bars were wet and muddy, needless to say, I had a hard time controlling the bike from there. I didn't feel like I had much stamina either.

I didn't get last though. I wasn't as close to first as I wanted to be either. Finally got the motivation to not suck and start riding more again.

I found some pictures from the first race of the day. I'm not in any of them, but they paint a pretty good portrait of the race, and cyclocross in general. Check them out here.

Pre-Season continues

Hopefully the pre-season continues without further woes. The bottom bracket I bummed from Jake, didn't have much life left. It was good through the race, but managed to start making some very strange noises midway through the first ride after the race. Noises that I've never heard come from a bottom bracket. I just took it out and there is definitely a bearing or two rattling around freely. Further inspection of the tube from the flat in pre-season race numero uno finds that I had a pretty gnarly pinch flat.

I picked up a brand new bottom bracket from the shop this evening and the bike is back together. Everything seems to be in order with it, which is nice, because pre-season race numero dos is tomorrow. The weather has turned rainy, first time in a while it seems. That stint of hot sunny weather was wonderful, and I kind of like racing cross in it. I'm not complaining about the potentially sloppy conditions for tomorrow though, should make things exciting.

2009 CX Begins

Today was the first cyclocross race of the season. I'm going to call it, PRE-season for me. The plan was for it to be a warm up race, just to get my frame of reference into 'cross.

I just got the bike up and working properly, somewhat late last night. There was a last minute bottom bracket pick up from Jake, for which I am eternally grateful, there were two tubes that went flat on me on the stand, and I'm still not sure if I've got it shifting quite right, but it seemed to be riding well this morning.

Warm up went well, but at the start line I dropped a little tiny bit more air out of my tires, hoping to make some of the bumps just a little smoother. I started fairly well, feeling aggressive, I dove hard into some corners and was trying to get past one particular rider that wasn't taking, what I felt, to be good lines in the corners. I could definitely get through the corners faster, I just couldn't quite get the edge on him going through the first narrow section into the single track. I was annoyed, I should have gotten through those corners much better but he was disturbing my line and speed.

Then, maybe a third of the way into the first lap I flatted. I may have pinch flatted from letting just a little too much out at the start, or maybe I ran over something when I swung into some rough sketchy stuff to get by some guys off the start. I'm not sure yet, but I let the field get by, as it was a single track section and I would just plug everything up. Once everyone passed I rode the course to the pits, picked up a neutral support wheel.

Once I got going again, I spent nearly a full lap pretty alone. Then I started to pick off some riders. Little by little I moved up positions. Of course, I didn't get anywhere near the front, but I was happy to be able to finish, and not be last.

Next race I leave the tire pressure alone.