This is a great "Team" photo of me and the boys at Capital Cross Classic. Thanks to Jay Westcott. You should all go buy his book chronicaling the 2011 MABRA Super 8 season. Find it here "Red RIght!" Check out his other work here: http://jaywestcott.net/
December 15, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Today (12/11/11) was the last cyclocross race of the season (for Jake & I; Nationals is still a few weeks away): The Luray Caverns Cyclocross race. Only in its second year, it is held right on the grounds of Luray Caverns.
Since last week was the final race of the MABRACross Super 8 series Jake and I were free to treat this one a little differently. Basically, I didn't want to try and get to Luray (1.5 hour drive) in time for the 9:30AM 45+ race, and by this week in December I knew the temps would likely be cold at 9:30am (indeed it was in the 20s). So I figured Jake and I could both race the Cat 3 race at 3pm. It would be the first and possibly last time that Jake and I race against each other. It would be the "battle of the century."
Luray is nestled in the Shenandoah Valley, so has beautiful mountains all around. (I only had my blackberry for photos, but I'm hoping that In The Crosshairs will post some excellent video soon; indeed he did, it's here http://www.cxhairs.com/2011/12/12/luray-caverns-cx-2011/ and for your convenience embedded at the end of this post)
The course was built on the side of a hill, with a road section up the hill, there were a number of tight turns then a drop down the backside of the hill, a climb back up then a series of turns traversing back down the hill before making way back up the hill. So there was some solid climbing but also some very tight turning. Conditions were a bit slick with a thin layer of mud on many of the upper corners.
Being the last race of the day, it was a small field of about 20 Cat 3s, but we had 5 Coppis. Kimani was of course the class of the field and would ride away to win.
Me and Jake were on the front line, but the officials pulled a "surprise" whistle that caught me completely off guard. I missed my clip in and didn't finally get clipped into my pedal until the top of the road at which point I was at the back of the pack and Jake was toward the front. I put in a big effort to pass some people quickly and get back to Jake. Kimani and Dave Pederson were up front. I quickly realized I didn't have great legs, but was ahead of Jake a little. I stayed a little ahead of Jake on the first lap. But on Lap 2 at some point he easily rode past me on a climb and when we started to climb back from the drop off the back side of the hill Jake EASILY rode away creating a decent sized gap. Ugh. This was bad. I really thought it was over. But I dug in and started to claw him back on the turns going down the hill. I kept his gap manageable and on Lap 3 was starting to close. Jake was catching up to Dave P and I was ever so close and was afraid that Dave would help Jake. But by the bottom of the hill we were together as 3. This is where Jake should have dropped the hammer and left Dave and I to rot going up the hill on the road. He had the legs, but instead he sat behind Dave, which let me sit behind him.
I made my move to go around them both coming out of a turn by the pits. Jake jumped on my wheel. We dropped down the back side of the hill and were running with Jake just a step behind and next to me. I led up the hill going all out. Jake says he was just sitting on me, but this was his second mistake. He should have attacked and used his superior legs to get a gap on me rather than let me go into the turns ahead.
2 other guys caught up to us at the bottom of the hill and mixed in a little. I could hear behind me Jake's gears skipping and I even yelled back to ask if he was ok. One of the guys got around me and led me up the hill. Jake was, I think, just behind me but maybe with a small gap. I waited to stand up as the hill kicked up. I wasn't able to get around the guy in front of me and as soon as I cross the line I turned around to see Jake just getting pipped by the other guy. He was maybe 20 feet behind me. I was 8th and he was 10th.
It was a good race and Jake rode very well. I was able to beat him only because he didn't take advantage of his strength, which we talked about later. Also if it had be a bit more of a wide open course where he could apply more power I would never gotten back to him. He could have beat me and definitely was stronger today.
It was a beautiful ride home in the mountains as the sun went down.
Today was Jake's 20th race in a 12 week period. We raced every single weekend starting on September 18th and many times he raced twice in a single day, sometimes doing better in his second race. It was a great season. Jake had some really powerful performances. His win at Charm City was incredible, as was his 3rd in the Cat 4 at Hyattsville and his 23rd in the Cat 3/4 at Schooley Mill and his 2nd in the 15-18 at Rockburn. As of this week, Jake is ranked 12th IN THE COUNTRY among 14 year olds (i.e. "racing age 15") by USA Cycling. He was 11th before but some other boy seems to have moved up. I'm obviously radically proud. Next year we will make a real effort to build and take him to Nationals.
My season was so-so. Traveling nearly all week on 4 of the first 6 weeks really hurt my ability to be strong and consistent. But I had fun and had some good performances over the last few weeks. My thanks to Mike Birner for his coaching.
It was a great year for Squadra Coppi as well. Kimani won 2 races and had many podiums. Brad Evans had a huge year including his 2nd at Hyattsville. Best of all, yesterday, Brad went to New England and finished 3rd in the Ice Weasels Cometh, showing the New England cross scene what a class level of rider we have in the Mid Atlantic. It was great to race with Eric Blomquist who is easily teammate of the year (thanks for taking all our stuff today at the start of the Cat 3 race). Dave was an awesome addition from the west coast. Many others deserve mention. Adam Austin was out there today and finished 17th I think. Great to see him out there every week. Likewise Ryan Newell of The Service Course fame landed some seriously solid results in the 3/4 Masters races, proving that years of "tapering" really is training, and Mark Skubis was also solid in his rookie year in the Masters 3/4. There are too many others to mention and do justice to.
OF COURSE, the greatest thanks must go to Loren who supports me and the boys in these weekly pursuits. Thanks babe.
SO, THE BIG NEWS:
As alluded to previously, there are big changes now coming. Although a difficult decision to make, Jake will ride next year for the HPC-List Elite Junior Team. Much as he loves Squadra Coppi, this is a move that will help him step up to the next level of bike racing.
And in a last minute development, I will be President of Squadra Coppi next year. I'm hoping for a quiet but positive year. Seriously, quiet, do you hear me!
Check back for photos from the race if I can find some (Liam was supposed to come with us and take video but he bagged out this morning; he couldn't race because he had Sunday School at the Temple at the time of the 10-14 race).
The CXHairs video
Luray Caverns CX 2011 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.
December 11, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Ok, I promised. I've finished my oral argument at the Fourth Circuit (went well, thanks), so here's the entry.
Sunday (12/4/11) was to be the last race of the MABRA Super 8 series, at the classic Lake Fairfax course in Reston, Va. A long-time favorite of mine. I was signed up for the 45+ 123 and Jake was going to do both the 15-18 and the Men's 3/4. The course is only 15 minutes from our house so it was going to be a nice easy day (well, except that I was freaking out about preparing for the oral argument).
Then on Saturday night, Liam says “am I racing tomorrow?” and I said “no, you’ve got Sunday school” and he says “no I don’t” and I said "Loren, does Liam have Sunday school?" Loren "No." So, I said to Liam “do you want to race” and he says “yes.” Result...we were getting up early for Capital Cross Classic. [On a side note, Liam scored the first basket and was awarded mvp in his basketball team's first game of the season Saturday morning, which was great for him].
It was cold when Team Thompson & Sons p/b Squadra Coppi arrived at the course after a lengthy 15 minute drive. Me and Liam jumped on the course so he could ride it before the Cat 4 race started at 8:30. It was still frosty on the grass. His hands and mine were freezing but he did well. When we came to the “chute” – a fast steep downhill in the woods with a sharp turn at the bottom – I went first so he could see me and as soon as I got down I turned around and he’s flying down at speed, gets to the "burm" at the bottom makes the turn, and I’m like “ok, well you’ve got that” (although it scared the crap out of him after he realized what he’d done).
So at 9:15, Liam lined up in a decent sized field. He rode really well.
He was riding the Chute every lap even though a lot of kids were running down it.
On his last lap he slid out at the top of the chute and dropped his chain. He stood up there for a long time trying to get started again and 2 kids that he had a big gap over passed him. I yelled to just run down. It turned out his chain wasn’t dropped so he got going again and caught one of the boys to make up a spot.
He finished 9th I think. He rode well and later in the day was going to ride the course for the heck of it between races.
Getting Liam all raced and such isn't great for my pre-race routine but I got a little warm up and at 11am I lined up with a big group of 30 guys in the 45+ 123. I was in the second row with my 11th place in the series. But I got the worst start all year, possibly in years; I missed my clip-in then got boxed in on the right side on the first turn off the road. I was way back, but set my mind to not panic. Early on I realized that I was climbing a little better than those I was with and made some good moves on the road, drafting people half way across then slingshoting past (and I sort of put that climbing thought into memory for later). I wasn't happy with how I turned the bike though so it was a trade off. I was really slow in the tight stuff before the Chute and the gravel turns.
I Rode with Bill O'Keefe and Pete Lindeman all race. A couple of times they gapped me (mainly in the turns before the Chute) but I was able to claw them back. It was a fun little battle and it was fun to hear Bill Scheiken on the microphone trying to figure out something clever to say about how me and Bill O’Keefe were the fathers of two really fast boys but we’re riding together. Finally he says we’re “not the fastest guys in our families”
On the last lap I sat on Bill’s wheel across the bridge and ran up the stairs in 3rd but then rode past them on the gravel climb heading toward the Chute. I'm pretty sure this photo by Joe Mallis http://www.joemallis.com/ is from the final lap. You can see me, then Bill, then Pete coming down the Chute.
My mistake was continuing to ride the deep mud at the bottom when we came out of the woods. Pete ran past me in the muddy section. The rest of the lap I fought to get back to him and was 10 feet behind him when we came out of the woods and hit the finishing pavement; I threw it in the big ring and went hard. I couldn't go around pete but in the meantime we caught Karl Kensinger, Pete’s teammate, who had been ahead of us all race, and I was able to hit a second sprint to pass Karl about 3 meters from the line. Karl had been 10 seconds ahead of us the entire race, so that was good. It was a good sprint. I had pretty decent legs although iffy handling.
I was 11th; really can't complain. It was the same as at Rockburn except I beat Pete that day. I couldn't ever beat Pete all year, but I beat a couple of guys today that I should and I beat Chris Huhn who has been strong (why couldn't I beat him at VACX). It turns out that if I could have beaten Pete I would have moved up into 10th for the series.
At noon, Jake lined up in a loaded field of 15-18 juniors. Several very fast 16-17 year olds were there, including Connor Bell and Jacob Miller and Shane Scoggin from HPC-List (and Andy Fleming was there for shits and giggles; he was sliding all over the place on bald cross tires, but seemed to be having fun doing it). From the series perspective, Jake only had to finish to make sure Jonah Merriem didn’t pass him into 3rd (Jake had a 20 point lead). Somehow the family luck was bad and Jake also got a radically bad start. The real drama, however, was that in the opening of the Elite women's race moments before the juniors start, an elite woman had crashed and broken her ankle. So after the boys finished their first lap the officials stopped them (and the women’s races) while the ambulance attended to the injured rider. There was a long (30 minute) wait in the cold and then they announced they would only do 2 laps. Well that’s not good for Jake. He got another bad start and ultimately finished 7th. Not his best but he did secure 3rd in the series.
Jake had planned to do the Men’s 3/4 race and after only getting in 2 laps he was definitely doing it. He lined up in a big field On the front line were Kimani and Brad.
Again he got a so-so start and was really shuffled backward in the opening few turns. Video over the barriers
In a group
But he fought hard and moved up to ultimately finish 31st out of about 75 starters, which is not bad. Here's a photo of Jake coming out of the Chute by Joel Gwadz of Gwadzilla fame.
The 3/4 was exciting, with Coppi Brad Evans hitting the front early. Then Kimani Neilsen moved into the top 5 with Brad. Kimani made his move to finish second on the last lap and Brad finished a strong 6th. Video:
Here's Jake coming through after:
and over the barriers again (I said lots of video)
As always, it was a great event and kudos go out to Bruce Buckley and his Bike Lane team along with Potomac Velo Club for teaming up to bring the race back after a year hiatus. It was good to hang around with friends. Jay Westcott (buy his book HERE) took a nice photo of me and Jeff hanging around afterward. Fun times.
The Cross season isn't completely over yet so I'm reluctant to do some sort of post mortem. I will say that the MABRA Cross Supert 8 lived up to its goals with consistently very high quality courses and events. My performances were a bit uneven, although perhaps consistent within a range, just not a range I'm quite happy with. Jake had some real highs and some real lows. Going in he said he wasn't motivated by the 15-18 series. He wanted to podium in the Cat 4 races. Of course he did that within the first 3 races, but he also struggled at Tacchino with the double up and couldn't finish the 15-18. But then he got stronger and was thriving with the 2 races. He really seemed to step up his game for the bigger fields in the Cat 4 and Cat 3/4 races. It's been a long season for him. He's done 19!!! races so far and Luray will be 20. Wow. Liam isn't the fastest naturally but I'm really proud of him for moving into clipless pedals and also for just wanting to keep coming out to race (and then ride the courses for fun).
The Sportif Cup and VACX races that we did were also really nice, well done and a lot of fun. It will be weird and sad when we're done for the year.
December 06, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yes, me Jake and Liam all raced today. It was the final race of the MABRA Super 8 series. But I have an oral argument at the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday so I'm cramming to prepare. No time for race reports. Tuesday night, I promise.
In short, I've got video and photos. Liam did well. Jake secured his 3rd place in the 15-18 category series, and I had a satisfying and fun race.
really, Tuesday night, I promise.
thanks for standing by, your patronage is important to us
December 04, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (3)