Awesome race.... just awesome. Perfect weather; perfect course.

I did the C race (B's soon).

I shot off the line and got a big gap right away. I was up 42 seconds on my first lap. Second lap I was still out there cranking away except on one turn just as I was leaving the lillypads and heading up that short climb my rear tire slid out and I blew a hole in my side wall. I didn't flat though. I just had a big tire zit which was rubbing on my brake in the back with a "tick,tick, tick, tick, tick" as I rode. I knew I'd flat soon. I stopped disconnected my rear brake so that I had more clearance, in an effort to preserve what little tire integrity I had left.

I made it through the gravle road sections and into the dirt without it popping. When I came to that offcamber hairpin dirt turn, I hoppped into the downhill section of it and that was a big stupid idea. my "tick, tick, tick, tick" turned into a "brmp, brmp, brmp, brmp"... which soon lead to a "POP!".

I have one lap to go and I'm flat with a 4" tear in my sidewall. I ran for about 10 seconds than said "Screw it, I've still got 40 seconds on them" and I hopped on and rode through the start/finish and on into my 3rd and final lap.

It was funny... a few people actually yelled "hey, you have a flat tire!" as I rode through... thanks buddy...

I managed to stay ahead until half way through the last lap and slowly the racers came from behind and I managed to pull off 4th place. I'm happy with it, but I feel slightly jipped. Coulda' had it!

Next weekend, Verge in PA. I'm doing C's until I get a win, then I'll go B's.

Arby

pictures my friend took:

Starting: I'm at far left.

http://www.phattire.net/edsandor/edsandor4.jpg




http://www.phattire.net/edsandor/edsandor3.jpg

http://www.phattire.net/edsandor/edsandor1.jpg

cool, sounds like fun.

i like your helmet...did you get it in the states? i cant seem to find them anywhere.

I was there finishing 10th place in Mens C's. No pics but I was the guy in the City Bikes Jersey, MTBR shorts, and the white Soul Cycles Monk.

Race report below:

After getting my number I head out for a warm up lap
or two. During warm up I felt o.k., but not great.
My speed seemed to be ok, but my legs felt a bit heavy
and the fire wasn't there. On the more positive side,
the course was awesome - fast, but with enough
challenges to keep things interesting.

As I toe'd the line for the Men's C's, I was still
debating whether or not to ride with my Camelback. I
carried water during the Cranky Monkey dirt crit when
many others did not and I think it helped. Today I
decided I would go without. I also decided to line up
in the middle of the pack even though I knew it would
be difficult to pass in the early twisty sections. I
wished Tris luck in her race and got ready to go.

As I suspected, I regretted starting mid pack. On the
first very slight grass climb of the prologue two guys
riding shoulder to shoulder just in front of me
decided they couldn't ride it - causing a back up.
This resulted in a bit of fire in my gut and
afterwards I worked to reel people in, knowing that if
I wanted to have a shot it would be a 1/2 hour of
catch up. Beyond that the first lap was largely
uneventful, but overall I made up some ground
from earlier traffic jam, didn't trip on the hurdles
or wreck on the downhills.

Early in lap 2 I put the pedal down a bit harder to
try and pull in a few riders while twisting around the
ponds. This was one of 2 areas where you could get a
good idea of how far the guys in front of you were and
that motivated me, but I still had no idea what place
I was in.

Coming into the final of 3 laps I was starting to get
a bit fatigued and regret the decision not to carry
water (the course was quite dusty and it was hotter
than expected). I waivered for a bit, but when I saw
somebody trying to real me in around the ponds I put
the hammer down. This guy was really swinging for the
fences and took a turn too hot, causing him to go
down. He looked o.k. so I kept going, but respected
the effort he put in. Would he have caught me if he
hadn't? Who knows?

When I hit the gravel road that seemed to be
everybody's least favorite part of the course, or at
least those with skinny tires, I felt pretty drained
and slowed a bit. Going through the rolling hills on
the back side motivated me a bit more as this was my
favorite part of the course. Hitting the flats back
to the finish line I pushed in an effort to catch some
guy a couple hundred meters ahead of me. I wouldn't
succeed, but like to think I made up some ground.

End result: 10th out of 35 riders. Better than I
thought and not a bad showing considering it was my
first race on a CX bike.

Great job, Arby!

I had a miserable race experience myself. I misjudged a lot of stuff and was trying to go too fast for my skills, and ended up crashing a LOT. Like five times... in the first two or three laps! I feel like I got hit by a truck today... Multiple times.

I had a few spectacular crashes, including two endos -- one uphill and one downhill, but still managed to place 5th. If it weren't for the non-technical half of the course, I'd have been dead last.

It was a really fun race anyway, I was laughing at myself the whole time for the amount of crashing I was doing. Oh well, next week maybe!!

....it's just the pain associated with it, that's less than pleasant.

I had a few spectacular crashes, including two endos -- one uphill and one downhill, but still managed to place 5th.
I'd like to commend you on your uphill endo though. That must have been a sight to see!

Where did you race anyway? Are you headed up to PA for the Verge race in Buckingham? I'll be there, but I'll be doing the C race. It's frustrating. I want to do a B race but I just want to get one win in at a C race before I do a B. It's my first time doing cross, so I guess I shouldn't feel bad doing C's for now.

Good job on 5th dude, keep it up!

Arby

i hear the particularly nasty bit was nicknamed the F.U.-Turn. that's a very apt title given the carnage.

Which F.U.-Turn would that be? The one at the top, or the one at the bottom? I crashed on both.

man, i was trying to tell you to take it easy once you had that lead.
there was no way you were going to be caught unless you flatted, had a mechanical, or crashed.

you got good style points getting air before the barriers and you were flying out there, but you needed to just ride steady and smart to take the win.

you were still moving with the flat. just to keep it upright and hang on for 4th was impressive.

you'll win soon (very soon) and i think you'll be very competitive in the B's too. you've got the power & some serious bike handling mojo!

the B race was fun, aside from the staging and mad dash for the line. i have a race report up at www.bassadventures.blogspot.com

there was a lot of crashing going on...i saw a lot of dirty jerseys and mechanicals. that's where a little mtb experience pays off.

i hear the particularly nasty bit was nicknamed the F.U.-Turn. that's a very apt title given the carnage.

....it's just the pain associated with it, that's less than pleasant.


I'd like to commend you on your uphill endo though. That must have been a sight to see!

Where did you race anyway? Are you headed up to PA for the Verge race in Buckingham? I'll be there, but I'll be doing the C race. It's frustrating. I want to do a B race but I just want to get one win in at a C race before I do a B. It's my first time doing cross, so I guess I shouldn't feel bad doing C's for now.

Good job on 5th dude, keep it up!

Arby

I raced the Ed Sanders race!

Not sure what the deal is next weekend -- Sunday I'm definitely doing Evo. Saturday is up in the air. I just found out that the AVC Breast Cancer Awareness cross race on Saturday doesn't have a B women's category. :rolleyes: I have two B-women teammates that aren't sure what to do about it. I'd rather go to that one (they DO have an A women's category), since it's closer -- but I'd also like to carpool/cheer on teammates. I'm going to try to talk them into doing the women's 35+ instead. They'll hate me for it later, though...

man, i was trying to tell you to take it easy once you had that lead.
there was no way you were going to be caught unless you flatted, had a mechanical, or crashed.

you got good style points getting air before the barriers and you were flying out there, but you needed to just ride steady and smart to take the win.

you were still moving with the flat. just to keep it upright and hang on for 4th was impressive.

you'll win soon (very soon) and i think you'll be very competitive in the B's too. you've got the power & some serious bike handling mojo!

the B race was fun, aside from the staging and mad dash for the line. i have a race report up at www.bassadventures.blogspot.com

there was a lot of crashing going on...i saw a lot of dirty jerseys and mechanicals. that's where a little mtb experience pays off.

i hear the particularly nasty bit was nicknamed the F.U.-Turn. that's a very apt title given the carnage.

Nice write up! I had planned on coming down from Philly to race but things did not work out in my favor and I had to do something else. Sounded like a crazy race but lots of fun. Did they call up by series placings?

I raced the Ed Sanders race!

Not sure what the deal is next weekend -- Sunday I'm definitely doing Evo. Saturday is up in the air.
oops! I didn't see you there! Good luck next weekend whichever you do.

When I hit the gravel road that seemed to be
everybody's least favorite part of the course, or at
least those with skinny tires, I felt pretty drained
and slowed a bit. Going through the rolling hills on
the back side motivated me a bit more as this was my
favorite part of the course.
You said it brotha'. The fun stuff was on the back side of the course. I was gettin' my flow on with the cross bike back there!

Good job on 10th place MrXC. That's great!

Arby

cool, sounds like fun.

i like your helmet...did you get it in the states? i cant seem to find them anywhere.
I got my Kompact 2 at a Bike Swap here in MD. I think I saw them in the Excel Sports Boulder cataloug last season.... I haven't seen them around though. It's time for me to get another one though.

They're a super comfy helmet... as Giro used to say: "it's like riding around with a jockstrap on your head"... really; it's comfy.

Arby

The B race was fun, aside from the staging and mad dash for the line. i have a race report up at www.bassadventures.blogspot.com (http://www.bassadventures.blogspot.com/)


Cbass,
Nice write up on your blog! Great job on nabbing 5th! I really wish I could have stuck around to get some shots of the gnarly stuff on the back side of the course, that stuff was photogenic and a half. Mtbikers deffinitely had an edge on that stuff.

Arby.

Sounds like you could upgrade and finish top 10 in the B's, no problem. The guy who finished third in the C race - Fred - raced the B race as Frederic and finished 9th in the B's and if you had 42 seconds on the first lap, where would you have ended up at the end? 5 minutes ahead?

I am the Fort guy whose sleeve is in the extreme right of the picture. I ended up finishing 12th for the day. I enjoyed the course. A bit of rain would have made it perfect I think.

Does anyone have links to pics? Some guy was out there with a pretty fancy camera set-up and another girl with a video camera (I think?).

Good job finishing in 4th with a flat for over 2/3rds of the race. Now you need a set of wheels for the pit!

Fort James

Good job finishing in 4th with a flat for over 2/3rds of the race. Now you need a set of wheels for the pit!

Fort James
Thanks FJ. I only had a flat for the last lap! But, you're right, I might invest in a spare set of wheels for this season.

Arby

Nice write up! I had planned on coming down from Philly to race but things did not work out in my favor and I had to do something else. Sounded like a crazy race but lots of fun. Did they call up by series placings?

No. That would have made sense, but it was really just a mad scramble. It all worked out as there was room to move up and find your place once the race got going, but I'm sure some people got caught in the early logjam and missed the split.

For a promoter it's tough to figure out the best way to do staging and call up's, but since they advertised what they were going to do it would have been nice if they had done it. It's just a minor detail. The race was fantastic and NCVC did a great job organizing it.

Based on your finish at Charm City you would have been mixing it up for the win. The racing in the lead group was pretty tactical, which was fun. There was a nice combination of areas where you could draft and sections where it helped to lead.

Can't wait to see that win Arby. I didn't understand your story when you told me earlier, I thought you changed the tire and came in 4th :D Amazing rode it in on a flat...sweet!

That you didn't have to kiss the podium girl.


http://www259.pair.com/ncvc/albumns/album40/dht.jpg

I have to say, everyone watching the race was amazed you went on with that flat. Great job.

Quick comment - you should move up ASAP to the B's - "sandbagger" comments were flying throughout the crowd.

Anyway.....

I raced in the 35+ race. This is just my 2nd season racing cross (6th race). I have been racing B's, but wanted to try the 35+ race to see the difference.

I finished 13th and had a good/bad race (still learning)

Good: Had a pretty decent start considering I was lined up about 1/2 way back. Right after the 1st turn of the road into the grass I was in the top 7 or so.

Bad: Into that 1st right to a left turn on the prolog section where it all got jambed up - I had a clear shot into the sharp left turn, but someone else who did not and was off their bike decided to push their pedal into my front wheel. I had to dismount and rip my wheel from their pedal. I lost a $hitload of position here.

Next bad was still Lap 1 - start of the 2nd half of the lap right after weaving thru all the ponds where you made the sharp left turn (by the buildings) to head up the gravel road section. Some nice gentleman decided to come on my inside (which I did not have a problem with) to make the sharp left turn, but then as we were heading thru the turn side by side he decides he can't hold his line and carries his new line all the way to the outside forcing me off the road and into the brush. Dismount to get back onto the road while I'm cussing the A-Hole! - (I'm thru racing nice when no one else really does!)

Good: Last 2 laps I was pushing pretty hard thru the ponds...pedaling around every corner, even if I would slide on a corner I was holding the bike up pretty well. I was getting a good chuckly with a chasing group trying to close the gap. I could hear a scream every so often as they apparantly were not able to stay upright thru the ponds :)

Good: I was able to ride the short dirt up and down on the backside of the course 3 laps and had to put my foot down at the top on 2 laps to piviot around the corner.

Good: Had a load of fun.

KMan

I took 9th in the Men's C race. Overall, It was a very good race and my best result ever. I started about 3 rows back so I had to do a lot of work early. I was probably around 20th or so into the first right turn. Passing in the grass section of the course was difficult and I found myself sitting on people’s wheels for way to long waiting for an opportunity. I also messed up the remount after the grass run up on all three laps. I couldn't get it down even though I practiced it around 5 times during warm up. I kept riding into the thorn bushes off the back before turning around to ride back down. I also got passed on the gravel section on the last lap. I tried to grab his wheel but was unable to hang on. The legs seemed OK but the mind kind of gave up. It was a great course (much improved over last October) and I'm glad I made the trip from Philly. On to Evo next weekend. I'll also be racing C again. So at what point do you move to B anyway? Is there an unwritten rule somewhere?

So at what point do you move to B anyway? Is there an unwritten rule somewhere?
Good job on grabbing 9th! No, there's no written/unwritten rule in regards to choosing B over C. I just want to get a win in at C for myself. When I'm on the line of my first B race I want to remember that I won a C once, and it'll help me mentally in racing. Know what I mean?

Arby