Cyclocross season is officially over for me. All the effort that goes into it and then it’s gone. I’m empty. I’ll miss it. I need to miss it. It’s hard calling it quits when there’s a couple more races. I was hoping to last through at least the Ice Weasels, and then the New England Cyclocross Championships, but it wasn’t meant to be.
BTW, if you’re around, you should definitely hit up the New England Cyclocross Championships, register here. I hear there’s going to be a flyover, and the chances of actually racing in real cyclocross weather are quite high.
Missing the Ice Weasels hurts a lot, too. It’s one giant celebration of the end of cyclocross season. And everyone who knows me, knows how I appreciate a party. Missing the season closer is a lot like I’m 8 years old, missing the pizza party at the end of soccer season. Bummer.
I mean, did you see the awesome beer that Steen has prepared? That is one tight label.
I usually post photos here, of you. But this post is going to be all about me of photos that YOU took. Let’s go down memory lane, as seen from my Facebook photo stream.
Here’s me and one of my nemesis PJ. He’s a tough wheel to follow as he likes to crash a lot in front of me before sprinting off to wait for me at the finish line. I look like I’ve seen better days, but who doesn’t after 40 minutes at LTHR+?
For the first time ever, I was able to power through the sand at NOHO, thanks to Cort @ Cramer Performance. I also learned such nuanced workouts as: microburts, threshold ladders, cubed, running, and of course, active recovery. Also at NOHO, day #2, I lost 3/4 of my shorts.
At Canton, I doubled up for fitness just to torture myself. I took the beer feed from Ryan White – a shaken, foamy MGD in a can that tasted aweful and gave me a splitting headache by the time I reached the finish line. I’d probably do it a again.
We had a lot of MRC guys racing this year. And we had a lot of MRC guys getting faster and faster, pushing each other to get faster and faster. Faster.
My bike club MRC built the first flyover (that I know of) in New England cyclocross. I had a breakthrough race there finishing 15th. Remember what a beautiful New England fall day that was?%5B3%5D.jpg "73362_443466915207_678745207_5368375_7450864_n (1)")
I spend a lot of time taking photos. Here I’m competing with Caroline Cardiasmenos for “The Shot”.
Getting nipped at the line of Providence, Day #1, by John Plump a teammate who was really fast really sucked. Especially since he was about 50 meters behind me when we hit the pavement. I didn’t think anyone would bother trying to close that kind of gap. Lesson learned: The race isn’t over until you cross the finish line.
Who can forget the Ice Weasel Cometh that took place at sundown. This was the only muddy race of the 2010 New England cyclocross season. We’ve gotten soft here by staying so dry. My bike loved never taking a bath, nor replacing cables. I crashed twice on the first lap and had a terrible finish. It took me only until November before this race dropped off my crossresults.com ranking. There were so many races.
The Grand Prix of Gloucester. Thanks Scott Sweeny for lending me wheels to race on for Day #2. I had two consecutive races of rolling tubulars. On day one, I had my best race happening when I rolled a tubbie right after the pits. Despite nursing my bike half a lap to the pits, I still managed to hang on to 28th. That’s Paul (another nemesis) fixing his dropped chain as I blow by him. Heh…heh…
Suckerbrook. More sand power. First rolled Tubular. And Rob beat me as I was running to the pit carrying my bike.
And these are just the memories I see when I look through the photos I was tagged in on Facebook. I could probably spend several more hours writing and reminiscing, but I do have to get back to work.
Here’s to 2011, which starts at Green Mountain Cyclocross on September 17th, 2011. See you in 283 days.
