Tuesday, October 13, 2009

VERGE Rhode Island Teazer!

Epic weather. Epic Courses. Epic competition.

Have a peak...

Gloss Star!

With 3 x Double Verge Race weekends, I am WAY behind on updates...so I will make this one SHORT!

Sat : full Nor'easter storm in effect. Super mudder = 12th place for me. Not great, but about all I had on the day.

Sun : perfect New England fall day and the BEST Gloucester course ever! I get a wicked HOLESHOT and ride in the front group for 2 laps then slip back a bit to finish 7th.

Here are some pice and a vid!

http://briandavidpierce.com/GPCX/index.html

Vid:

Gran Prix of Gloucester - A Cyclocross Film from Benjamin Eckstein on Vimeo.



Next up Providence Cross Festival!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Good...Not so good. Verge NE Series 1 and 2

This past weekend was the first 2 rounds of a LONG Verge NE Cyclocross Series in Williston VT @ the lovely Catamount Family Center.

After many discussions w/Erika it was decided I would fly solo for this and stay in a hotel with a bike racer friend from Maine, Mike G. As always, thanks to her for taking care of our children while I zoomed away to race my bike!

Sat, 6th OA Elite Masters 35+.
A pretty straightforward but HEAVY course with a sustained grass climb and many open grass sections into the wind. Nothing too technical, but a few gravity cavity type 180's to keep you honest.

I knew in the warm up I had good legs and would also have a front row call up. Then of course I slipped the pedal at the start and was stuck in ~20th place as we crested the climb on lap 1. Doh! I worked hard on lap 2 and rode through a number of folks to get into ~5th, by then Roger, Kevin and Jonny had checked out. The race was for 4th...so I thought.

In my group was Steve P. from Canada, Curtis B from RI and Eric G. from VT. I REALLY felt as if I was the strongest in the group and sat up many times to try to get them all to work together. We had a few mishaps w/Eric and Steve both dumping it in bad sections that caused us all to slow. With about 2 to go I tried to get Curtis off the front (he is my athlete) while I covered Steve and Eric. I think he was a bit flat as he could not seal the deal and we rolled back to him. In the end, Curtis rolled off the front of the group and got away to get 4th...almost catching a fading Jon Bold in the process. I rolled through in 6th...

Sunday dawned as forecasted...RAINY!! My complacent racing from Saturday would be a mistake as I struggled in the slop and technical track to a 15th place. The last 1-2 laps I just "rolled around" and left VT with my tail between my legs.

One lesson learned was...NEVER give up race positions when you are trying to score points for a season long series. The difference between 4th and 6th on Sat was substantial and I might need those points at season end.

On to Gloucester!!