NECCS #3 Gloucester Race Report

Elite
32/72

One Race Wonder
As scheduled, I made the day trip down to MA for the 2nd of the 2 “New England Worlds” races held in Gloucester. See, I coach our school’s mountain bike team and we have races every Saturday until November. Funny thing was, the HS race was cancelled due to rain and for a moment, I realized I could make it down to hit up the CX race. Then I looked at the radar and MA was getting walloped by rain and I came to my senses and stayed home. I made the most out of the opportunity to spent QT with the family celebrating Fenix’s 6th birthday at Margarita’s and a movie (a fitting one given the day's weather, especially in Gloucester).

The Gloucester races have been a bit of an Achilles heel for me over the years. I’ve flatted twice, been hung up in other folks’ issues, been lapped and generally disliked the wide open trait of the course. so my expectations were limited but I was eager to go out and race and I was determined to at least work on my start. What better place to do it?

I arrived and kitted up for course inspection under mostly cloudy skies and mild temps. I checked the condition of racers’ bikes and bodies and saw no signs of mud. Turns out the remodeled course from the day before was virtually bone dry and actually tacky. Additionally, it was fairly technical, almost dizzingly so. I was stoked. After a good warmup on the trainer I lined up 4th row and took off with the whistle. I was surprised at the room I had as we rounded the road bend up the hill and I reminded myself to take advantage and move up as much as possible. I did a fair job of it and figure I was at worst top-40. I held my ground until the course got into the more techy stuff and then it was battling the bobbles ahead of me. At 1 point there was a hold-up in a u-turn section that was totally rideable and I got hooked on a course stake. I was off the bike now and didn’t want to lose spots so I kept moving forward while trying to untangle myself. I hear someone saying “Stop, stop, stop!” and I’m wondering why I haven’t gotten loose yet. I look back and see I’m pulling Colin and his bike around as his front wheel is hung up on my handlebars! This was an absurd game of Twister. Somehow he freed us up and we were once again underway. My issue is once again saved for eternity thanks to Colin’s seat cam here. I lost touch with the group for a bit and was alone briefly but then caught back on to Colin’s group that had a couple of Embrocation guys in it. As we hit the start/finish road section they slowed and I thought it was a recovery period but I wanted to keep moving up. Turns out the course routed us off the road and onto a nasty off-camber section that I totally missed on the pre-ride. I went into it HOT and hung on for dear life! Thanks to my TOP-MOUNT brakes I made it out alive albeit after losing the positions I just gained.

Thanks to Zach Magoon for the cool pics
I settled back in and set out to pick off as many riders as I could ahead. I had to keep reminding myself chances were I had fresher legs than the others and I needed to capitalize on their bobbles in the corners and try to outsprint them out of them. Some guys just can’t ride this stuff.

The laps were long, but overall fun. At one point I came through the start/finish checking for the lap cards to gauge how much more I needed to put out but couldn’t find one. I heard lots of cowbells and thought for a bit this might be my last lap so I dug in for about half a lap. Then I heard announcer Fries talking about the leaders had 2 to go and I was like oh dang I hope I didn’t burn out. I made some final passes over the last laps, used Burns trailing behind me as motivation, and used the KCCX/Verge rider ahead of me as the carrot. Turns out I finished where I started 32nd. I was totally satisfied.

Next up is a duty weekend here on the Hill, then it’s the local Casco Bay event, then the double in ME.

3 final thoughts on the day:
Best Gloucester course evah
Worst lap card placement evah
Best racing experience at Gloucester evah