Dan Action

Locals Only November 19, 2007

    Not to be dissuaded or outdone by the U.S.G.P. races in Jersey, the nearest reach towards New England that series is making this year, the folks at Cheshire Cycles held their race this past weekend.  Not too enthralled by the idea of embarking on the expensive journey to Trenton to receive a trouncing, I was pretty excited to go to this one, another well done, decently attended, and plain fun race.

As my first year racing elite, I find myself in a category not fast enough to compete with the pros at the larger races, but fast enough to get in the top ten at local, smaller races.  I suppose it is just the nature of the nether-region known as Cat. 2.  I am so grateful for the sheer number of races, promoters and venues available to us races here in New England.  I am also always so sweetly fond of the quality and talent of the racers at any given event.  It’s at races like Canton, Sucker Brook, or Cheshire that these things I adore really come to light.

It’s not that I don’t want to keep the bar raised for myself, and it’s not like I have much, if any laurels to be resting on, but I can now see just how much faster I’m going to have to be  in the future to be able to be competitive in my field, and I like to take those lumps in intermittent doses.  Enter the local races, where, especially when scheduled on a weekend with UCI races relatively close by, promoters bound by a short season and a tight calendar seem grateful for the racers who come out, racers who can’t or don’t want to travel, or are just after some easier payouts seem grateful for the races themselves, and the fans, if Cheshire is to be any kind of a gauge, are rabid.  It is here I find myself battling it out with the folks in the same sort of mid-ground I find myself racing at. Too proud to go back to racing B’s, but fresh to the elites.  The atmosphere is relaxed, but the competition is fierce and fun.

It was this race where  finally got to hang out a bit with Matt from the Ghostship outfitters.  Every other interaction had been me trying to pry dollar bills from his hand from the race course.  Hannah and I got him back, hoisting a few bills ourselves as he made his way around the course Saturday morning; roles were reversed.  Their stuff is rad, and only to be matched by their enthusiasm.  They are making ‘cross just as fun as they think it should be.

Briefly, the race review.  The course was super fun and featured a lot of single-track. I ended up fourth in my race. it was cold, fans were, as before mentioned, wild, and my numb feet nailed a barrier at a pretty crucial point in the race, kicking me back to not being able to contest the top three.  I felt pretty worked over by the end of the race, so you know it was well done.