Dan Action

But baby, it’s cold outside. December 3, 2007

Well, it’s drawing near; the end of my perennial stay here in New England. I have bought my ticket back to Florida and am preparing what little belongings I have for my trip. The boxes get fewer each time i move. I am pretty sure I can get everything I have been living with in my little closet inside the boxes of the bikes I am shipping and a few essentials in a carry-on bag for the flight.

I am going back to Gainesville for my last time. The strain that living somewhere between two places within the span of a year is wearing on me, not to mention my budget. That said, I go there this time well equipped with a goal for my training. This season spent racing Elite has shown me just how high the bar is set and I plan to get closer to it still. Nonetheless, past this coming spring I will be finding a place to set my stuff down for a while again. That place will not be Gainesville, but it will also, most assuredly, not be Providence, though I am sure I will be in the Northeast still.

It is here that I want to continue testing myself as far as racing ‘cross goes. Yeah, I want to travel to other parts of the country, and, dare I say it: world, to race and observe, but it is here that my gauges are set. The talent here runs the complete spectrum, and it won’t be a scene I would ever be able to outgrow or out race. Moving to another part of the country like the mid-west or North Carolina where ‘cross is not so developed as it is here would just be a cop-out to me, like going back to racing in the B’s here. I guess there’s always the Northwest, but for an east-coaster like myself, I might have a hard time with it. The hospitality, competition, and camaraderie afforded me throughout my short time racing ‘cross here has been wonderful, to say the least.

With that, let me get onto some racing reports.

Sterling: There is something about racing in Sterling that somehow breeds disaster for me. Earlier in the year at MRC’s road race there, I had my good chances of a win blown by a stack-up at the front, leaving me to chase for four laps or so and pick up whatever places I could. Last year’s cx race there, I was so maxxed out that I had to drop out, the first time that had ever happened to me.

This year I felt OK despite a stressful weekend with or without the race, I was in the top twenty of the, admittedly, ill-attended race when I put down another attack only to have a spoke break. I deflated. Thirty seconds after I dragged my sorry bike off the course, the leaders passed through. I had no wheels in the pit, and even if I did, there wouldn’t have been enough time to save me from getting lapped anyway. It can be pretty hard on a guy when you interject a race into an already full schedule only to have such a disappointing time about it. It felt like some fruitless search or something equally as melodramatic. Oh yeah, it was COLD out. Every part of the course that had thawed out had re-frozen for our race, ruts and all.

Speaking of the aforementioned MRC, I attended their race in Wrentham, MA. Sunday afternoon. It was colder than it was at Sterling, prompting me to not want to show up too early, but I did get there in time to watch Gewilli race and get to chat with Jack Madden, who had a pretty good race himself. I watched the masters race and my trepidations towards racing in weather so cold to hold of me as I saw the ice beard on Gewilli. Fuck that. But there I was on the line, though I refused to drop the scarf I was wearing. I guess they were staging people according to Crossresults.com’s figures, which are a bit lost on me; either way I didn’t hear anything about staging on the line anyway. Off we went; the course is awesome and it was definitely heartening to see a good number of folks sticking around to cheer in the frigid temps, which, I think, speaks a lot of the folks of MRC’s charisma, energy, and ability to procure free beer. I was feeling pretty good, but in the first or second lap, on the singletrack I was behind someone going decidedly slower than the lead group I was shooting up to, increasing a gap to one that I would not be able to close. Then something wierd happened. I must’ve got something in my eye which caused it to start watering profusely, which in turn, somehow despite being saline, froze. That turn of events rendered my right eye useless, and the continued watering made the cold air feel like it was going directly into my brain. I tried not to let up much, but I lost my front wheel in a simple turn due to impaired vision, and the fire went out in me a little. I raced alone for a lap or two, then waited up for Adam Sullivan, who was coming up on me. We rode the rest of the race together, but at the end I thought we could give the crowd a sprint-for-eighth show, but Adam didn’t get the message. I kind of felt a little foolish after crossing the line. Oh, well. I went home a bit hard on myself for not making the top five of this race, which should have been the case, but wasn’t. I think I am on the glasses train after this one, though. Thanks go out to Scott G. for getting me out to the race, and in turn, being the biggest reason I finished the race. The other, was figuring I was going to be cold either way, racing or not, so why not finish the race?