episode 122: autograph

And so it begins. Today. the pure genius that is Mike Kuhn, hosted the MASS relay championships at the Osterling farm. The concept is a 4 man relay race around a short fast loop (roughly 15 minutes for the expert men). the 2007 Mighty Spot Brand Factory Team presented by Twin Six.

Now given that the top 7 or so placing teams were all expert men , the handicapping will need to be more aggressive next year. I'd love to see an overall champion and a handicapped champ who would get the big silver cup. My vision would be to see a team of sport/beginner women take home the cup.

But i digress, and really want to stress how much fun, how great this race was. I have said it before, ill say it again Mike Kuhn is a genius and comes up with outstanding, and incredibly fun race ideas. This might be his best so far. I tip my hat to you Mike Kuhn.

Bob warms it up.

We had three teams working out of our compound today. Two Spot Brand teams, presented of course by twinsix, and a delaware cyclocross coalition of delaware team. The spot teams were : bob, matt, buddy and I, then Fitzy, Paul, E-town and jon filling in for Diane who now has my flu.

Ethan sporting the sweet new FSVS designs.

The DCCoD team was Jan, Rob, Dan and Tom. Both teams were splashed with the new Henry's pink kit. All three teams rode very well, and had a ton of fun. Perhaps highlighted by Rob's last lap being completed in his "skin suit" if you catch my drift.

The bob, matt, buddy, and I team finished the highest from our compound, with a 7th place run out of 52 starting teams. There was some pretty serious meat out there today. Really fast guys like this guy, who is way faster than that bad moustache would allow you to believe.
For me the race really went better than I had expected. I'm still hacking up some ugly stuff, and was definitely the lead ass on my team, I really didn't want to let the guys down. Isn't that the beauty of this team stuff? Now, i know I have much better to look forward to, and as soon as I am healthy, I am really looking forward to killing it.

All day we battled with a Wild Blues team made up of Zach Adams , the Alesio boys and Mike Laub. They gaped us early, through the middle we fought back opened up a almost 2 minute lead, but couldn't put them away. Very surely, they began to eat into our time.

As the last two riders went out, Zach Adams (my fort frames teammate) and I headed out together to decide the battle of our teams. My transition was a bit smoother, and i got a quick little gap, through the first couple of short quick climbs, I felt like I grew it a bit. Up the field climb in to the twisty single track I felt Zach breathing down my neck. That first section of single track was tough for me, each lap I found myself pedaling squares here. Zach saw that and attacked around me. It was a strong move. By the time I got my cadence up, he had quickly opened up about a 10 second gap. As the single track pointed upwards again, I gained a little ground. We both turned onto the final false flat double track, and I pinned it, I got close, but not close enough, Zach made the corner and the down hill in front of me. I had hoped that I get close enough and pressure Zach on the decent, and maybe he'd bobble, and I could jump him. No such luck, as he was very smooth and although I closed, it wasn't enough as he beat me he me to the opening and jumped on it, I reacted trying to cut his lead down but it was too late, I was running out of real estate. Zach held me off by six seconds in the end. Damn.

Paul and Fitzy in the transition area.

Zach is a good kid, almost 20 years younger than me. He works hard, and frankly had a lap that was 6 seconds better than mine. That's life. On one hand, I wasn't happy to be caught and lose a spot in the last 1/2 lap of a race, especially after how brillantly my teammates rode today. On the other, I was really proud of Zach. I played my best cards, he played his, and his were 6 seconds faster. Oh well.

Buddy the leg breaker- showing that pink is the new black.

If I wanted to Monday morning quarterback this thing, I'd say my transitions sucked all day as I seemed to struggle getting the batton in and out of my shorts. Over the course of 8 transitions, if I could have shaved a second off each transition , I would have been 2 seconds ahead of Zach. Yeah, that's a stretch, and truth be told, I left it all out there, so after cooling down, and keeping myself from vomiting, I have to say, I was pleased with my ride, and will sleep well tonight. Today was such a fun day !!!

Gentle Ben.

Thanks to Tom for bringing the trailer and the heater, thanks for bringing the heckletron 3000. Really there's no better way to cheer for a race than through a mega phone.

Thanks to my great teammates, Buddy, Bob and Matt who pulled my leadass around today. Before the race, I told them they all needed to be at least 30 seconds faster than normal to make up for my ass. They were. Fitzy, Ethan, Jon and Paul did a great job manning the second Spot team and all seemed to have wonderful rides. The DccoD team rode very strong as well. Tom rode rollers on a mountain bike, and Rob Thomas continues to amaze me with his strong rides. Jan, who now wishes to be called Jens, (jan is a doper), used his huge engine to ride to a great race. When that guy learns how to turn, we are all in trouble. Dan has a nasty spill, but is a way better mountain biker than he wants to let on.

Thanks again to Mike Kuhn and all the visit pa guys for hosting this great event, and for kicking everyone's ass. Good to you all. I look forward to this again next year for sure.

Amy showing that black is the new pink.

oh, almost forgot, some kids walked up to me and asked me for my autograph after the race, that was really strange and weird. I didn't know what to write so I signed it "good luck, stay in school- fatmarc" That was stupid. My guess is, little girls like pink, and we were busting it out big time today.

thanks for reading.

good luck and stay in school.
fm.