pre-race, perfection, execution meeting:
you're god damn right Leo is on the list...
gratuitous tower shot...
Usually it would be faux paux to say that the event you help promote is your favorite cross course ever. But since I have no hand in course design this year at all, I can say the way the course rode tonight, this is my favorite cross course ever. Tom has taken it to another level. He has been simply inspired. I am very excited to see how it races... Now about barrier placement...
see 521 (at 3:23 AM) of you on Saturday. If you haven't registered yet, better do it now, only 12 hours to go...
Thanks to Dennis Smith for the great pictures.
respect
fatmarc
"this is not an event put on by one man, or one group, but by a community of teams/people who recognize the importance of giving back to the sport that has given them so much."
"I can't think of another race that works by committee like ours, but it works for us..."
3 comments:
get some sleep! ;-)
i'm stoked for the w-end.
I'm going to get my ass completely kicked by this race, and in all likelihood Granogue will not stop there but will hand me that ass in a sling toward the end of my race and I will drive home wondering how many different ways I can get beat down by a single event and a single venue. I'm convinced that the 'cross course cannot get enough of beating my ass, and it speaks to the Granogue Mountain Bike XC course over the winter, and asks it to beat my ass again in the spring, just as a special favor between friends. The cross course is always lovely to look at, an aesthetically perfect experience (except for that bit by the greenhouse, but I won't let that detract from the overall), and riding it and racing on this course touches me in a way that only a couple of my favorite rides do, even though the combination of relentless climbing and complicated, technical downhill bits overmatches my skills and fitness consistently. I can't wait to see the tweaks; I suspect they will be like fresh strawberries to go with the crossy champagne we're served each year. The MAC competition will be a lot stiffer than the local association competition, as usual. I could be on top of my game in all respects, and would still get crushed here.
But I don't care about all the difficulties. The scenery, the racing and the atmosphere guarantee I'd come back year after year, even if they applied my name to a trophy for DFL finisher and told me I couldn't drink beer after the race. It is that nice of an event that I can't adequately describe how much I look forward to it each year. It's one of a handful of races that go on my calendar on January 1 each year when I put my annual goals into my training log - it's automatic, no questions asked. My wife doesn't even have to ask about whether I'm planning to go, instead she asks: "when are you racing in Delaware in October?" sometime in June, when planning family vacation time for the fall. We mark the years and seasons by events, not dates, the way medieval Christians marked the passage of time using a succession of religious feast days. The little monuments in my season start with Charm City, and hit a peak with the stretch that starts with Granogue, and runs through DCCX and the Tacchino, with Reston bookmarking the season at the other end. These events give meanings to the cold training rides in March, the gasping intervals of August, and the effort it takes to roll yourself out of bed and go ride when the weather turns cold again in the fall.
Thanks for putting it together.
so where is your RR.
marc, I LOVE CX!!!
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