"Nope that is not Laura Murray's Bike" - Kutztown and Rockburn races

Dear Readers,

First to the many folks that asked today if this :

Hipster Bike for work...

was Laura Murray's bike, the answer is no. It is my hipster bike/pit single speed cross bike.
Yup, I expect a fine in the mail from the director for this one. But I've been wanting a beater steel bike for awhile, and  I had a box of parts.. So there it is. It was fun to ride on the pump track at Rockburn today..
Thanks to Sven Nystrom for the guided tour.

dirty 'stache coming on slowly

Second, I have realized that I race cross better with facial hair. I can't explain why, but I do. And it appears it doesn't matter how bad the facial hair is. this is a proud product of C3's movember movement. (7 days in I got a late start)

Kutztown day 1 single speed.
Race was advertised for 30 minutes, I figured it would be a 4 lap race or so. I heard something about a 3 lap race on the line, but wasn't sure. Game plan was to start hard, and try to follow Appletans to the best of my ability. He generally eats my lunch. I got a good start, the Kutztown course suited my strengths, lots of corners, lots of jumping out of corners, I got a gap. At the end of one, I saw that it was going to be a 3 lap race, so I stayed on the gas. Ryan Dudek was in charge of the "official PA Series Single Speed Feats of Strength Section" that involved him throwing meat and spicy mustard in your mouth as you rode by. Must say they were the most efficient sausage feeds I have ever had in a cross race. Ryan did comment on the saliva, mustard nastiness that started to form in the corner of my mouth. At the end of the day it was a little weird, and I was a little disappointed that the race was short of the 30 minutes, but really I got nothing to complain about:

Bologna anyone?

What can I say, racing and eating came together for me pretty nicely.

Rockburn. Single Speed.
By far the deepest single speed field I raced in this year. The course was super dry, and really fast. The first lap blood was seriously shooting out of my eyes. Seriously. I haven't done Rockburn in a couple of years, but if felt like it was less technical than I remembered it.

But I digress. The top 5 guys got pretty clear, and with 2 to go, I sat in a nice group w/ Chris (bicycle outfitters) Luther (NCVC), and Clark (Nuts About Granola) charging at the front. Clark had a mechanical, which caused him to pull out w/ 1 1/2 to go. He was the strongest in our group.

Last lap, Luther, Chris and I are grouped together. Luther is on a mountain bike and he bunny-hops a large
 natural barrier that Chris and I have to run. I try to run in front of Luther, and at least keep him in the group. He  puts a good shoulder into me, all fair, all clean, and starts to take off. Chris responds, and I'm starting to get dropped... "get there" I say to myself. Up the final hill, I come off Chris's wheel and charge for Luther who had gotten a little gap when I tried to block him and  he shoulder checked me (totally clean and fun racing). I had one last technical section that Luther was riding, that frankly running was faster. I get close enough that I think with my run, will put me in front just before hitting the pavement for the final 200 meters. Then Luther ran the section. Crap. I didn't make the pass, and rolled in 20 meters or so behind him.

It was a good race, I was happy with the effort. All in all a good weekend...

to the kids at Rockburn cheering for me, "go full skin-suit guy!" thank you for cheering, but they were leg warmers, not a full length, full legged skin-suit...

thanks for reading.

respect
fatmarc