Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Cycle Smart International in Northhampton, MA. My first New England cross experience was years ago back when the CSI was at U Mass. It's become a traditional pilgrimage for us. This is one of my favorite weekends every year. This year was a notch even better. My brother Craig lives close to Northhampton. His amazing wife and kids are all so generous to let us crash at their place, as we all bound to the races and around town. This year we worked in Halloween.
I have had the extreme pleasure of racing with Craig 6 times this year. Competing in the same race, working together, pushing each other is something that I know is pretty damn special. It brings back memories of when we were all kids wrestling and my 3 brothers and I would travel to tournaments stuffed in my folks mini-van or even with Bob Watson and the Walnut YMCA team. These days there's more food and beer involved, but really - a season of a life time.
here are some random thoughts and memories from the weekend:
I need a haircut. Badly.
Halloween in Shelburne Falls is a magic. It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown, Maleficent, dude dressed as Jerry Garcia passing out hot-dogs off his grill magic. Maybe the best Halloween ever.
At one point I was holding Maleficent's staff, and an older (high school) trick or treater walked by and said to me, "nice staff Gandalf "... Another high school kid came by the first and said, "hey man, you got any weed?" (not directed to me) which somehow turned into "Hey Gandalf, you got any weed?" Which we laughed about for quite a while...
So the kids went to this one door to trick or treat, and they appeared to be having a pretty rad grown up party going on. The woman gave the kids some candy and asked, "are you guys the parents?" To which I answered, "well, I'm dressed as a parent!" She smiled and said, "that sounds a little creepy, do I need to call someone?" More laughter.
Berkshire Coffee Porter is really good. It was flowing like a river this weekend.
Putting a Go Pro on a my 8 year old newphew's bike and going pre-riding with him. It's pretty rad.
Diane rode her cross bike for the first time in a year. Yeah, it was a sexy jean lap. Yeah, she can't do run ups yet, but it was pretty rad.
Saturday's race was fun. I over started, ended up dangling off the group from the 3rd lap on.
it was fun in a painful way.
My only disappointment Saturday is that I was hesitant a bit in the corners, not aggressive enough. I know when I write this next line some of you will think I'm crazy, but many of you will know exactly what I'm talking about. I raced in gloves that I hadn't raced in before, and they weren't good. I didn't have good touch, and I blame the gloves for sub-par bike driving Saturday. Yup, the gloves- seriously.
Craig got McCormacked by a Junior McCormack in the final corner as he was sprinting to win his group Saturday. Seriously young mccormack jammed him into a stake on the final corner...
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| Craig was railing corners all weekend! |
Hanging with Mega is always a win. There was a lot of laughter going on at our tent spot.
Saturday Night Craig and Beth made an incredible meal and Matt, Janet, Heather, all the kids, joined Bill, LVG,Diane and I for a fun night and probably too many porters as we joked and the kids bombed around. It was awesome.
Sunday was cold. And the wind was brutal. The wind was really brutal. Our EZ-Ups started to get blown away taking Beth and Diane with them Mary Poppins style. It was that windy.
Sunday I had the worst start of my life. Like miss my pedal can't get clipped in for the first 500 yards bad. I just tried to stay cool, and move when I could. Man, that was bad.
In my mind Sunday's course was less technical, but it also had a ton more flow. There were a couple really fun fast, loose corners... I had better gloves on today, and felt like I drove much more effectively.
Lots of time in the drops Sunday.
Spent the last two laps kinda out on my own with a HUGE group breathing down my neck.
Thanks to the Joe and the fine folks at Joe's Garage and Team who took Monk and I in this weekend. Thanks Johnny M, and Matt.
Amazingly, I finished in the exact spot both days. this is like the fourth time this has happened to me when doing a New England weekend.Weird huh?
Diane had a super fun ride Sunday around North Hampton. The bike infrastructure here is amazing.
Beth made the best pumpkin muffins ever. SO GOOD.
Okay, I'm pretty shattered.
Thanks for reading.
respect
fatmarc
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