Second Fiddle

For the third race in a row, I finished second at a CX race. Last week at the Tacchino Race I finished second and then this weekend I did two Ohio CX Races and finished both in the number two position. Not that placing second in a race is a bad thing, but winning is certainly more fun. Without a doubt, few things can compare to the feeling of a win. But, even though I only finished second at both races this weekend, I still felt like a winner because both races were super fun.

On Saturday, I competed at the Team Lake Effect Cyclocross Race in Kent, OH. The course was an interesting mix of fast grassy field type riding mixed with an almost equal amount of mtb style double track. Being more of a mtb racer than a road racer, I thought the course design would suite my skills very well after pre-riding it. The start of the race was a bit crazy with about 20 riders (instead of the typical 8) lined up on the front row and all wanting to win the sprint into the first gravel to grass transition turn. After the first lap, things did calm down some and a group of about six of us began to separate from the rest of the pack. Towards the beginning of the second lap, however, Matt Weeks threw a pretty hard attack going into a turn which transitioned from grass to gravel to asphalt. Matt carried a little too much speed into the turn, which caused him to go down directly in front of me. I am still not sure how I did not go down with him, but I am glad to have survived the carnage. From this point in the race, the lead group was whittled down to me, Steve Cummings, Shawn Adam and Ernesto Marenchin. Steve-o then got away from the group in the wooded section and began his individual TT to the finish. Ernie, Shawn and I were left in the chase for second place with a constant battle for position going on between us. At the end, I was able to work my way to the front of our little pack during the finishing stretch and hold on to the spot for second overall.

I did the OVCX - Alan Infirmary Hill CX Race just outside Columbus in Granville, OH on Sunday. At this race, I had the choice of either doing the elite master race, the elite race, or actually doing both races. I started the masters race with the game plan of also doing the elite race in my mind. I think this might have caused me to take things a little too conservatively on the first couple of laps. In addition to my lackadaisical start, I also got hit in the eye by a low hanging pine tree branch that kind of obstructed my vision for a lap or so and then had another racer almost take me out when his attempt to bunny hop a barrier failed. But, even after all of this, I still made it into the lead group of the top five riders. One rider, Fred Rose, was able to get a gap on the rest of our group on either the third or fourth lap. A lap or so later only Phil Noble and I were left in the chase after Fred. Phil and I made a few attempts to get away from one another, but pretty much rode the rest of the race together. At the end, I was able to make it into the last turn in the lead spot, which allowed me to win the sprint for my third second place in three races. After my effort in this race, I had no desire to immediately inflict more pain on myself by doing the elite race, especially with only 15 minutes to recover in between the two events.

So, yeah, both races, even as the second fiddle, were good fun. I am sure the fact that both races were held on fast, dry courses added to the pleasure of racing this weekend. It is not often during cross season that I get to race two weeks in a row without mud, so it certainly has been a nice treat to race mud free recently. This coming weekend I will be racing at the WVMBA CX Race in Bruceton Mills, WV on Saturday and at the Team Lake Effect CX Race at Kirkland Park in Cleveland on Sunday. The cross season is winding down, so come on out to the races and play before the season is gone.

Happy Trails, Gerry

Crowd Control

Due to my occupation, I have received quite a bit of training in the methods of managing and controlling large groups of people. During this training, I have learned there is always a chance that a large group of people can become disorderly when they converge in one area, perhaps even to the point of causing a riot. With proper crowd control techniques, though, like those displayed at the recent G20 Conference in Pittsburgh, a riotous crowd can be well managed and controlled. This past weekend it would have been nice to use some of my crowd control training to separate a group of people from me. This group I was focused on spliting up was not a posse of disorderly Anarchists, but a pack of rowdy cross racers all shooting for victory.

This past weekend I did two cross races; the MAC Fair Hill CX Race and at the MABRA Tacchino CX Race. Neither race was super crowded or anything, with each having about 40-50 riders in the elite master category, but since I have not done any MABRA or MAC Races so far this season my starting position was staged near the rear of the pack. Starting position is so important at a cross race because unlike road or mtb racing, there are usually no long climbs or areas to allow the riders to separate quickly. Additionally, cross courses are typically only about 3 meters wide, so on the first couple of laps things can bottleneck at technical points on the course pretty often. Take all this into consideration with the fact that the fastest series riders are staged at the front of the pack, giving them a clear, unobstructed shot to go full speed on the course. Meanwhile, riders staged in the back of the pack must work their way through the crowd even to get near the front.

At the US Cross Nationals this December, I will be starting at least 40 riders back in the master men 40-44 race and about 90 riders back in the single speed race, so my plan for racing this past weekend was to use my bad starting positions for practice in moving through riders staged and starting ahead of me. In my opinion, the only way to learn how to move through a lot of riders quickly is to do it during a race. At both races this weekend, I was able to practice riding through two fairly large packs of racers before it will really count in December and actually did pretty well at it.

On Saturday, at the MAC Race, I started four rows back and by about 1.5 laps into the race I was able to make it through the majority of the riders who started in front of me. The only problem was that a group of five fast riders (all of whom started in the first row) had separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Then, from about lap 2 or 3, I was forced to chase this group by myself, which is never a good place to be in any race. A few times during the race I did get pretty close to the group, but never close enough to completely bridge the gap by putting out one huge effort. I ended up finishing the race in 6th place, directly behind the breakaway group of five.

On Sunday, my starting position was in the third row, so it was one row better than on Saturday. My start was not great, but I was able to latch onto the lead group by the middle of the first lap. From there, I was able to continue working my way through the main group into the top three riders. After the main front group of about 4-5 riders solidified, I then started to throw some attacks off the front of the pack and keep the pace of our small group pretty high with the help of Blair Saunders. Unfortunately, Blair suffered a mechanical on the last lap, which left me all alone with Dave Fuentes. I knew Dave would have a better sprint than me, so I did try to get away from him a few times during the last lap, but none of my efforts were good enough to get clear. At the finish, Dave did win the race and I came in second.

All in all, I am pretty happy with my results from this past weekend and my ability to quickly work through the riders that started in front on me. After reviewing my performance from the weekend, I realize now that I should have probably been just a little more aggressive at getting around riders on Saturday to make contract with the group of five in front of me. Hopefully, I will make a mental note of what I did right and wrong at each of these races and learn from them for nationals. Of course if I didn’t do well this weekend at getting through the crowd, I could always resort back to my professional training and use my riot baton to take a more forceful approach of gaining control over the rowdy group of cyclocrossers in front of me, as this has certainly been proven as an effective method in separating most groups. I am sure, though, that the sanctioning bodies of the cycling community would not be too happy with this action.

Happy Trails, Gerry

It's been a long season

I did my first race of the year on March 29th and have pretty much raced every weekend since then. So far this season, I have done 33 races and there are still ten more on my schedule to do until I will take my winter break. Surprisingly, even with doing this much racing, I do not feel tired or like I am close to burning out. As long as I am having fun at what I am doing, I will continue racing. I will admit, though, that the Marilla Cross Race this past Saturday was almost enough to break me from racing again on Sunday at the Chagrin River Lake Effect Cyclocross Series Race in Ohio.

Yes, Marilla was bad. Pretty much the whole course was covered in two inches of slimy mud by the time the "A" race started. I really don't mind racing in the mud. It is the clean-up and mess afterwards that is such a burden to me. Not only is the bike trashed, but all the clothing and everything else just seems to take forever to properly clean. After the race on Saturday, I wasn't too sure that I would want to clean everything I made a mess of on Saturday, only to take it back out on Sunday and destroy it again. Well, I did get everything clean and after sitting in my hot tub for awhile, I soon forgot the misery of Marilla and decided to race in Cleveland on Sunday.

As unhappy I was with all my cleaning chores this weekend, I was happy with my race results. At Marilla, I finished 2nd after battling with Mike Mihalik for 60 minutes. It was a lot of fun trying to find the fastest lines in the mess of mud out there, especially with me either chasing Mike or having him right on my tail. With about a lap to go, I slid out on a slightly off camber section. Mike was able to get about a ten second gap on me after this mishap and I just couldn't close it with a lap to go. Oh well, a nicer guy couldn't have taken the win and I can accept being the first loser of the race.

Even though there was mud at Chagrin on Sunday, it was nothing like the Marilla Race. Basically, there was just one deep mud puddle on the course to make things a mess on Sunday. The rest of the course was pretty fast, but definitely not a typical cross course. The course was more of a short track mountain bike course, but still a great time to ride. In a way, the course made me feel like I was racing in a Belgian Forest or something, with the transition from bright open sunny fields to dark, rooted trails winding between pine trees. Adding to this ambience was the large open pit fire with smoke blowing into the trees. On the first lap, Matt Weeks and I pulled away from the other riders. We worked pretty good together until there was about three laps to go, when I fell off his fast pace. I thought that I had second pretty much wrapped up, but Shawn Adams came on super strong after taking a fresh bike from the pit and eventually catching me. I tried to hang with him on the last two laps, but I was pretty much fried by that time. I managed to finish third on the day, with Shawn coming around Matt for the win.

The one constant about both races was the amount of excitement that the spectators at the race created. It is always so cool to see people cheering you on during the race. I know it certainly makes me ride harder and also makes the pain more bearable. So, thanks to everyone that endured the nasty elements out there during the two races this weekend and made my racing even more fun. Like I said at the beginning, racing is all about having fun; that is why I am usually smiling at a race. Yeah, it has been a long season for me, but I am still having fun. Happy Trails, Gerry


Thanks to JR Pesko for the above photo and if your are interested in seeing more shots from the Marilla CX Race, checkout this link: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnatures.smugmug.com%2FSports%2FCycling%2FMarilla-Cyclocross-2009%2F10158414_7bULZ%23698846913_jxWEV&h=1a8605e9615fc9d69a14716aba9dfda9

Staying Local

After traveling all over the US this summer doing long, hard races, it has been nice to stay fairly close to home and do some local races. This past weekend I was lucky enough to do two super local cross races that were actually in the Pittsburgh Area instead of Ohio or east of the Susquehanna. Don’t get me wrong, I do like to travel for cross, but I think it is also good to take a break from traveling whenever there is chance, especially when the local races are so much fun and competitive. So, anyway, this past Saturday, I did the Murraysville Cyclocross race put on by Fred Baldasarre and his Team FU Members. On Sunday, Gary Dugovich put on another one of his sweet cross races. It was so nice having two quality races within a short driving distance.

This was year number two for the Murraysville race, but other than it being a little bit warmer, I would have thought it was a re-play from last year with all the mud. It was so muddy that I actually decided to do a cyclocross sin and race my 29er with cross tires instead of my cross bike. Initially it seem like a good choice, but as the race went on I started to feel sluggish on the 29er. I ended up pitting my 29er for my cross bike with 3 laps to go, probably 1 lap latter than I should have made the decision. I immediately felt a difference in my ride and started making up time on the riders in front of me. With about a quarter lap to go, I was about to catch the 3rd place rider, Kevin Kralik, when I overshot a turn and went over a steep hill. I was so wrapped up in the course tape that I couldn’t stop until the bottom of the hill. After coming to a stop, I had to run back up the hill with my bike and re-enter the course. I really thought that my heart was going to explode in my chest after that run-up. Somehow, even after all this, I was still able to finish fourth at the extremely muddy race.

After cleaning up my two bikes from Saturday, I was not too anxious to destroy them again in the mud on Sunday at the Raccoon Cyclocross Race. I decided to bring my single speed cross bike along with my geared bike to Raccoon , since it seemed to work well at the first Raccoon CX Race this year and because it is so easy to clean after a muddy ride. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to first see a fairly long road section on the course and secondly that course was not too muddy overall. Because of this, I was able to stay on my geared bike during the whole race without having any issues. Matt Weeks, Steve Cummings and I escaped pretty early in the race. Matt was riding hard at the front of our group. His pace was enough to drop Steveo off of our threesome and I was then dropped about a lap and a half latter. After falling from Matts pace, I joined up with a revitalized Steveo and managed to hang with him until there was a little more than a lap to go. At the end it was Matt in first, Steveo second and me in third.

Thanks to Team Freddie FU and Gary Dugovich for all of your hard work at putting on two great cross races. This coming weekend, there is actually another fairly local cross race in Morgantown, WV, the Marilla Cross, which is a must do event. On Sunday, I will headed back up to the Cleveland Area for another Team Lake Effect Cross Event, Chagrin River CX.

Hope to see everyone out there. Happy Trails, Gerry

Thanks to Vaugh Wallace for the photo.

Team Spin CX

Since doing the Cross My Heart and Hope to Die Cyclocross Race put on by Team Spin in Willoughby, OH last year, I have been patiently awaiting the return of this race. Well, this past Saturday my year long wait ended and I was again not disappointed with this outstanding event.

The course was changed this year, but all of the changes made were for the better. First, the crazy start going through the picnic pavilion on the 2008 course was removed and replaced with a much safer and wide open grass launching pad. The overall direction of the course was changed from counterclockwise to the opposite direction, which seemed to make the course flow better. The third, and most significant change was the removal of the nasty mud/water pit, which was on the 2008 course. Finally, the course was made better by the addition of more technical features like a massive spiral of death.

I expected the course to be super wet and saturated from all the rain we received during the past week, but the conditions were much better than I expected. Additionally, it did not rain on race day, which was a most pleasant surprise from what was initially being forecasted in the weather. Of course, sections of the course were muddy, but everything other than the crazy long run-up was able to be ridden. This run-up is the trade mark feature of this course and in my opinion should never be removed. It just hurts that good.

Cross season has been going on for a little more than a month now and things are starting to fall into place for me. I did not win the Cross My Heart Race like I did last year, but overall I did feel really good and still feel like I am building towards my peak. It is easy to burn out with cross because of the nasty weather and difficult training conditions. Racing every weekend in good and bad weather does seem to help me stay focused and motivated during these last few months of racing. Hopefully, I can continue my progress through the season and peak for nationals in December. Yes, you heard me right, nationals. After receiving my category 1 CX upgrade this past week, I did decide to register for nationals in Bend, OR. It is hard for me to pass up on the final grand finale of the season and for the fifth year in a row, I will be attending this major shindig.

But, before the end of the season in Bend, there are many more super fun races to do. This weekend, for example, there are two local Pittsburgh Area Races that just can't be missed. On Saturday, the 2nd annual Murrysville Cyclocross Race put on by Team Freddie FU is being held and on Sunday, Gary Dugovich is putting on another one of his super cross events. If you enjoy cyclocross and live anywhere near Pittsburgh, you do need to be at both of these races.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to thank the two dudes that took it upon themselves to pit for me at the Spin Race on Saturday. I was going to say thank you after the race, but you had already vacated the pit area. I say "dudes" because my mind was too foggy during the race to actually see who was helping me. I do appreciate your help...whoever you guys are! Also, much thanks to Robert Sroka for the photo and for continually being able to capture awesome cyclocross photos.

Happy Trails, Gerry

Cincy UCI-3, the fabulous and the not so much

I am pretty sure everyone that raced cyclocross in Cincinnati this weekend would agree with me when I say this was a great three day event. I cannot say anything bad about any of the races. Each course was unique and fun to ride. Yeah, sure, the first day was a complete mud fest, but this is cyclocross, so get used to it. The second day was a super fast course, but technical at the same time. Day three had a little bit of everything including a mud pit, a couple of sand pits, some great twisty stuff and a lot of climbing. All three days of racing were challenging in there own way and were all fabulous in my eyes.

Overall my race weekend went pretty well considering that I started in the fourth or fifth row every day. The first lap was crazy hard as I did everything possible to work my way towards the front of the race. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the front, a fast group of 3-4 riders had slipped away each day. By lap two or three, it was just a matter of maintaining my position and trying to stay consistent. On day one, I was fourth overall in the elite master mudder event. I finished fifth at the Java Johnny's Race on day two and also finished fifth at the Harbin Park Race on day number three. One thing you can't say about me is that I am not consistent...ha.

So, if my racing went so well this weekend and the promoters did such a good job, one might be curious to know what was not so fabulous. The answer to this question is USA Cycling and their never ending ability to screw stuff up. This weekend, Saturday Night into Sunday Morning at 12:01am to be exact, USA Cycling decided to surprise the whole cyclocross racing community with an early opening of nationals registration with no advanced notification. According to the website used for registration, www.sportsbaseonline.com, as of 10/07/09, nationals registration was to start on 10/15/09. It sure was nice of USA Cycling to change registration without any advanced notice and move it to the weekend when many were racing and did not have access to computers, especially since it a determining factor on how close to the front one is staged.

Additionally, Cyclocrossmag.com reported earlier in the year that staging for nationals, would also be based on the rider's race category, with lower category riders being staged first. The online magazine post also reported that the top ten finishers from the previous year would receive call-ups. Since I finishing 9th last year (in the top ten), I did not see any reason to upgrade my cat 2 license to cat 1 because as a master rider categories never used to mean anything anyway. Looking back now, I should have started my upgrade process earlier because USA Cycling also changed/announced that call ups at nationals would be the top eight from last year instead of the top ten.

Well, seeing how I now went from having a possible call-up position for nationals to joining the rat race for an early registration time along with everyone else, I stayed up late on a race night to be one of the first registered riders. To ensure everything would be working right, I logged onto the website early, updated my credit card info and awaited the beginning of registration like it was the actual start of the race. At about 12:00am, I then got booted off the website and spent the next 30 minutes trying to log back onto the crashed site with no luck. In complete frustration, I went to bed only to awake later in the morning to discover the site must have started to work again early in the morning and that 55 riders had already registered for my age class. I probably should have registered at that time, but my frustration ran so deep with USA Cycling, I decided traveling to Oregon for at best a fifth row starting position was not worth my time. BTW, at the time of this posting, there are 161 riders registered in my category.

I have calmed down a bit since Sunday Morning and I may still register for nationals if I can get an upgrade to cat 1 soon, but chances are I will just hold out for next year. It is just amazing to me how local promoters can do such a great job with putting on an event, but USA Cycling makes a mess out registering for the nationals championships.

Well enough bitching about nationals. I did have a lot of fun racing this weekend and hanging with my travel buddy, steveo, for a few days. The next race in my radar is the Team Spin Cross My Heart and Hope to Die Race in Willoughby, OH this Saturday. With a name like that it has to be fabulous. Thank goodness I don't have to use a USA Cycling Website to register for it.

Happy Trails - Gerry

For more awesome photos created by Jeffrey Jakucyk, from the Cincinnati UCI-3 Races, please click here.

Big Time

As the song from Peter Gabriel, Big Time, goes, I'm on my way, I'm making it. Why? Well, because after 30 years of bicycle racing, one national championship, a few WPFG world championships and numerous series championships, I have finally had a chance to do an interview for a "magazine." An online magazine, http://www.xxcmag.com/, was kind enough to request an interview from me about my National Ultra Endurance (NUE) Single Speed Series Win. If you have any interest in reading the interview, it can be found by clicking here.

In addition to making the big time with the press, (haha) I also had some big fun at the Month of Mud Grove City Cross Race on Sunday. Before I talk about the race, the first thing I want to say is thanks to everyone from the M.O.M that worked hard at putting on the Grove City Race. I thought the course was awesome and so much better than any other time the race was held there.

The race itself became a race between only me and Steve Cummings (SteveO) very soon after the start. Gorski did a real hard first prologue lap with SteveO and I on his wheel. SteveO and I then took off from that lead out into the first double barrier section and created an early gap from there. By the time we exited the woods together, a quarter of a lap later, I saw SteveO look back and say "wow." I then looked over my should and saw nobody even close to us. Gunnar and Ruggery were the next closest riders, but far enough off our wheels to not be an immediate threat. SteveO and I both knew we would have to work together, though, to fend off any chasers and maintain our comfortable lead. We did not make any agreements as we rode together, but it seemed as if we did because we both would switch off pretty equally, doing hard pulls at the front. We each kept a watchful eye on one another, waiting for the other to make a mistake from which we could throw an attack, but we both rode smoothly and made no serious errors to create a gap. So, the only thing left to determine a winner would be the final sprint to the finishing line. I led the sprint out and thought that the finish was closer than it actually was, meanwhile allowing SteveO to come around my left side and eventually passing me for the win. But, I am not bummed about my second place at all because the course was so much fun and because this was the first race of the cross season where I felt like I rode with good cross legs.

After the race, I did a 45 mile single speed cross bike ride down to my mom's place near Mars, PA. I rode on roads that I haven't seen for over ten years, so the ride brought back many memories of previous rides and times. It is amazing how quickly present time goes by when the mind drifts off into thoughts of something other than spinning the pedals. Before I knew it, I had arrived at my mother's for some hot dinner and warm apple pie dessert. A great race, a sweet ride and some delicious food...could a guy ask for anything more?

Next up on the racing calendar for me is three days of cyclocross racing in Cincinnati, OH this Friday Saturday and Sunday. Last year I did the Friday and Saturday Races, but since I am not doing the whole M.O.M. Series this year I am doing all three days. Racing for three days will certainly be a good test of how my cyclocross fitness has developed over the past month and if this past Sunday was any indication, I should be happy with my results.

So, BTW, the song Big Time by Peter Gabriel, is not written as a way for him to brag about everything he or anyone has. The song, to me anyway, is his way of poking fun at people that actually think they are bigger than life. Believe me, I know that my life is no different now then it was at any other time in my life (even with all the press). But, I will say that I am happy Jason Mahokey recognized my accomplishment and thought it was cool enough to use in his magazine. Thanks, Jason!

Happy Trails - Gerry