First focus triathlon of the '08 season...

Hey guys!

OK so it is winter and I am a summer person so I need something to look forward to while a freeze to death on my bike.

To kick off the racing season, our first focus race is going to be Mt. Gretna at the end of May. I have to talk to the race director but I want to set up a pop-up tent for YBR and E-town College members only. It will be a little hang-out before and after the race. I will supply Gatorade, coffee and bananas before the race and I can do a pancake breakfast afterwards. Maybe we can even recruit members! But... I highly recommend you do the race because it is going to be a bunch of fun!

Sarah

Fast Albert's USGP of 'Cross Report

USGP of 'Cross - Trenton, NJ

I’ve had some trouble writing race reports but I will give it another try. Its is not just lack of time but also lack of mental focus….. lack of mental focus.

My first impression of the course was its flat and that isn’t a positive statement for me. It turned out that it was a lot of fun and actually very interesting. Two of the most interesting features were the very long deep sand pit and the flyover. The sand pit wasn’t very ride able unless a grove formed from riders riding the same line. I chose to run the entire sand pit and don’t think riding it was much of a benefit. It was definitely a crowd favorite and any rider that made it thru cleanly received a huge cheer. The flyover had stairs up one end and a very steep ramp down the back. The flat transition was very short so you had to mount the bike quickly and hope you clipped in. I rode it a few times not clipped (I did have my feet on the pedals) in and didn’t have a problem but the thought of slipping off the saddle and landing on the top tube at speed scared me. The rest of the course had a pretty interesting flow with some tricky off camber sections and many tight turns that required riders to slow down and then accelerate back up to speed.

The first day the course was relatively dry – not dry like the dust bowls we have seen for most of the season. The 2^nd day it was rainy and they changed the course to add a few more tight turns. It was a lot of fun to ride a more technical course with all the off camber areas and most of the turns were much trickier. 38 degrees and rain on Sunday so waiting at the start was the worst part of the weekend. Once up to speed the cold wasn’t an issue.

I rode the 4^th cross bike this season and I haven’t even done that many races. I had ordered a frame from Hot Tubes in MA (my old frame cracked in 2 places) and when I asked the builder if he was going to be at the Mercer Cup he said he was and that he could probably have the frame done by then. Things didn’t work out to share a room so I had a room to myself. I decided Saturday night was the perfect time to build the frame so I brought everything I needed (I hoped I did – that rarely works out). The only thing that really crossed me up is the builder brought a 10 speed derailleur – guess who still runs 8 speed? Actually I have mostly 8 speed with a 9 speed chain. It turned out that my friend’s bike (the one I have been riding) had the right derailleur. Amazingly I got the bike built up and even had time to put my friends bike back together (I had put some of my parts on his bike). I even did things I haven’t done before like cut a carbon steerer. There is always something that comes up and this time it was the brake stud on the fork would become unscrewed. The way my brakes work they torque the stud when the brake is applied. I snugged it up while not trying to stress the fork and the thing ended up holding. I didn’t have any problems with the bike the entire race. It is hard to say the difference with the bike because the conditions were so much different but it seemed to be more balanced.

Watching the elite classes was so much fun. It is so cool to watch the experts ride the same course that you did earlier in the day. It was a really strong field with Ryan Trebon, Barry Wicks, Jeremy Powers, Tim Johnson, Todd Wells, Adam Craig, Kabush, and Chris Horner to name a few. A very deep field. The 35+ field was incredibly deep and fast. I was more appropriately racing in the 45+ field. Kevin, Nunzio, Joel and I were the YBR crew in attendance and everyone seemed to really enjoy the race and had good races. Nunzio gets the tough man award for venturing out racing both days with a sinus infection.

I don’t know if they are going to have the same race next year but I would strongly recommend the venue.

USGP of Cyclocross – Mercer Cup near Trenton, NJ