Home  Team BIKEMAN 2007 ECCC
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2007 ECCC |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Monday, 22 October 2007 |
 2007 Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference
Dartmouth Weekend: September 23
Ok brief overview, I got back from Vegas on the 21st at 2am. On the 22nd it was my friends 21st birthday, so that meant I had to go out to dinner, or go out to the bars. I chose dinner even though it was a horrible, horrible Mexican resturaunt. Never go to Fajita Grill in Westbrook.
Anyways, Sunday morning rolled around and I was up way too early, I had to by in VT by 11, so that meant leaving before the sun is up. I made it over ok. Cool thing about racing in college is you can race in baggy shorts and shirt and be all set. Spence Paxson who went to worlds with me in 06 was there. Spence and another kid from Middlebury took off from the gun. I was a little slow since my legs were feeling very heavy and sitting in 5th position. After the first lap I moved up into 4th, dropping behind good friend Brian Firliet. In the second lap my legs opened up a little and I was able to drop the kid from UVM leaving me in 3rd where I would stay for the rest of the race. I was so tired after that race and I didn’t want to drive home at all. This was one of those days where you had no other choice but to stop at a Dunkin' Donuts and pick up a coffee for the ride home. To top it off I was so tired and zoned out I ended up getting on 89 north instead of south and drove for almost 20 miles! I did a quick U turn in one of those cut offs and then started my drive home.
North Eastern Weekend, Sunday River Maine: October 6th
How cool is it that mountain biking is back at Sunday River?? Way cool. At any rate I was stoked to have a short drive to a race. I made it to the River with plenty of time to spare, except I forgot one really important thing… I forgot to tell USADA where I was! I was going around the parking lot seeing if anyone had a Blackberry I could use to send off and email, but I guess all the other college kids there racing were like myself, too poor to buy one because we spend too much money on bikes! At any rate I was able to call home and step by step instruct my mom on how to do the update.
Ok back to the race. The course was very similar to the one used back in the good old days of racing, long climb and sweet single track to the bottom. Many of the lines were still the same. This made me very happy. At the top of the first climb I had over a minute on 2nd place pro Macky from Middlebury. I was feeling great and had the race won, except stupid me took the wrong line, tried to do a last minute correction and resulted in crashing and breaking my rear brake lever. No problem, got off the bike, moved the lever into a position where I could kind of use it and moved on, still 2nd place hasn’t caught up. Bottom of lap one Macky catches on to me, but only to be dropped again. At the crest of the climb on lap 2 I had another minute on Macky, but he would catch up to me on the downhill’s since I was riding like a small child and couldn’t handle my bike due to the broken part. This is how it went all the way to the finish where Macky ended up winning. Damn… Oh well after the race it was off to camp which is northwest of Rangeley Maine for a long weekend of bird hunting with the pops.
Conferences Plattekill NY October 13
So I had no intention of going all the way over to NY to race my bike. In fact I was told by the ECCC that after getting a 3rd and 2nd place I would be all set to go to nationals. Well just to make sure I was all set with qualifications etc.. I called the head honcho of the ECCC. Turns out they have this new rule where you have to race in 3 ECCC events in order to qualify for nationals. I tried pleading with him, but apparently they are going to be strict on the rule this year. Damn, this meant I had to be in NY for a race that started in less than 24 hours. I quickly threw together the essentials made a few phone calls and headed west. I met up with good friend Brian Firelet from UCONN and crashed with their team Friday night. Plattekill mountain had a lame rule that you had to be there and checked in by 8 am for an 11am race. Plus you had to buy a lift ticket because the race started at the top of the mountain, you couldn’t simply ride to the top for a warm up, you HAD to take the lift. I bummed around for several hours at the mountain with the UCONN guys, ate a not so good breakfast that I had to buy from the mountain, and just thought about how much I didn’t want to be there.
The race was cool though! A 5 mile lap repeated 4 times with 1,500+ vertical feet of climbing per lap made for a tough race. I got the hole shot off the start and lead through the first section of single track. A guy from UVM was right on my wheel for the first couple of minutes, but somewhere along the course disappeared and was never to be seen again. Spence Paxson from Middlebury caught up to me within the first mile and the two of us rode together for the first couple of laps. It was nice to just chill and talk to one another and still be racing. Towards the end of the race Spence was able to open a gap on me on the down hills (Spence can handle a bike really well, I wish I could ride like him, or even better like Adam Craig) and I found myself closing the gaps on the up hills. After playing this game for a little while Spence was able to stay away and ended up winning by a minute I think. Overall I am happy with the result. Spence was top 15 I believe at Mount Snow this year, and to finish a minute behind him when I had no intention of racing makes me feel good about my late season fitness. Overall I put 725 miles on my car in two days for one race.
Ok quick note/question. Why the hell do people do stupid things to their cars? Like for example put a pipe on a Saturn? Aren’t you suppose to trick out cool cars? Not soccer mom/grocery getter cars? Driving back from NY I hear this loud roar like a jet was flying over head, which I seriously thought was happening because when I looked in my rear view mirror all I saw was a little Saturn. As the car came crawling by my car I saw it had a big young not so bright dude driving and attached to the back was a huge pipe. The only part missing on that sweet grocery getter was a sweet set of Wal*Mart spinner rims. If you have an answer please let me know.
A
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