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Written by Andrew Freye
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Saturday, 14 October 2006 |
 There is something very pleasing knowing that you can go to bed at a normal time, sleep in, eat brunch in the cafeteria with friends, drive to a UCI C2 CX race in less than 30 minutes and not be rushed at all. Damn that’s a good feeling! Only bad part about it is the loud drunks that wander through the dorms late at night. It was because of the loud kids that made the decision to go home Saturday night an easy one. Anyways back to race day morning…
 I arrived at Pineland Farms, a quick sub 30 minute drive from my college with plenty of time to spare. I picked up my number and thought, "Wow, I have a lot of time to kill." Then I started to see all kinds of elite men getting ready to go ride. I thought, "Wow, they are doing a long warm up.", which is when I realized if you want to pre-ride the course you have to do it before the elite women race. So the large amount of time I had to kill was killed pretty quickly. I geared up and headed out for a lap.
 The Pineland race is known for being the “hardest” race in the Verge Series. Funny because it’s also known as being the most mountain biker friendly course in the series. Well, I guess the weight weenie roadies complained enough over the years and got their way with a slightly more roadie friendly course. After getting in a lap or two I then had time to chit chat with some fellow Bikeman.com teammates about my time in New Zealand. It really is nice not being rushed before a race.
 Saturday’s race was fun. Hard efforts right from the gun, and by gun I mean lady saying go in a normal talking voice. Good thing I am a young kid who doesn’t listen to loud music thus my hearing is better then grandpa Mark McCormack. I started off in the low 30’s and worked my way up into the low 20’s for the first half of the race. I don’t understand why, but it seems like the roadies do nothing but complain when you pass on the inside of a corner. When you race a mountain bike passing on the inside of a corner is the prime place to pass. If you take a corner wide and slow while racing a bike with knobby tires I am going to pass you.
 By mid point in the race I was right around 12th place! I was pretty stoked about this, except I thought I was much further into the race than half way. When I saw the lap count saying 4 laps to go I almost immediately cracked. I was expecting it to be the bell lap or two laps to go not 4! Over the next four laps I would suffer and be passed by 2 more guys putting me into a solid 15th place. Not too bad for a fat out of shape kid!
 After the race I continued my drive north to my house, about a 40 minute drive. It was nice to be home, eat a real meal, do some free laundry, and get some well needed rest. Again I was able to sleep in, cook a big breakfast, lie down and rest, and pack my bags and not be rushed! Sunday’s race was another UCI C2 race along with the Maine State Championships.
I was pretty sure I was the top Main-ah on Saturday, but wasn’t sure if there was a roadie in front of me. I couldn’t find a result sheet with location of where riders were from at the race so went to strategy plan B. Plan B was to just race as hard as I could despite sluggish legs and hope there wasn’t a fellow Main-ah in front of me.
 | | Maine State Champ! |
The plan seemed to work out well. I got caught behind a crash off the start and was in the high 30’s. After lap one in was into the low 20’s by mid point I was in the high teens. Sunday I was smarter and paid more attention to the lap counters and was aware of how many laps to go. Despite having the knowledge of lap times on Sunday I didn’t have the fitness to hold onto my spot and faded to 23rd. Again not to shabby.
After the race I was talking with a junior racer who was telling me that the 1st weekend of November is the next USGP race in CO. I was thinking this kid is on crack because that’s when the next Verge races are. Well turns out they are the same weekend, but knowing the junior he probably is on crack. This is a big motivator for me because most of the big fast serious cross guys who are too cool to wear a helmet when warming up and cooling down (which I believe you can get disqualified for, but I guess if a helmet company is giving you free helmets and probably paying you or your team to wear your helmets you are not obligated to wear them except for racing, not to mention the bad image you are setting for other racers who look up and inspire you) will be out in CO. This should give me a good shot at earning some $ and getting some UCI points since one of the races is a UCI C1. So I swear I will start training again and hopefully be doing a little bit better at the next races! Thanks for reading.
A
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