12/05/09
The Rockville Classic cyclocross race marked the end of the 2009 season for the GHSH team.
As I packed the car for one last adventure , I could not help being both a little bummed and relieved at the same time. I had an up and down year as far as results go, but was actually starting to get back into the cross groove again.
I started heading up the road and gave Greg the routine phone call and checked to see if he was planning on making it. He was feeling the effects of a cold so I tried to be sympathetic when trying to convince him to come out for the last race of 09. While talking to him I stopped to get a caffeine fix and realized that I forgot my wallet, dam. Being the nice guy that he is Greg offered to bring it up for me, this meant he was planning on racing. Awesome!! Needless to say my wallet never made it. Long story.
Back to what you really came here for . The weather man(person=pc) hit it on the nail and it snowed! The snow and a well laid out course made it a classic cyclocross racing true to the origin of cross.
When I arrived it was only snowing lightly and as I pre-rode the course I made some adjustments to my tire pressure and thought my bike was ready to go, now it was time to warm up inside the cozy Lions Club building. Kelly Cline came in and gave me a bunch of shit for warming up inside and that I would be sorry when I had to go out into the cold trusted that it would be fine and waited until 15 minutes to go to head outside, When I stepped outside to head to the start it was a whole different scene, the snow picked up and was coming down hard. Dam!!! It didn't seem to be laying on the grass so I thought that it would be fine. I saw Fatmarc doing some "start" practices and he had a big Game face on, I knew then that he would be the one to watch, along with Piccilo and Cline, but Marc seemed to be on a mission.
When we lined up for the start I was caught sleeping and started last row. Nice!! The main contenders were sitingnicely on the front row ready to blast the road start and hit the grass first. Oh what the hell! It was the last right and I was just here to have fun right? So we started up the pavement, hit the climb
and guess who I see off the front already and into the grass? Yeah "Fatmarc" wasted us on the road , hit the grass with a nice lead and never looked back. As for me I hit the grass and knew I was going to have a long race. I was unable to handle my bike well and got caught up in a small crash in the third corner. I saw the front guys up there starting to put a little gap on the rest of us, and this was only the first lap. No worries hopefully they will fade. The first lap was just no fun at all for me. I was terrible at cornering and my hands felt like they were going to fall off already. I went by Blake Bricker and told him I would rather be home on the coach, and at that point I really meant it. As the race progressed , I started making smarter moves, running what others struggled to ride. I started getting into a groove and making up some lost ground. I ended up fighting it out with C3'S Lillibridge,Kessel and Moats and ended up 6th. By the end of the
race I was having fun and but my hands were in pain from being wet and cold.I know, time to HTFU. Marc won and Kelly out sprinted Joe, wish I would have been close enough to see that one. So that was it , the last one of 09 for me, Next up was Greg.
I didn't get to stick around for Greg's race but I got the low down from him later. He raced the 1,2,s . He had a hard fought battle with Zach trading positions throughout the race, bettering him in the technical sections only to be out powered on the back "power" section of the course. He ended up 3rd. Nice work and super end to his season.
