With November 5th and 6th brought the Verge New England Championship Cyclocross Series Rounds 10 and 11 which was also the Shimano New England Professional Cyclocross Series Rounds 5 and 6. Having so many people hoping to be able to race, the field limits were raised from 125 to 150 the week before the race.
CSI Day 1
Another great weekend for racing in NE! Team DAS racers were at the venue nice and early, ready for the men's cat 4 race first up. Unfortunately, park officials didn't get the memo and there was no one to open the gate to let racers in. Good news, this meant when it was opened, team members avoided the hefty park entrance fee for the day :)
The day started pretty cold, temperatures were in the low 30s at the start of the cat 4 men's race. Unfortunately for them, as the sun came out, temperatures rose. This caused major changes in the course conditions as they rode; it seemed like each lap was different (frozen ground, thawing ground, wet slippery ground). Rich continued his streak of improvements, finishing in 23rd. Next in was John (87th) who still looked like he had gas left in the tank on the final lap. Chris had a tough day, with multiple crashes that ultimately led to a DNF.
Women cat 4s were up next with Tracy looking strong right out of the gate. She powered through the pack throughout the first two laps and settled in to a battle with a couple other riders in the remaining laps. Ultimately she managed to beat all but one of these riders and finished 37th overall (12 points better then predicted and 17th in 35+). Crystal got stuck in the mass pileup going up the first run up and then got her bike seat caught in her number. As she struggled to get it out without ripping off her jersey, she was passed by all the cat 4 women and began to get passed by the juniors. At this point she solicited the help of a fan and began the process of trying to hunt down her competition. She managed to catch one pretty quickly and stayed ahead of the elite racers until the straightaway going into the final lap. She was excited to see her name listed as in 28th place, but soon realized it was only an officiating mistake. She had been scored as on the lead lap, instead of a lap down and after the correction finished in 72nd overall.
Intermission
Three team members had decided to share a hotel room at the local super 8. What could be better then a hotel room at $50/night, 15 mins from the race they thought? This would not only save them having to get up at the wee hours of the morning two days in a row, but would save them the gas and time spent driving back and forth in a car. They quickly learned, however, that maybe this wasn't such a good idea...After getting back from an early dinner, showers were taken and racers were ready for a relaxing night of lounging. This didn't last long as the fire alarm went off and they were rushed outside with the other hotel occupants. As they stood outside in the cold with wet hair, in shorts and tshirts, surrounded by people smoking, they commented that this probably wasn't the best form of recovery. Fire trucks quickly arrived to survey the building, but firefighters could not determine the source of the alarm. Once it was deemed safe, the hotel worker was not able to reset the alarm, meaning no one could go back into the building. The alarm company was called and after more than 40 mins outside, individuals were finally allowed back into their rooms. Back in the room, team DAS members found a room that reeked of smoke, a broken a/c unit and a tv that didn't work. It was a rough night for all, with little sleep between the three.
Day 2
The temperatures on day 2 were even lower then the previous day, but team DAS racers were ready to battle. Unfortunately, after driving up to the race, John was forced to turn around and head to an eye doctor after scratching his eye with his contact. This left Rich and Chris to duke it out in the cat 4 men's race. Rich looked a little slow off the start but by lap 2 has moved into the top 15. He continued to gain on the lead group each lap and finished 12th overall, just missing being able to catch the 2 riders in front of him for a top 10 finish. Chris had a much better day, and while he still managed to crash, he recovered quickly and came through in the top 50% of riders.
Tracy felt great in the cat 4 women's race, but struggled off the start. She was forced to chase down the same riders she had battled with on day 1, but ran out of time and wasn't able to catch them all. She finished with a respective 44th (22nd in 35+). Tracy’s overall weekend recap: “Racing weekend at NoHo overall was a blast both days. Some of the highlights for me were: Not going down in the sea of bikes on the first run up when my seat got caught in someones rear rim. The camaraderie after battling the same group of ladies both days, very cool. Proving race predictor wrong by 11 places. Cheering on (ok heckling) my team mates and friends and over the chocolate stout.”
Finally making his team DAS race debut, rider Andre Bessette raced in the men's 35+ category. This is one of the toughest categories out there, with riders of all levels competing in one field. Luckily, he was able to start a couple rows back, so he was able to avoid the intensity of racing with the top 35+ males. Andre had a solid start and managed to avoid some pileups. He raced hard and finished a nice even 50th for the day. When we asked Andre to recap the weekend for us, he said, “Although I couldn't race Saturday in NoHam, I was able to make it up Sunday to cheer on Tracy G. @ the end of the women's race, catch up with a the DAS crew between races, and then head out in my heat with the 35+ "elite" guys. What a gorgeous day and nicely-fashioned course. While this was my first foray into racing with the ‘big guys’, and I started last row, I think I did a respectable job by making up a few places, having a very graceful crash on one of the greasy corners, and ultimately, not finishing last (i.e. 50 out of 60). That's one thing I love about CX: you don't have to finish in the upper echelons to have a fun time, but you try to improve your form/fitness to gain just those few places every race. Of course free microbrew and sweet brats afterwards are always a plus. Great seeing you DAS folks out there hammering it home!”
“The highlight of my race (Saturday) was catching air over the railroad tracks after dropping down from the 'top' section of the course. That was sweet! Otherwise, I wasn't a fan of the course, I like something a little more technical. I had a weird feeling race, like it took me 30 minutes to warm up. I think my last lap was my fastest which never, ever happens for me. My bike had some shifting issues again so off it went to Dr. Donnie for some TLC. I also need to work on starts. I wasted a lot of spots with a poor start. I unfortunately missed out on day two when I came home from day one, put my contacts in and scratched my eye due to either something being embedded in the lens or crap in my eye. However, I didn't feel too bad as it was the wife's birthday and we had extra time together  No matter how poorly I felt Saturday, any day racing and coming home in one piece is better than no day racing. Putney up next!” - John Young
“Day 1 and 2 of the cat 4 race at the Cycle-Smart International can be summed up by cold weather and constantly changing course conditions. Both mornings we were greeted with temps in the 20's when arriving at the frost covered race course. I started in the 4th row out of 13 or 14 rows both days. This helps greatly in avoiding the "big one" if a pile up did occur. I was able to get decent starts and settled into around 25th place on both races. Day one I was feeling kind of flat and managed a 23rd place finish out of 130 racers. Day two, I had really good legs and was able to work my way up through the field. Course conditions were changing rapidly as the race wore on. What started as frozen hard ground turned into wet slick conditions; people were crashing around corners all over the place. Feeling as well as I did, I was able to ride the corners more conservatively and accelerate out to get back up to speed. I eventually finished 12th place out of 135. My most satisfying race yet.” -Rich Gauvin
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