Hodges Dam - Hot Damn

August 5th's race in Oxford, MA brought drier weather than last year's monsoon and flooded trails, but this time, it was the heat that was brutal.  The temps were in the 90s and humid.

John Y ditching the camelbak for a bottle

This race had a great showing of DAS racers; Dan, Liz A, John H, and John Y all raced.  Liz's daughter, Skyler came out to race the first timer's race, and Liz B (and boys) and Tracy were there to cheer everyone on.  The race course was only about 30 minutes or so from DAS headquarters in Danielson, CT.

Skyler raced at 9:30 and it was a long challenging course for her at 6 miles.  She was still on the course when the Cat 1 / Pro racers started to come through.  She pulled off to the side and cheered people on, including her Mom and buddy Dan.  Luckily, she had a very patient helper along with her the entire way around.  She managed to finish after a long time out there, and hasn't completely sworn off riding her bike.

Dan and Liz went off at 11:30, and the heat was Sauna worthy - even with the wind gusts that were fortunate enough to blast through the area.  Dan finished in 6th and Liz in 3rd, and both did 4 laps on the 6 mile course.

John and John set out at 2pm for their 3 laps.  John H finished in 5th for Cat 2 19-29 and John Y in 12th for 30-39.  In the final lap of their race, a thunder storm moved in.  This made the course more of a challenge, but it sure felt good after the heat all day.

The next race in the series is at Millstone Quarry (the very same venue of Dan's 12 hour race).  With it being a 4+ hour drive, there probably won't be many DAS racers in attendance.  However, the NH 100 is also coming up, and Dan and Liz A will be representing in the 100 mile category.  Meanwhile, Matt will be racing solo singlespeed next weekend at 24 Hours of Great Glenn...  if you happen to be there, cheer that guy on!!

12 Hours of Millstone... in the rain.

While Liz and John raced "local" in CT, Dan went up to Millstone Quarry to race in a two man team for 12 hours.  As luck would have it, it rained there as well.  He joined forces with Bikeman racer (and DAS friend) Kevin Ryan.  They guys managed to hold steady in second for the entire day and finished with a total of 14 laps.

Yeah its cool. My oldest son said “so you rode for 12 hours just for that?” I said “yup”

Playing in the rain at Winsted Woods

On July 29th, Liz A and John Y headed out to Winsted, CT with a forecast for showers looming on the horizon.  Liz's race was at 11:30, and the course was touted as being in great shape despite the fact that Winsted had gotten the unofficial award the day before for getting the most rain in the entire state.  While it didn't look good, the course was in really great shape.  Throughout the Cat 1/Pro race, the rain started to come down.  This didn't bode well for their final laps, nor did it make for a very easy course for the Cat 2 racers like John.

Liz's race took off fast as usual with her lined up against Crystal Anthony (MA) and Jane Pearson (NY/CT).  The girls went back and forth in position over the course of the very technical first mile or so.  Eventually, Crystal and Jane got ahead of Liz on the first lap.
I had my usual crummy first lap.  My legs were taking awhile to wake up, but anytime there was anything technical, I was hammering past everyone.  The course suited me well.  After letting the girls get ahead on the first lap, I started reeling them back in on the second lap.  I saw Jane up ahead and told her we needed to try to catch up to Crystal.  Eventually, I made a pass on a technical climb and took off.  Jane told me that Crystal wasn't far ahead.  I basically went as hard as I could, while feeling surprisingly well, for the last two laps.  I think if I'd had the 5th lap, I might have caught up.  I finished less than a minute behind her, and that's the closest I've come all season.  My tech skills finally got to prove their worth.  

John's race turned into a muddy mess.  The rain that started during the Cat 1 race left the course sloppy with little traction on the climbs. Despite the challenge, John finished strong in 8th place for the Cat 2 40-49.  He's been making improvements all season and is really starting to enjoy mountain bike racing.

DAS races at the Wrath of the Boneyard

The MTB season is coming to an end quickly, and cyclocross is lurking on the edge of everyone's mind - everyone that gives a crap about bike racing anyhow.  In the meantime, there are still a few races left on the Root 66 Race Series and a few on the EFTA series.  

The Wrath of the Boneyard was July 28th, and it seemed to have a small turnout this year.  The temperatures weren't quite as bad as the year before, but the course has had the reputation for being a little rough.  It's likely that people just didn't want to deal with the threat of flat tires and taco-ed wheels.  DAS only had 2 representatives at this one - Dan and Liz A.  

Dan raced in men's Cat 1 30-39 and finished with a podium in 3rd.  Here's his take:
Slow and steady wins the ra.. well comes in 3rd. Wrath of the boneyard is known to be ridiculously rocky and it fulfilled its promise. I saw more flat tires than I ever saw, more DNFs than any race. For the last 3 weeks I have been heavily traveling for work, only riding my bike on race day so I really did not have any expectations. I meant to take off slow out of the gate but sprinted with the front of the pack and stayed in 2nd for most of the first lap. Then the lack of training and riding hit me and I rolled it back to last place. As the TV theme songs cranked up in my head I got into a good groove and kept plugging away, everyone in a while showing signs of speed and skill. In the end I finished 3rd out of 7 moving up to 3rd overall in the points series, super awesome! Millstone Grind 12 hour, Winsted woods then N100 here we come!

Liz finished in 1st for Pro/Open, but did not have any competitors in her category.  Essentially, her competition was the rest of the Cat 1 women.  She found herself battling it out with Susan Lynch for most of the race, and Susan had more power on the climbs.  Liz finished a little over a minute behind Sue, but both women finished at least 18 minutes ahead of the rest of the pack.