FLCC> Greene 'Cross

[Steve Edgar]

> [...] Steve Edgar take Shan Mohiudden at the line

Shan and I were dueling earlier in the race when he dropped his chain  
at the bottom of the Wall of Death.  He closed me down later on, but  
fell with too much lean angle on a short uphill off camber section.   
He closed me down yet again in the final minutes of the race, with a  
big effort through the stop-and-go infield section, and was just  
ahead going into the final hair pin.

His entrance speed was just a bit fast, which meant I could get my  
bike upright sooner on the exit, and so jump earlier.  This was  
enough to make the difference as the distance to the line was short.

Had he not dropped his chain and crashed, Shan would have been well  
ahead of me, and was definitely the stronger rider of the day.

-- Steve.

On Nov 6, 2006, at 10:56 AM, Glenn Swan wrote:

> 	As anticipated, Ithaca riders made up a significant percentage of the
> field at Karl Faruzel's cyclocross race in Greene. (maybe 30%?)   
> One of the
> fun things about racing at these sorts of events is that there are  
> many
> little races going on within the big race, especially after a little
> pre-race trash-talk ! Karl used every square foot of school  
> property to eke
> out the longest course ever, including roller coaster rides where  
> you could
> ride high-banked corners, death spirals which had riders going in  
> opposite
> directions only a few feet apart, and dastardly little off-camber  
> hairpins
> at the bottom of descents. I'm not even sure which hill was  
> referred to as
> the Wall of Death since the rooted, rocky descent had me wondering  
> how much
> it would hurt if my wheels folded up at the insane speed I  
> sometimes went
> down it, or the ego-crushing ride/run/walk-up that followed  
> immediately
> thereafter - are we talking exciting fiery death by crashing, or  
> just slow
> death in misery from deciding it's not worth any more effort to  
> climb the
> damned thing ? The saving grace is that it only lasts a finite  
> period of
> time, and if you just keep moving it will sooner or later, be over.
> 	I was excited to try a real 'cross bike for a change, and after  
> doing a
> couple of practice laps, felt pretty confident that I could ride  
> reasonably
> well on the terrain and surfaces of the event. (Thank goodness for  
> no soupy
> mud...) The lighter bike rolled pretty well and accelerated much much
> faster than the bike I have used for years (with MTB wheels), so my
> trash-talk about pushing Andy M a little harder seemed possible. As  
> for the
> promised thrashing of Matt Delisa, I was wondering if I hadn't  
> stirred up a
> nest of hornets that would make me pay later. And I had completely  
> ignored
> the likely presence of Nick Robertson. Who cares about the big guns  
> who are
> going to run away with the overall race - we locals have bigger  
> issues on
> our plates !
> 	When the gun went off a giant mob sprinted across the soccer field  
> heading
> for the pavement section near the school. I was reluctant to get  
> into heavy
> traffic fighting for position, but I was distressed to count  
> roughly 16
> people ahead of me as we settled into the relatively single-file  
> part of
> the course. Matt D was way up near the front. Andy M was only a few  
> spots
> behind him. Scott Hannan and Nick were  ahead of me too, and Ernie was
> breathing down my neck. As I recall, I think I may have squeezed  
> Shan M as
> we entered the first grass section too. It was too hectic to notice  
> for
> sure.  Ithacans were certainly starting fast. I watched as a small  
> group of
> 4 or 5 just motored away from everybody, but that was no surprise,  
> since
> the elite guys do that every week. I was concentrating on just  
> riding right
> side up and not making a fool of myself laying it down in front of  
> a whole
> field of riders who might just choose to ride over rather than  
> around....I
> slipped past a few riders here and there and pretty soon I had some  
> open
> space in front of me. The good guys were long gone, and I was near the
> front of the "ordinary people". Andy M was in sight ahead, so I set  
> about
> slowly trying to reel him in, just like at Syracuse. It took pretty  
> much a
> whole lap, but I caught him and rolled right by him at the top of the
> run-up, unwittingly showing him how to go faster with less effort  
> on that
> section. We dropped a rider from Binghamton and looked to be in a  
> race by
> ourselves for a couple of laps. Then out of the blue, the Bingo  
> rider blew
> by us and rode away ! Andy was content to ride with me until my back
> started hurting too much to even run up the top of the hill. At  
> that point
> Andy took off and mowed him down, leaving me alone and counting  
> down laps
> to the finish. Each lap I would measure where I was in the death  
> spiral
> section before seeing Karl Faruzel, Nick, Ernie and others appear  
> out of a
> woods section. I was holding my own, and they seemed content to be  
> racing
> against each other. I sensed that the race leader was closing in fast
> enough that I might get lapped, thereby shortening my misery by one  
> lap.
> This was good. Even better was seeing that the Bingo rider was bonking
> ahead of me, and even though a part of me felt that he deserved the  
> higher
> place for his efforts in the middle of the race, I decided that I  
> would
> make a stronger effort in the last 1/2 mile and try to mow him down  
> in his
> helpless state. (How many times has this happened to me ?) He  
> didn't mind
> my passing him, since all he could think about at the time was oreo
> cookies...I have no idea what my final place was and I don't care.  
> It was a
> great ride and it ended before I was  too wasted to be able to  
> savor it. I
> got to watch Matt D duke it out in a sprint with Karl Faruzel,  
> Steve Edgar
> take Shan Mohiudden at the line, and Ernie and Scott Hannan and  
> Michael
> Ullberg and Mark Shenstone roll solidly in. With this many close  
> finishes I
> am sure there are some good stories to tell. I know that Mark  
> Shenstone and
> Bill Erickson had a see-saw battle where the MTB of Erickson was  
> faster in
> some sections and the 'cross bike of Shenstone was faster in  
> others, so
> they passed each other on virtually every lap. There were several  
> Cornell
> women and a couple of Cornell guys. It looked as though there were  
> enough
> women there to make it a real race for them. I wonder if we'll hear  
> any
> tales of their event. As Steve Edgar and I drove back to Ithaca I  
> could see
> Nick's car in my rearview mirror, and only imagine the enjoyment he  
> was
> getting out of having Matt Delisa as a (captive) passenger  after
> administering a beating to him on the race course ! So the next big
> question is, "Will Matt share a ride to Binghamton with someone  
> other than
> Nick ? Or will he keep up the trash-talk and hope to turn the  
> tables for
> the ride home next weekend ?" Isn't this much more fun than  
> worrying about
> winning the actual race ? Why worry about prize money and UCI  
> points when
> you can savor the ride home ?...........
> 	Let's hear some other tales of the day !
>
> Glenn
>
>
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