FLCC> Greene 'Cross
Amanda and Mark Shenstone
gardens at lightlink.com
Mon Nov 6 19:46:17 EST 2006
Steve Edgar is a cool cat smart dude bike racer,
and he has been leaving me in the dust these past
few races. My goal was to turn the tables at
Greene, my favorite race in NYS. My strategy was
to go as hard as I could from the start and
excelerate hard out of all the technical sections
(an old Steve Edgar tactic)and do my best to
demoralize him on the wall. The first few laps
Steve and I were together and then I slowly was
able to create a gap. I was feeling pretty
confident that my race mission would be
accomplished. All of a sudden I was faced with a
new problem. Bill Ericksen comes screaming by me
on a MTB. Now Bill always beats me at road
racing. I can't come close to him, but I don't
like the idea of him beating me at cyclocross
races ...the chase was on. I would chase Bill to
the wall and pass him on the run up, he would
chase me to the bottom half of the course and pass
me once again. It went on forever like this I
just couldn't get rid of him!!! until the last
time up the wall where I got enough of a gap to
hold him off to the finish. Please don't give
Bill a real cyclocross bike!
I was there to watch Steve out sprint Shaun at the
line and I was sure glad it wasn't me. I'm sure
Steve will be out to get me next weekend.
PS Don't forget to thank Steve for organizing the
Central NY Series!!!!
Mark
--------------------------------------------------
Amanda and Mark Shenstone
Graceful Gardens
PO Box 100
Mecklenburg, NY 14886
607.387.5529
http://www.gracefulgardens.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Glenn Swan
To: flcc at icycle.org
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 10:56 AM
Subject: FLCC> Greene 'Cross
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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