The Red Sox Celebration-ML's post

Big Papi holding the trophy what a great way to end the parade. It was fun and the crowd was wild. This is the one time I can say i like working in Downtown Boston. Scott didn't want to leave work to join me.

Crisis in Canton

In my first season of cross racing two seasons ago, I circled Canton on the calendar before I even signed up for my first race. Reason is, Canton is located 6 miles from my old apartment in Randolph. Just being able to go back to the area I called home for seven years was special. The race was uneventful, and I can't recall where I finished, but with about 400 yards to go, my left foot came unattached to my bike. Thinking that I just unclipped, I looked down to clip back in. Astonished I noticed that the entire left crank arm of my bike was attached to my shoe, but not my bike. This event always comes up when someone mentions Canton, including several times today as we warmed up.

In an earlier race, Mike Rowell spent most of it trying to climb back into a good position after a horrible start. With his advice in my ear, I sprinted for my life on the whistle. Over the crest of the hill I was second wheel when we entered the field. This is a long course with several sections of open field, some tight turns, and even a section on a 400 meter running track. Through laps 3 and 4, I found myself forming up with a small group of riders that worked together. With each passing lap I felt strong and stronger. Racing at a comfortable pace in a group is just so much more comfortable then being between groups riding red-lined. As the fifth lap wound down my group was down to three and I lost my concentration for a split second, wondering where to attack the group on the final lap. This split second was long enough to twist my handlebars and catepault myself over my handlebars. The rider behind me slammed into my bike bringing him to a stop. Gone is Colin Murphy, one of the riders in our trio. Gathering my bike, I notice that everything seems in order, except my chain has fallen off. Stopping to put it back on, rider two in the trio rides off. As I remount my bike, I bang my shoe into my crank-arm and hear the tearing of somthing from my shoe. My nerves are shot as cornering is slow and awkward now, and another rider passes me. My sole focus now for the final lap is to limit my losses. Every dozen or so pedal strokes and my foot keeps popping off the pedal. After the race I notice that my right buckle is broke. Worth noting is that this is a brand new pair of shoes with 43 minutes of racing in them. ML drove to the race while I connected my cleats to the shoes new. Back to the Loft on Monday. Oh, and the race, I finished up 10th.

Lifes growing events

In 1985 my ten year younger sister was born. I've always been old enough to recognize events that she has gone through. First it was going to kindergarten, then high school, driving her first car, graduation, college and even college graduation. Through all of these events I never felt old. I had done my thing and she had done her thing, along the way we both supported each other and are as close as siblings can be. On Saturday ML and I drove out to her new apartment in the rain with a truck load of her things. We also drove a second load including a mattress and box spring to her new apartment. No amount of tarps or tie-downs will keep things dry when it pours cats and dogs like it was. Every time it started to rain harder, we seemed to be outside loading or unloading the truck. Lots of pour timing (yuke intended). After several hours everthing in her new place was in somewhat in order and we prepared to leave. Only at this time did I ever feel old with her. She's done a lot and there's a lot more planned in her life, best of luck little sister.

I wear my sunglasses at night!!!

But the reason is to keep junk out of my eyes while mountain biking. After years of riding on the road, I was bitten by the mountain bike bug this summer while on a bachelor party for Delrossi. A month ago I invited a new mountain bike into my bike family. The inaugural ride was meant to be last Sunday, but when those in the house came down with a bug, my riding was canceled. The first ride was now to be a night ride with Barry G and Norm C. These guys know the trails like the back of their hands, in fact, one of the trails they named after themselves. Riding at night is a blast. It was the night before a full moon, dry trails and just a star filled sky. Everyone made it out and back in one piece and I promise myself not to take so long to get back out there. Maybe next time it will be in the day, but if it isn't, it doesn't matter.

Mansfield Hollow Double-Up

The Mansfield Hollow cyclocross race in Mansfield, CT kicks off my favorite part of the season. Maybe it is the low presence of racers that show up, maybe it is the mixture of straight open racing sections, or the two dirt pop-ups, one rideable, one not or the great off-camber section, but whatever it is, this is just a great race. On the line I notice that Oscar is there with me on the front row and about 25 guys behind us. In the blink of an eye, Roy rides up and asks if anyone has a spare tube, as he has a flat. Oscar jumps off the line and the two of them ride to his truck. At this point the race official is scratching her head wondering where they are going. Perhaps I am distracted by my teammates, but when she blows the whistle I fall into 15th place as we snake along the field, over the barriers and across the off-camber roadside. Over the first lap everything stretches out and it is difficult to identify what position anyone is in. I just keep my head down and push along. With three laps to go, I am riding with Mike from Bike Barn. It is very obious that Mike has superior handling skills. As we break through the woods and onto the grass stretches I turn up the speed trying to drop Mike. During the bell lap my lead over Mike stretches more and more on the flats and shrinks during the twisty technical sections. Dropping out of the off-camber section, I hold my six second lead over Mike and cross the line where I find out that I finished 7th. Mansfield is the very rare race that has prizes ten deep!!! My winnings include a LG hat, half a dozen gels packs, some drinks mixes and one very happy racer. This is a great race. For a measly $5 more, I jump into the Elite race 75 minutes later.

The elite race had some strong riders in the field, so positioning was going to be key for whatever I could muster. On the whistle I put my head down and hammer as hard as I can, taking Danny Estevez's wheel. Danny is a super strong young rider for Hot Tubes that has been a force for several years as he rises through the ranks. Danny leads me and the rest of the pack through the first barrier where I am starting to feel really good. Over the barrier, half of the field has a lot more pop then me and fly past me like I have a flat. The first six laps felt really good, but the final two were just like pushing a car without gas which is what I felt like. The downer of the day was passing passing John Mosher who was walking his bike. I asked John if everything was OK, which he responded that if it wasn't broke, it was close. Ten seconds later I wonder if he was talking about himself or his bike. After the race, I find out that John was talking about his legs. It seems that he wipe out in a twisty wooded section and took the full blow of a tree straight across his thighs. The only good part of this accident is purely selfish. Because John can't lift either of his legs six inches, I valiently volunteer to drive John and his nifty BMW back to his home. Again, good conversation makes the time fly, but the purring of the engine keeps me focused...

Unhappy in Lowell

ML, Justin, Lauren, O, Ann and I got together to head over to my favorite local brewery Friday night. Just getting out of Oscar's apartment complex seemed to cause major confusion. Oscar wanted to shower after working at the academy all day, Ann wasn't there, ML and I parked our car and were pacing to get into the apartment building when Justin and Lauren showed up. Instead of going into the apartment, we jumped in the car where Oscar joined us shortly after. Once at the brewery, we were informed by our waitress that the brewery was changing owners and they were currently out of most beers...Hmmm...when questioned if they had New Castle, she asked if that was a type of beer...no...how about a Bud instead? Dinner was fair, but the company was really good. With an early cross race the next day, we headed back to Oscar's around 11:30 to get home a little early. Imagine our surprise when we arrived and ML's car was not where we left it. A call to the management company directed us to the towing company who informed us that yes they had our car, that they had towed it because we were in unmarked residence parking and we could have it back in 20 minutes for $110!!! At 1:30am, we finally were greeted by the tow truck driver who gladly exchanged our car for our money. Certainly not a fair deal in my book. I officially am ending what started as a good week, but ended poorly.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

On Wednesday I traveled to Philadelphia for a two-day business meeting. What was meant to be a quick 45 minute flight back home (Philly to Boston) turned into a nightmare trip. First, I've never gotten out of Philly on US Air on-time, so when our flight pulled away from the gate 15 minutes late, I wasn't surprised. I closed my eyes for a quick nap, assuming to wake up in time to get through Boston traffic. I woke up 45 minutes later just as the plane was taking off. The flight steward has the audacity to say that the pilot will increase the speed and we should be landing about the same time. Um, how is this possible since we are taking off 10 minutes before we leave??? The brilliant trip continued when turbulance caused cancellation of the beverage cart, then two aborted approaches to landing and we were rerouted to Providence. Again my favorite flight steward claims that weather in Boston has caused problems. Um, isn't everything weather? Sunny skies are weather, rain is weather, as is snow, sleet and fog, can you be more elaborate on what type is preventing us from landing???

While Providence is a nice place to visit, it wasn't where I parked my car the day before. According to the pilot, we were going to refuel, collect our fuel voucher (whatever this is for) and wait for the weather. After 30 minutes of waiting on the plane with no good direction about when the weather was going to clear, Mark (my coworker traveling with me) and I decide to jump off the plan and rent a car. Seems crazy to wait much longer as the drive isn't that far. As it turns out, even with traffic in Providence and Braintree, I was able to make it home before my flight landed in Boston. Crazy day of travel.

A Special Birthday

ML's nieces celebrated their 1st birthday this weekend. J & C had fun eating cake and opening gifts.

Patriots in Dallas

After several years of talking about it, I finally decided to travel to Dallas to watch a football game. My beloved Patriots were going to be there and the Cowboys are nearing the end of their time in Texas Stadium, so I went. In attendance with me at the game was friend and client Tom and Anthony, as well as Anthonys son Tony. When the guys picked me up at my hotel, there were nods of disapproval, since Anthony is a die-hard Cowboys fan and I was decked out in my Patriots gear. The walk from the car to the stadium was very long, especially wearing the other teams colors. Not as bad as wearing red in the wrong LA neighborhood, but certainly no sense of southern hospitality.

The game was a back and forth, if you are interested in those details, check out www.nfl.com. The Duel in Dallas lived up to almost everything it was supposed to, including a win for the 6-0 Pats. With the Patriots piling the points on before the end of the game, when we finally wandered back to the car, it was much quieter, with nary a boo for the red, white and blue of New England.

Gloucester Cross 10/13

Well, every race can't be a tape to tape run. Today's "New England Worlds" was as hard, fast and tough as ever. I took the hole shot up the hill, felt pretty good in the first half of the first lap, but then spent a lot of time just drifting back. By the third lap I was in good position and starting to move back up. The course was similar to most years, but the most notable difference was only one section (the barriers) that forced riders off their bikes. On three different sections, we would hammer for over 400 yards, perfect time for the 50!!! Gary returned from the West coast and rode a good race, finishing 15th, I finsihed up 33rd, while Roy, Eric, and Keith were a bit further back. With over 100 racers taking to the line, just finishing this day is a feat. Kudos to Sally and Cris in the Women's elite, and all the other racers who came out today.

Little G's Wedding 10/5

What started as a simple trip to Michigan 11 years ago ended in a very beautiful marriage. On October 4th Marylou and I left home and drove 12 hours to Michigan. We spent the weekend meeting and socializing with many friends new and old. Congratulations G and Rebecca.

Stony Creek Cyclocross Race Report

Don't recognize the name of the race? Be sure to read on then.A good friend of mine was getting married in Michigan last Friday.The thought of partying Friday night, then driving all the way home Saturday, plus two hours more to get to New Gloucester, Maine was too much. A quick search of the Internet showed that within 45 minutes of my friends was a cross race in Michigan. Perfect, I would just toss the bike into the trunk, race, then head home.As we pulled into the parking lot of the venue, I had mixed emotions of excitement and nervousness. I've head plenty of times before that nothing matches the intensity of New England cross (mainly from the mouths of New England racers), but this was the same promoter that hosted Jonathan Page in a UCI race a couple of weeks back. Thoughts of what the course will look like, what the competition will look like, what the conditions will be like and more flowed through my head. I changed up and took a warm-up lap. This course was a very traditional New England course. Plenty of sections of grass, sweeping turns, barriers, places where the course just folded back and forth on itself, three sand sections (one was had a 180 turn which caused riders to dismount, run and remount, one across a volleyball court that was rideable by a few and runnable by most, then a 75 yard running section along the beach, total leg sapper) and even some pavement,ideal for my style. This course reminded me a lot of Gloucester.With two laps of practice into my legs, I headed over to registration,then warm-up, then to the line. Registration is where I noticed my first real difference in races. First, the promoters site had had a link to Bikereg.com, but Bikereg.com had no reference to the race, so I was forced to do day of. Second, there was no fee for day off. I also noticed that there were a lot of prereg'd folks, so they obviously knew something I didn't. Finally, at registration, they gave me a number to pin on and a timing chip to wear on my ankle.This provided timely, accurate results, and lap splits. Very cool.Unsure of a lot, I stayed within sight of the starting line for the 30minutes before the start. With about 10 minutes to go, people started to line up and I rolled over to take a front row spot. So far,everything just like at home. The official came over and gave the typical prerace instructions, then the promoter gave his countdown. I glanced left and right and noticed no one else holding their brakes and weighting their pedal. When the whistle blew, I released the brakes and started to sprint the 400 yards of pavement for the holeshot. The course was about as wide as a car through the entire course, so the hole shot wasn't as important as other races.Regardless, I wanted it and stormed to take it. First race reality,the hole shot isn't contested. By the time I made the grass, I had opened up a 20-25 bike length lead on the pack. Afterwards, other racers were commenting on the pack just looking at each other with"What the hell is that about" looks on their faces. A quarter of the way through the first lap, my lead had shrunk down and I decided to wait for the front group to catch me. No sense blowing up by myself,only to get passed by everyone. By the end of the first lap, a front group of six had established itself. Two laps later the group had dwindled to four and I was wondering how much longer I could hold the pace. This was definitely hurting. With no resting sections, it was game on the whole time. Being around others in a cross race is a new experience for me. Usually I am dangling between groups in no mans land. This was much better.Three out of four of the guys in the front group were working together well, and I was staying out of that last yo-yo position. At one point the guy on the back bolted by everyone and drove the pace, then whenhe was done he went out the back. Three riders left and one lap togo. As we heard the bell, one rider (Bryan) attacked the group and I jumped on his wheel. By the time we hit the grass we had a small gap on the third rider and Bryan called for me to work with him. I pulled through and wondered if this was a smart decision. It took everything that I had not to increase the intensity and blow up, there was still a lap to go. I pulled along the grass, down to the pit, around the sweeping turns and into the barriers. Each previous lap Bryan had passed me on the barriers so I had to push a little more here. As the lap wore on, I knew being in front was more and more important. We went through the 180 sand turn around still together, then when we traversed the volleyball court, I rode through it cleanly, while Bryan stumbled a tiny bit. That's all I needed as I sprinted through the beach section and remounted for the final 500 yards of grass and pavement.Final result had me in first by two seconds.This was my first race outside of New England, either road or cross.I am now a firm believer that racing in this area is about as hard a sit gets, but a good racer in Michigan is a good racer. The courses are as good, the competition as good and the experience as good (if not better). This was also my first race where I have ridden smart,ridden within myself and not had any bike issues. These things, plus a course that suited my strengths turned into a memorable experience.