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Ice Weasels CX - December 2014 [My pictures of the Killer Bs 40+, Killer Bs, and Jedi Women's races; promoter's report] What a roller coaster! Sure, the course, but also coming up with a place to put the course. Race day was scheduled for Saturday December 13 in Rowley MA. On Thursday December 11, registered racers started to hear the first rumblings of a problem. Specifically, water. Lots of water. Practically Noah levels of water. Much of the Rowley course--and crucially, all of the Rowley parking--was under water courtesy a heavy dose of midweek rain. By later in the day on Thursday, the decision came down from race organizer Colin Reuter. For those of us in the Metrowest area, no big deal. In the other direction, and 15 minutes closer. Game on. A look at the video from the 2013 Ice Weasels in Rowley showed a bleak open space on a bitingly cold day. Lots of power sections, not so many technical elements. In short, not ideal for me. But would Diamond Hill Park be any better? By Friday evening, a video preride of the course was available. It's hard to tell elevation from a video, but the course certainly didn't look to be as wide open. So there's that. Saturday morning, arrive, register, pre-ride. SWEEEEET COURSE! 
Start at the green dot, southwest to a gentle right-hander, then the holeshot sharp right.
Over some roots, u-turn, more roots, then a sharp right into the woods.
Roots, a climb, more roots, then back out into the open for a short climb.
Back in the woods, out in the open, back in the woods, and then to the log that spelled the end of the trees for a while.
The log was ridable. I know, I watched guys ride it during the preride. So I tried. Twice. Both times, the result was the same. Jeff, meet ground. Ground, meet Jeff. I was able to get the front wheel up and over, but couldn't figure out how to keep enough power to the rear wheel to follow suit. No harm, no foul, and better to learn the "dismount" lesson during the preride. Up the hill a bit, then some fun turns heading down before the first set of barriers. Two power sections, a fun up-and-around at a tree, then onto the pumptrack. 
Orchard Cross in 2013 had a pumptrack. The bumps were big, widely-spaced, regularly-spaced. Diamond Hill Park, not so much. Small, tighly-spaced, irregularly-spaced. I'd only notice while taking pictures of later races that there was a rideable--and much faster--flat track just to the left of the pumptrack. After the pumptrack, a nice banked berm before a few turns leading to the soft off-camber left turn with a pond being the penalty for failing to negotiate it. Along the water, up across the access road, and down along the decorative pond. A few more turns, then the TALL barriers--handup central!--on the upslope. Back across the access road, a few turns, then The Decision. Take the JRA Cycles "Bad Idea" jump/launcher (the A-line)? Or opt for the alternate B-line to the left? As the announcer would say at the start of our race, if you don't have experience jumping a 'cross bike, now might not be the best time to learn. Once past the A-line/B-line, it was back to the start where it would all begin all over again. We lined up for the start. I slotted in at the left edge of my row next to Dan G. The whistle blow and we were off. Like Shedd Park, I got a great start. Unlike Shedd Park, I made it last. Just past the starting line, the road widened, which gave me a clear channel up the left side. That positioned me well for the outside line at the holeshot to the right. By then, I had gained pretty much all of the positions that I would gain, so I settled in. The rest of lap 1 played out as I described the course above. Patrick G, who would normally have started well ahead of me but didn't register until on-site the day of the race, caught me relatively early on. Eventually, though, a spikey heart rate would force him to retire. None of the other MacCross riders who started behind caught me on lap 1. I thought I might hold them off on lap 2, but Heath U picked me off. Early on lap 3, Dan G and Larry A did the same. And somewhere on lap 3 or 4, Tom P got me. All in all, though, I was psyched about my result: 48 of 89 (54% of the way back). My previous best had been 65% of the way back, at Cooper River earlier this year. And the lesson was pretty clear: (1) find a course well suited to my talents (or rather, my relative lack of deficiencies, namely, better bike handling than straight-line power); (2) choose the end of the starting row lined up with the outside of the holeshot; and (3) go all-out from the start in the emptyish space you hope will open up in front of you. The Numbers: click here for Strava (no video from me, but here's one from a faster racer in my field and here's a Strava Playback showing my effort to hold off Larry A, Dan G, and Heath U)
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If you thought changing the venue with 2 weeks notice was kinda bold last year, you're gonna love this.
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2014 RESULTS
2013 RESULTS
2012 RESULTS
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