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I have a love-hate relationship with Night Weasels,
Love: CX racing, the CX atmosphere, and one of the best CX-side drinking venues yet imagined.
Hate: Hills. Hills. Hills.
So, I'd decided a few weeks back to skip Night Weasels. (See: Hills.) But then, today, Brad W spoke. "This year I decided not to do it because it’s basically just a hill climb up a ski slope, and I tried one of those last year and it was a complete disaster for me (DNF), so thanks, but no thanks. But anyone else who isn’t doing Night Weasels is a total pussy." Plus, having raced Midnight Ride and Gloucester, and with Saturday at Providence on the docket, Night Weasels would put me on the short list of MacCrossers riding all 4 Holy Week venues. In the pre-start corral, I noticed a Fat Cyclist jersey on a mountain bike rider and introduced myself. It was none other than Friend of Fatty Boston Carlos. We chatted a bit, then it was callup time. By bib number, I had rights to the fifth row. But mistakenly thinking I was wearing 430 instead of 436, I rolled up to the fourth row. And saw an open spot in the third row. Doing my best Lars van der Haar impression, I took the hole shot into that spot. Of course, the whistle hadn't sound yet, but already, I'd gained two rows. And, channeling my inner Brad, I lined up in the gap between the 2 row two riders ahead of me. Cat 5. 40+. Second and a half row. I could practically taste the podium. I wouldn't get a podium spot after all, but Focus dealer Steve the Bike Guy did, finishing 3rd in the 40+ field. Interestingly enough, the first, third, and fifth riders across the line all came from the 40+ field, meaning our field's podium kicked the ass of the younger field's podium (combined u40 and 40+ start). The first part of the course takes you up Skate Home--a long climb broken up by a traverse or two and a log barrier. Then, it's down First Tracks. That's when Carlos on his MTB bombed by. I wouldn't see him again until beer time on the deck. Up Dream Maker, then down and up and down Winter's Magic before hitting the long straightaway to finish the lap. We'd end up riding 5 laps. By the beginning of lap 4, I was cursing Skate Home and vowing not to ride Night Weasels next year. I'm pretty sure that's a repeat of my thinking from Night Weasels LAST year. One feature of a CX race is the announcer. In this case, it was a pair of announcers. Not only can the fans hear them, but when you're in the Winter's Magic section of the course above the base lodge/deck/bar, the racers can hear them too. And that's when I got my heckle. And not just a regular old Robert the J heckle, this was an announcer-provided, microphone-aided heckle. It was late in lap 4, just before the barriers. A rider was right on my tail. Over the speakers, I hear: "We've got a great battle going on at the barriers. At a decided disadvantage is the guy on the 1990s mountain bike. And with a big advantage, it's a guy on a carbon fiber 'cross bike with disc brakes and tubular tires. Come on, man, give the mountain bike a fighting chance!" While this was a heckle for me, it was a shout-out to Focus for making a bike better looking than it actually is. Sure, disc brakes, but the frame's aluminum and the tires are clinchers. Advantage be damned, over the rest of lap 4 and all of lap 5, I ended up holding my lead over mountain bike guy by two seconds and by the guy behind him by three. The Numbers: click here for Strava
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