Finishing up the season strong: Cap City #7 and Winter Trophy Series #1

After Boughton Farm I was toast. My body has been pretty well-abused since April of this year, so it was break time.

I spent two weeks without even thinking about my bike, and while it was nice, I was starting to get a little stir-crazy by the end of things.

So the first time back on my bike after my time off was the Cap City series finale at Infirmary Mound.

I woke up that morning to a solid inch of snow up in the Cleveland area, went to pick up Robert and off we went.

Two-and-a-half hours later, and a few "Hey I'm lost" phone calls to Matt Weeks, we rolled into Granville to a snowy and muddy race.

I got a warm up in and cheered on Robert, who was kicking ass in the B's on his singlespeed. He ended up in second even after a few mud-induced mistakes (*cough* sandbagger *cough*) oh my excuse me... Heh.

So the A's lined up after that. The official announced that because of the conditions the race was going to be cut short to 45 minutes. Big old bummer, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The whistle blows and we're off. I got out in the front with Weeks, and then it became very apparent, if it hadn't been already, how much he's on the next level. I was turning myself inside-out trying to keep up with him, and he was probably going not too hard. It was wild.



The course was a half-muddy half-icy nightmare, and staying upright at times seemed an impossible challenge. Luck was on my side though and I kept it rubber-side down minus a few foot dabs here and there.



So Matt and I rode rode together most of the race, with Garth Prosser trying to bridge up most of the time. His gap may have gotten down to ten seconds or so earlier on, but by the end of the race, we had it opened up to a solid minute. Probably a few minutes behind him was the Katsu and the chase group consisting of the rest of the A racers.

I was able to nip Matt at the line, which I'll take a wild guess and say that was his Christmas present to me :-).


So there it was, my first victory in an A race. To say I'm excited about this is an understatement. I was able to nab my first win in both a B race and an A race in one season. Wooooohoooo!

Hopefully this momentum will carry over to next year. I've started working with Sean Gilbert recently, and hopefully his coaching wizardry will pay off for next season.

After the icy drive home, It was wash the jersey and go to bed time.

Up the next day I started getting ready for Shawn Adams' Winter Trophy Series.

I looked at my destroyed bike from the previous day's Columbus shenanigans, and pretty much said screw this to the thought of washing it.

It was single speed time!

I got to the course, and very quickly though that I was screwed. It was pretty flat, and my singlespeed was geared at 40x17, which I thought was a bit low. Oh well.

I put the Grifo XS file tread on the front, which hooked up really well in the ice and snow at 20ish PSI, and off we went. Ernie and Matt took off pretty much immediately, as my gearing spun out a little below their speed on the start.


As we settled in, Rudy and I were pretty similar in pace, and we worked together pretty much the entire time. It's always a treat riding with Rudy, as he's been racing for probably about as long as I've been alive, so I sort of sit back and watch and learn. So after trading pulls, getting some motivational beeps of my car horn by my girlfriend who was both watching and keeping warm, we got the bell, and Rudy sent me off.

I rolled across the line in third, really happy with how I rode. I think I'm going to race the SS for the rest of the series, maybe with a bit taller gear.

Ernie and Matt put on pretty much a cross clinic on how to ride the ice, and finished in first and second, respectively.

After a few detours (sorry Srokas!) we ended up at a little get together at the Matinee / Mr. Zubs. Some good food, a brew, and some chatting with the other racers.

I would recommend everyone comes out to the rest of the series, it was a blast. Big thanks to Shawn Adams for putting it on.