Combo Report! Live from anywhere there’s a cross race, its Captain of correspondents, the Elmo with the Olmo, the Ironmuppet of Maws, ESPN8 Ocho macho with the head cam, Capt Kurt! Take it away Kurt……
“ So now that Gloucester is behind us, we can finally say that the New England 'Cross season is in full swing! Gloucester is typically the biggest 'cross race turnout for Comp Racing and this past weekend was no exception with Capt Kurt (me), Iron-Jay Curry, Dan Suppa-Cooper, Todd “One-wing” Crumb, Scott “Wooly” Wilson, and Erin “Over-the-Boarder” Bennett all lining up in Cat 4 35+ field. Jen “Stockings” Linnane would show the colors in the women's Cat 3/4 race, Carey “Carebear” Murphy in the 3's and finally on Sunday, Kurt “Power-Machine” Schmid would make his return to 'cross on Sunday in the Master's 1/2/3 field. The Saturday race was atypical of years past at Gloucester and was run in reverse, i.e., a downhill crazy start! We all survived the start which the same could not be said of the Sunday start... More on that in a minute. Of those of us starting the Cat 4 35+ race, Scott Wilson had the best starting position and would capitalize it with a top 15 finish! Next up would be the battle to make sure we stayed in the top half of the field and with about a lap to go, Jay would catch me and quickly drop me. I buried myself to catch Jay so we could finish or at least work together to the finish and I rejoined Jay with about a 1/2 lap left, only to be cut off in a corner by a chasing rider. And then in the ultimate show of sportsmanship, Jay waited for Kurt to 'cross the line together. It was an awesome show and much appreciated! Coming off the Roger Waters show the night before, Erin would slowly make his way up through the field as his lungs cleared and hangover dissipated, finally finishing Gloucester after several frustrating years of mechanicals. Todd would roll in with Erin and finally, after 2 flats Dan would be a DNF, but not after running twice to get to the pits! His legs got as much of a running workout as a riding workout!
Jen lined up in the biggest women's field EVER in Gloucester history... over 100 women! With the crazy start and bad starting position, Jen road strong picking off several riders, and I think the first words out of her mouth at the finish line were "I can't wait to do the again!"... or maybe it was, "OMG, I think I'm going to throw up!" which ironically were the same words that both she and Dan would say before their races as well! It was an awesome showing in the ladies category!
Finally, Carey would line up in the 3s... In a huge field of riders all trying to be at the head of the field, Carey would finally get that good race under his belt after a few tough races to start the season and place a strong 33rd! Awesome!
The Sunday races saw less Black and Orange at the start line, but none the less we raced hard! I will shorten the summary and give you the highlight of the Cat 4 race. With another awesome showing Scott Wilson would ride in the front 2 for 2 laps before finally getting chased down finishing in the top 10 with a solid 8th place! At the back of field, there would be chaos! During the start of the race, sprinting up the hill, two guys would come together, with a 3rd flying up and over those 2... As it turns out the flying Black and Orange would be Todd! After untangling the bikes, Todd would proceed to pick off another 15 riders and then later go on to discover he had broken his hand! Awesome tough man riding! I finished a quiet mid-pack...
Finally, Kurt S would make his return to 'cross racing on an actual 'cross bike! And what a difference it made! In a field stacked with current and past US National champions, Kurt would finish an AWESOME 33nd, less than 3 minutes off the leaders. Amazing to watch!
Carey would toe the line again in the 3s and make a seemingly huge ride in the last two laps and finish in the same spot as the day before!
And finally, we bring ourselves to Wednesday evening... The Night Weasels Cometh. For those of you not familiar with "The Weasel Cometh" Brand, they put on a race last year in the snow that was a blast! Well, this one would live up the brand and Jen and I found ourselves driving to the Ward Ski Hill in the rain on Wednesday. I would line up with the 4s in the first race of the evening. With waning light, I raced was seemed like an entire uphill race, in the mud... It was by far the hardest 'cross race I have EVER done and after 34 races, that's saying something! I finished with the rest of the mid pack riders, that got lapped by the winner...a 14 year old wunderkin!
The big show of the night would come later, as the lights would come on and Jen would line up, with not only the Cat 4 women but the Pro/1/2/3 women! And off she went, mud flying, legs spinning, dodging bodies falling in the mud! Jen road hard and held her own and at one point, actually led one of the higher level riders through a technical corner demonstrating the correct way to corner on an uphill muddy section as the Cat 1 rider would eventually end up laying face down in the mud! It was great to see the black and orange out there again! And once again our argyle socks were a huge hit!
That's it from the 'cross world!
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