I suck at bowling,

Heading to the airport at 5:00 AM on a Thursday morning, must be cyclocross season. Usually I’m a bundle of nerves on the way out. So much to do, I have lists taped to walls in my office, on the door of the Clif Bar Bike Shop, on the dash of the truck, and I’m rethinking everything! This week was different. It was the last trip east, and the last weekend away until Nationals, and that felt good, but it was more than that. Everything was clicking. I think we had all felt it for weeks.

Worcester, was the first time we had all been together as a team and had outstanding results across the board. Rich Maile and Chris D’Alusio rode away from the field on Saturday in Worcester with Rich taking the sprint from Chris like they where out on the Sacramento River Ride.

The women’s A race was a classic full team event with the top three (Gina, Carmen and Alison) taking a bike each lap to avoid the doubles, due to bad pit set up. Leroy had Gina, TJ Grove had Alison, I had Carmen, and Rich caught bikes. It was CRAZY. The girls where all together for 7 laps and each lap the three came into the pits, together, and grabbed a bike. With a few laps to go I think Gina paid the price for setting such a wicked pace early on, and fell off the pace a bit. Alison and Carmen rode into the bell lap together with Alison getting the better of Carmen in the sprint. All in all, not a bad race with Carmen finishing second and Gina a close third.

As for the Boys, they had their hands full from the start with 90 riders in the men’s A race. Andy had a rough day and was not able to really get his motor running. He finished saying his legs felt fine but he just could not get keep up the speed. Jackson finished 6^{th and} Andy cruised into 10^th.

The next day Glouster started off the same with Rich and Chris opening it up from the start. Chris was suffering some effects from all the travel and ended up out of the race mid way through. Rich performed on the short end of the sprint with a very smart riding John Verhuel of Cycle-Smart.

The girl’s race was fast. Gina, Carmen and Alison worked hard and made it tough for the rest of the ladies to even see the front end of the race, except for Mary McConneloug. Alison ended up getting a gap on Carmen and Carmen finished a few seconds back with Mary getting the better end of the sprint with Gina. Again, not bad with a second place Carmen and a fourth place for Gina.

As for the boys, Jackson and Andy laid it down at the start and came through the forest into the run together with Gully, Wells, and Ryan. There was a boatload of super fast guys barreling through the doubles, up the run, heading straight at us in the pits. The rest of the hour was Gully, Jackson, Andy, Wells and Ryan slugging it out attacking and counter attacking each other. With one lap to go and Ryan having rolled a tire, Wells was gone for a solo win. Jackson and Mark McCormack were together just ahead of Andy. Wells rode through for the win as Jackson lead Mark onto the road with a few hundred meters uphill to go. Leroy and I were chasing behind to get a glimpse of who would win the sprint. It’s the Mark McCormack hook…first hand………….It was like Mark leaned on Jackson and Jackson was already on the fence, and then Mark dug the left elbow into Jackson, causing him to soft pedal for a few strokes and then Jackson went again. Jackson took Mark in a double sprint with our own Russ Wright of www.abbiOrca.com getting the photo finish.

We were home the next weekend, and that was when I felt it all evolving. The chemistry at the front of the men’s A race was changing. Saturday at Surf City, believe it or not, was the first time we had fully dominated the men’s race. Jackson and Andy went to work from the gun and did not punch out for one hour. It was great to be home. Everyone who had been back East (Gina, Carmen, Rich, Andy, Jackson and Chris) had great rides on Saturday, and proved that all the hard work and traveling eventually will pay off. Sunday at Coyote Point we had a great race. I saw that Andy and Jackson were working so well together that Wells and Gully were not able to shake them, no matter how hard they tried. The weekend had been a huge success and I was feeling confident about the upcoming events.

After getting all of our gear together for yet another trip back East, Gina and I hit the United counter with a load of gear. We dread the usual post 9/11 security measures – the weighing of the bags etc… Gina’s bike bag was way over the limit. I could see the bag guy alerting our ticket agent. Instead of the usual additional charges and such, she overlooked our situation as she loaded our bags onto the carousel. So we went with it. Next were our seat assignments. After punching the keyboard for a few seconds, our ticket agent looked up at Gina and I and asked if row one would be all right. Knowing very well that row one is in the first class section, we said that would be fine. Again, we went with it! We knew that this was a good sign for the weekend – as long as we could carry our Row one status into a 1^st place status for the races.

Friday morning I was up at 6:00 and headed into town to find some coffee. When I rolled back to the hotel at 7:00 to meet up with Gina and Carmen, I was surprised to find Steve Litvin, the race promoter, at our hotel. Steve had our numbers, rider release forms, and even thought to bring a box of pins. Now that’s what I call service. The wind was steady, around 25 MPH with gust to 40 MPH, so we elected to hang around in New Brunswick to grab some coffee and buy groceries. Later on that day, Andy, Carmen, Gina and I went down to the coarse to see what we were in for. We arrived at the coarse to find Ronny Poelvoorde, a rider over from Belgium. It was assumed by most that Ronny would win on Saturday. Ronny rode really hard on Friday and it appeared that he thought this would be an easy win. I wondered why he was here was acting like this would be an easy win? Maybe I was reading too much into it. At any rate, the course was flat with one section of uphill to be ridden once and ran up once. Wind would be a huge factor for sure.

Saturday Leroy, Rich and I hit the road at 7:00 after some Coffee and good East Coast bagels. Rich’s race was at 10:45 so we tried to stay out of the wind until then. No sooner does Rich’s race start, the girls arrive on the scene to prepare for their own race. As Leroy and I scramble to get them ready, Rich wins the 1^st race of the day – and we’re off to a great start!

Next was the Women’s Race. Gina and Carmen dropped the hammer at the whistle. After just one lap, there are only a handful of women hanging tight. By lap two, it was just Gina and Carmen working together, yet working on each other. With just a few laps to go, a family of five walked down the middle of the finish chute as Gina and Carmen came through. Carmen was able to slip through the chaos, taking the win. Gina rolled in just behind for second, and we maintain our first class status!

Finally, the boys were up. We were all ready for a good race here. On the line at the call up were Gully, Wells, Ryan Trebon, Adam Craig (won Star Cross), Bart Bowen, Ronny Poelvoorde, Ben Jacques-Maynes, Jeremy Powers, Jackson and Andy. The Whistle blew and it was a blur with Andy and Jackson in the thick of it. After two laps it was clear that the group of Ryan, Gully, Wells, Jackson and Andy were working well together and putting time on the chasers. Lap after lap we could see the attacks coming from Ryan, Gully and Wells, with Andy and Jackson riding smart and taking as few pulls in the wind as possible. With half the race over I could see Ryan being stretched as Gully and Wells seemed frustrated that they cant shake Jackson and Andy. With one lap to go Ryan gains recovery and is back in the mix. As they came through with half a lap to go, Andy was winding it up from way in the back. He launched himself and rolled past the four with his ass up and his head low. As he rolled past Gully and Wells, they look at Andy, and then at each other. By this time it was too late and Andy shot like a rocket into 1^st place. Within seconds, Leroy and I see Ryan and Jackson in a sprint for second. Ryan takes the place, with Jackson finishing a close third. What a Huge day!

After a quick but well-deserved celebration dinner, Leroy and I pick up a couple of cigars to smoke on the 240-mile road trip to North Hampton for Sunday’s race.

Sunday we woke up to some very cold air, and a coarse that was 80% frozen grass. With Rich’s race at 10:00 am, Leroy and I already had the pit set up and dialed for the day. Rich has a field of 100 to contend with and John Verhuel was back. John didn’t race Saturday and beat Rich in Glouster. Rich was super excited about the coarse and it showed as he nailed it from the opening lap and took John and a couple others with him. Half way through the race it was clear that Rich was the strongest and had to slow down to wait for John. The rest were struggling to keep them in sight. With two laps to go Rich and John entered the sand pit together; Rich stayed left as John went right. Not a good decision on John’s part as he washed out and had to remount. At that point, Rich was gone. It was day two and we were on a roll again.

Carmen and Gina raced next and we were ready for them. Mary McConnouloug was racing so that would make things interesting, but I was pretty sure Gina and Carmen would be alone in the front at some point, trying to beat each other. The latter proved to be true as Mary had a hard time hanging on while the girls drilled it lap after lap. Carmen has a wicked sprint and it got her a first place that day with Gina finishing second. Wow, it couldn’t have gone any better.

Next up was the race we had all been waiting for. All the players from the day before had made the overnight trip up to Northampton and we also had Mark McCormack and Ronny back who seemed ready to battle. The whistle blew and it was Jackson Stewart who first came into view after the first section of the course. As the riders came through the pit for the first lap, there was a train of riders together at the front being lead by our very own Jackson Stewart. By the second lap it was Jackson at the top, then Ronny, Wells, Gully, Andy, Ben, Bart and Mark. It seemed a bit early for Jackson to be working so hard at the front. However, at thirty minutes in, it was clear to me that Ronny was done and it was going to come down to Gully, Wells, Jackson or Andy. My money was on Jackson. With just three laps to go it was Jackson and Wells together at the front, and Andy and Gully ten seconds back. Andy at this point knew that he needed to support Jackson so he backed off so as not to assist Gully in gaining back up to Jackson. By the Last lap Wells had pulled Jackson for two laps. As they approached the double barrier, we all knew Wells would offer his classic bunny hop. This might have been his last fatal mistake. Jackson chose to run the barrier to get past Wells – and he did. Almost in slow motion, Jackson fought Wells to take the win. Not even 200 yards back, Andy took Gully in a sprint for third place.

Wow, what a huge weekend!

Later that evening we went bowling. You would think that after all that winning they would take it easy, but no, they had to turn it competitive. Andy won with Jackson bowling an amazing game all while talking on his cell phone at the same time. Leroy, Gina and Carmen all battled for 3-4-5^th and I was dead last………………………….

I suck at bowling,

Pat Flanagan

Director Team Clif Bar Cyclocross