While racing in itself is an endeavor, the journey to the race can be another trial of its own. Physically getting to the 2018 Night Weasel Cometh isn’t hard to get to- especially moving further south and having a flexible job-, but my journey probably started last year at the same race. Signed up for both the Cat 4/5 and Cat 3/4 fields, hot dry evening on fast terrain, flatted twice on the first lap. Was doing really well in the first race, so losing that opportunity to really explore my limits of racing from a mechanical* is about as frustrating as it gets
*yes I got flats from taking aggressive race lines so it’s totally my flat but in bike racing it’s very satisfying to arbitrarily blame factors “out of your control”*
This year the goal was to do well- maybe even win. My best racing tricks are being tough and riding hard, and every race I get smoother at handling in tricky conditions. Plus, Night Weasels was designed by a fellow former ski racer, so the best lines made instinctive sense to me. Updated Susannah to tubeless and 42x11-28 gearing, target trained some weaknesses and kept at developing my strengths. Night Weasels is a challenging course- just how I like it
Nothing’s ever goes as planned, and leading up to this Night Weasels there were three particular problems:
Not my kind of jam. Photo by Jonathan Nable
-Had finished a long talk with Kolie Moore about my training data. We confirmed (with math!) that at the cost of training everything too much, my body got better at burning glycogen at the expense of losing total potential energy- which basically means I can work harder for less time. Might not sound too bad, but when your race strategy is to out-finesse the competition, it doesn’t work out so well when your body gives out before the race is over
-Cyclocross start staging is based off of race points from the best of the past ten previous races. Better points, better placement in the grid. None of my races were particularly great this year, so I was looking at losing that advantage
-The Night Weasels crew decided to flip the script and have the exact opposite conditions for this year’s race. Definitely not my strong suit for race conditions. Or anyone’s!?
“Oh, well, spit in the ocean and see if it comes back”- Everything’s Eventual
Come Wednesday, I packed up, got the Local Bike Shop to swap Schwable X-One Allrounds for Vittoria Cross XL tires and arrived at Ski Ward with plenty of time to prepare. Kept the warm up light- tough conditions means they’ll be plenty of time to work hard, and I wanted some energy in reserve for a fast last lap. Legs were feeling good after some pedaling and gym stretch work the day before. It’s very gratifying to take charge of the controllable race factors to counteract the uncontrollable ones, so I was feeling pretty great. Minimal nerves, rolled up to the start with some great pre-race vibes
Not shown: about a hundred racers behind first row. Photo by Johnathan Nable
Oh, plus some people missed their starting grid call-up and I got to start first row! No time to celebrate though, because IT’S RACING TIME!
Ripping lines and racing racers. Definitely my happy place. Photo by Johnathan Nable
So, the course. Race promoter Colin joked that for this year’s race we were in Belgium. Race courses there are notorious for greasy grass and deep mud. Here in Temporarily-Belgium-Shrewsbury, we also had standing water and some deep soft mud sections. General course layout was a fast start, a long switchback climb that ended with a steep kicker, a switchback descent before going by the finish/beer garden area with some shalom features and a couple of barriers. Plenty of space in between the tape, rides wicked fast (without mud), the constant climbing usually taxes people into making mistakes handling the downhills. All in all, my kind of jam. Goal heading into the Cat 4/5 was to land the podium- tall order for a field with ninety starters. I’ve never won or earned upgrade points in thirteen years of racing, mud certainly doesn’t make it easier but everyone else has to deal with it so we’re all on equal footing, right?
Start siren goes and it’s all relatively smooth and fast. There’s a deep puddle lake we have to coast through and then you hit the first deep mud section. We were the second race for the day, one of the biggest fields, and also the category that sees a broad mix of physically strong and technically skilled racers. In good conditions it’s not uncommon in the chaos of the first lap to dismount and run through traffic bottlenecks, and that’s exactly what I did into the first tight turn. The mud was loose and sucking wheels, and I literally ran away from everyone to be in the top twenty heading into the uphill
Marginally confused at being at the front of the race. Photo by Katie Buick
The combination of first lap chaos and mud actually made running the best strategy. Some technically skilled riders were blasting themselves to pass me riding good lines on the remaining good terrain. Knowing that I wanted to keep my legs fresh and I had good form to out run everyone, I hopped off and push-carried my way up the last third of the first hill, keeping my effort smooth and easy. A lot other racers followed suit, but the time we got up and over I was one of the few that wasn’t stumbling to stay upright. Sliding downhill with that much more energy made it easier passing the technically skilled racers- my non-technical approach was to alternate swinging wide on the grease mud and keep the inside foot on turns unclipped to manage balance and dab as needed. Got to recover enough to move through strong on the second hill section and was racing fast by the time we hit the first lap. Right now I was third out of one hundred racers in one of New England’s biggest races, and I was feeling good. Wasn’t quite rocking the mindless race instinct I look to achieve every race, but that’s OK- had to keep a clear head to make smart decisions to stay upright
It bothers me to no end that the best race pictures of me not riding. Photo by Katie Busick
First place was nowhere in sight. Lap times would show he hit 7:01 and 7:59 for the first two laps- a full thirty seconds faster than anyone else. That’s another uncontrollable factor- fine by me, second place is within sight, and I was feeling comfortable being first wheel in the chase group through the course. Sometimes being first wheel is too much mentally for racers- to me, it’s a controllable factor, so it works better for me. It doesn’t however change you into a more technically skilled racer. I haven’t fallen, but I keep getting close to sliding out and having to take an emergency path to stay upright. Each time it happens I can feel everyone behind me getting closer. Second lap, one racer gets by me. Third, two more racers move up. Recognize a couple as really fit road racers, and they look comfortable moving through the mud. Don’t want to redline myself to catch up and make a major technical error, so I keep riding my smooth pace. Course is absolutely transformed at this point after hundreds of racers churning the grass and mud- still keeping cognizant enough to find the new good lines to ride and push-carry through anything that was riding slow
Unfortunately that was as good as it got for me. Heading into the final bell lap, I had hemorrhaged two more places but passed another two racers. We’re also passing lapped riders at this point, but I’m keeping my wits and head up enough to call out space to pass. Been battling back and forth with two racers who were both better technical handlers. Hopefully after thirty-five minutes of racing I could raise the effort and put them behind me for good
Couldn’t do it. As well as I was at finding new good lines to ride, the other two were better and seemed to also have a similar “last lap hard” mindset. Heading into the first downhill section, they both find good terrain to ride fast by me. When we hit the beer garden shalmon- which is about two minutes of race left-, they’re out of sprinting range. I can see on the switchbacks I had another racer close to my wheel. Don’t want him to pass me because I redlined myself into falling over, so I keep it smooth into the finish for eighth overall
Dirty Susannah is dirty, but at least the mud tires didn’t clog too much. Photo by Dana Prey
I like my races hard and leaving me completely gassed. Belgium Night Weasels was tough, but in the technically sense of handling- pretty frustrating to have your muscle beaten by wits, but that’s bike racing and I wouldn’t change it for anything. No podium, but got my first upgrade points, in an environment I’d normally perform awful in. Plus it’s Night Weasels. It’s a weeknight race under the lights, brawling in the tape and sharing a post-race beer with friends
Nothing but the best vibes, and seeing friends warms up your hear a little bit. Many thanks to the race promoters for putting on a great New England classic
Katie keeps pointing the camera at me because she knows I’m a ham. Photo by Katie Busick
Mud Weasels Ride Data
SHAKA EMOJI. Photo by Katie Busick