The MAC Daddy of 'Cross Weekends

Diane Vettori, aka Monkey, gets her swerve on during the Cat 3,4 women's race at Granogue, photo courtesy of Dennis Smith



Cyclocross

The weekend, with Granogue followed by Wissahickon, is likely unmatched by any other double-header UCI weekend (in my book). There are so many things that make it special. The courses are NOTHING alike.

Granogue is very technically challenging, with many off camber grassy twists and turns, technically placed barriers, and a run/ride up (depending on your skill and gearing). It also has more elevation gain per lap than most other cross races I have done previously (I’m sure someone has some data to back me up or refute this – Mike Birner was sportin’ his Garmin on his cross bike on Saturday).

photo by Dennis Smith

Wissahickon is a mostly flat grassy course with lots of long power sections, some technical twists and turns (including the always fun “spiral of doom”, a big sandbox (which was totally ridable this year) and barriers on a steep run-up that have claimed me as a victim more than once.

On Saturday, the atmosphere of the weekend was set early by a dose of beautiful, fall-like, ‘cross specific weather. Marc Vettori, Tom McDaniel, and Lauri Webber helped to organize the DCCoD and other MAC/Mabra brethren to put on a premier C1 event like no other. The course was well thought out, in great condition, and dry! The announcing was done by Joe Jefferson, who is nothing if not entertaining as hell. His euphemisms such as “the field is strung out like Amy Winehouse in rehab” kept me in stitches during my warm up.

There were photographers gallore. Dennis Smith has produced his normal high quality work, Todd Leister gave us a small teaser with his Cyclingnews photos (we all know the big bolus of awesome stuff is still getting uploaded), and Anthony Skotchrod took some might fine shots as well! Hey, was Kevin working this event, or just having fun and racing? I lined up on the front row, my second-to-last time this season in that position (my lingering last year’s UCI points will be all-gone-bye-bye next weekend). The field, of course, was stacked. I lined up next to LVG, and then realized I needed my water bottle – I handed my bike to LVG, asking her to be so kind as to hold it for a second. As I returned to my bike, it kind of hit me – LVG is holding my bike for me! It was kind of surreal. I still haven’t asked for her autograph yet, though! Behind me was Deidre Winfield, less than 1 year post-partum and riding like a rock-star this year. I heard her husband say something like “launch yourself right off of Beth’s wheel”, oh those fateful words. Fellow C3-Sollay.com teammates Heidi, Diane, Elizabeth, and, of course, Laura Van Gilder (affectionately known as LVG), were also behind me. The gun went off and we did launch…and Dede did shoot right off of my wheel into the lead (and into a stiff head-wind). I tucked in behind 10 or 12 women, and enjoyed one of the slowest starts ever (thanks to that horrendous wind). By the time we reached the pit, less than 1 minute later, LVG had a front flat. She hadn’t passed the pit exit, so she ran back to the entrance and got her pit bike. Unfortunately, the race was up the proverbial road. The rest of the race was uneventful for me, as I tried to make bridges, tried not to be bridged to, and hoped not to crash and make a spectacle of myself. I don’t really remember when Heidi passed me. Usually that is pretty memorable, but maybe I am just getting used to it. I do remember when Elizabeth bridged up to me and then by me, only to be plagued soon afterward with a dropped chain (of the bad variety, the get-off-the-bike-and-fix-it-while-cussing type). Laura managed to make up a ton of ground, and finished 7th (with Velo Bella teammates Dede and Kathy Sherwin working together for first and second in a 3-up sprint to hold off Mo Bruno Roy). Other C3 notables – Heidi with an awesome 14th place finish, I ended up 17th, Elizabeth 18th, and Di in 21st.
I was lucky enough to have secured host-housing with my wounded teammate Lorraine (she went and got herself a 3rd degree AC separation – they hurt). She was also hosting our other teammates, Christina (a rockin’ 3rd in her B race earlier on the day, despite being ill) and Sonja, and Tick Head, aka Reyna (the sweetest dog ever!). We drank some wine, and then went out to dinner, and drank a little more. We ate some good food, and the weekend really was shaping up to be one of my favorites ever.

The next day Sonja and Christina were out the door at about 7:15. Christina was still vacillating on whether or not she would race. Her cold had taken a turn for the worse, and she hadn’t gotten much sleep. Lorraine and I followed closely behind, leaving at 8:00 to arrive in plenty of time to freeze our asses off waiting for the start of the C men and B women. Really, it was very cold. It was about 37 degrees, but with 20 mph winds, the wind chill would have been in the teens. Plenty of folks piled on the layers (and some didn’t) to brave the elements at the Wissahickon early race. This race has always been one of my favorites, and the Sturdy Girls and Kelly Cline put on a first class event. My personal favorite was the extra prize money put in for the 35+ women (yay, me!).

Christina, despite illness akin to pneumonia, totally killed it. She was bested only by Lenore Pipes, an incredibly gifted young phenom new to the sport of cyclocross. Lenore showed us what she could do on the road earlier this year, and apparently she can do it on a ‘cross bike as well! Christina rode an inspiring race, and finished within sight of Lenore, but with 3rd place well behind her.

Fast forwarding to our event, at 1:30….the Victory Brewing tent had been operational for about 2.5 hours when our race started, so the crowd was, er, happy. Boisterous. As I stood at the back of the Port-o-John line, about number 9 in the queue, Marc exuberantly arrived on the scene. He "introduced me to the group" (the other 8 people in front of me), as one of his very nice, quiet, teammates - who was about to race. He then introduced himself as Marc, "the obnoxious team drunk", who kindly requested that I be allowed to cut the line to get off to staging. He had the group rolling, and they graciously accommodated his request. Once I had business taken care of (for the 20th time on the day), I headed down toward staging, along with the same cast of characters from Granogue. Again, I had primo positioning, for whatever good that did me. The gun went off, and so did we. I got myself in a bad place, early, taking an outside line in order to move up on the first corner. Unfortunately, I kind of rode myself into tape, and then realized I was going too slowly for the gearing I was in – Heidi passed me and said “get UP there Beth”, she sounded surprised she was already passing me. I usually start pretty well. I tried to make up the ground I had lost, and started trying to come around people. That is very hard to do in the early half of the first lap at Wiss, there isn’t much room, and everything is off camber and slick. At some point after the first lap, I realized I was riding HARD…much harder than I normally do after the first lap. I was working in with a group of 4 women, and we were closing in on others. I was feeling good (in a dying kind of way). And then the barriers ate me. It was bound to happen. They have my shin-marks engraved on them, just waiting to get at me every year. They sit on a steep hill, which seems to make them higher than they really are. I am not tall (in case you hadn’t noticed – Meg once told me I came off as about 5’6”, and she was flabbergasted that I was only 5’2” – I love Meg). I managed to lift my trailing foot up just enough to not quite get it over the barrier. That was enough to send me sailing forward, onto my face, with my bike landing on top of me. I remember thinking “ow, that hurt my face, I wonder if I am bleeding” (I wasn’t, but I would suffer whip-lash symptoms later in the day, and now, as we speak). As I gathered myself back into a standing position to finish my “run” up, I watched my group ride away from me. I knew I wouldn’t catch them. The next lap was a mental struggle for me not to quit. I had been so happy with how I was doing, and it seemed like it had slipped away. I regrouped and managed to continue to ride strong. As I was completing my last lap I was listing to Joe Jefferson and Ken Getchell make the call on the leading 4 riders – Dede, Mo, Kathy Sherwin, and none-other-than LVG. Apparently LVG put the hurt on them on the barrier section, and then out-sprinted them to the line. She gives her double arm salute, sporting the team colors.

Other Elite Women’s results were much the same as the previous day, with Harlow, Heidi and I finishing 16th-18th, and Di in 20th. Harlow and I got money for 4th and 5th in the 35+ women, which was cool.

After packing my car, I got some free Victory Brewing beer and watched the men. The weather had warmed up to about 50, and the wind had abated. Life couldn’t be any better than that. The C3 team is so many people. We are juniors, we are masters, and we are elites and beginners. The thread that binds us is our love for the sport. This weekend, my family went up to Vermont for a harvest festival. I missed them. I was still with family, though, and it was very good.

There are many integral members of the team that raced and supported racers (or both) at these two events. I loved watching Monkey, Doron and Bad Kat tear it up with the Bs along with Christina. Hopefully soon we will be able to add Amy Brelala to our list of Elites! Come along with that there ankle rehab girlfriend!