Prepping for Nationals

Yes, I did miss a weekend update owing to the rush of the packing and traveling for the National Championships so I’ll try to get caught up here atmo. The Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team is officially leg’s-up now that we’ve all returned from Bend , Oregon. The next few emails will be about that event, the ones that preceded it, and what follows next. Let me begin with the races in Rhode Island, the last two before we headed west.

The NBX G.P. of ‘Cross Weekend in East Greenwich’s Goddard Park is traditionally the closer for the circuit here in New England. It also serves as the finale of the Verge Sport season long, 14 race series that is a primary focus for many of the ‘crossers in the northeast. All of the events are UCI C2 designations and the importance of doing well in these for a myriad of reasons cannot be emphasized enough. I’m happy to write that our Dan Timmerman and Josh Dillon capped off a stellar 2009 by finishing one-two on the podium. It’s truly an accomplishment worthy of praise that they performed so consistently over a span of so many events. The pair kept the RS ‘Cross Team’s visibility front and center right up to the last kilometer as Dan and Josh also finished that final race in Rhode Island in first and second place.

In the Saturday race, Josh was fourth, narrowly missing a podium spot. Over the weekend team mate Will Dugan also had great races finishing seventh and fifth respectively in the Elite Men’s category. In the Master’s events, Matt Kraus with one S was fifth both days in the 35+ category, while I was sixth and then fourth over the two days in my 55+ race. My regular season ended with me netting a fourth overall in the Verge Sport series in my division. For the folks looking to collect stats and screen shots, here’s a peek at what it all looked liked when over atmo:

I’ll write it right here and now that the RS ‘Cross Team’s 2009 campaign ended on a high note, just as it began in the Spring months when all of this was still in the seedling stages. Through all of the planning, the shmoozing, the begging, the child rearing, the pistol whipping, the twizzlers, the screaming, the waitresses, the “saving the world one weekend at a time through ‘cross”, the road trips, the 2,704 emails to date, the reports, the pic mining after each race that often took more time than training for ‘cross itself takes – through ALL of this, this team succeeded in spades. I could not be more pleased with how these men represented the brands and entities that keep us well oiled, or how fine a time was had by us all as a group of individuals who, while we are all pals anyway, gained an ever better and stronger kinship owing to the closeness and experiences we share over such a concentrated season of racing and traveling together, or, lastly, how successful Dan, Josh, Will, and Pookums were in their own personal racing campaigns these past four months. I’ll stack up this year’s squad and its accomplishments with any I’ve known over the years and confidently state that these cats have raised the bar for all things ‘cross.

For now, I’ll google some sites that explain how to communicate in sentences far shorter than I have been accustomed to writing, and fire this off to you all with the promise that another report will be sent into the ether by this coming Sunday. The RS ‘Cross Team’s National Championship weekend reports ‘n shit will follow at that time.

Thanks for reading.

e-RICHIE