Gloucester Day 2

Gloucester Day 2 – Race report by Trina and Edwin
The rain ended Saturday nite, but it was supersaturated and foggy Sunday morning. The course was still very slick early. The promoters change the course over nite, runs in the opposite direction. the course was long, at 3.5 km and twisty. It did not rain Sunday so the course continued to dry throughout the day.
If you are a cross racer and you can pull it off you should do Gloucester at least once, before you retire. The locals refer to it as the worlds of new england. A spectacular venue, on the ocean, a real cross course (not a bmx/mountainbike/oldgarbagedump/cali-style “cyclocross”), nice grass, beer tent with 10 local microbrews, freindly locals, nice promoter, prize money….
We were well supported by Seaside Cylces (an awesome local bike shop with espresso bar) and Verge. Seaside gave us a trainer for 2 weeks and a steady stream of espresso. Verge let us use their tent as a base camp for all 3 weekends. Plenty of spectators by the time the elite men rolled at 3:30 pm. Page had his hands full with the Cannondale boys and a few laps in it was Page, and 3 Cannondales, Johnson, Driscoll, and Powers. It was a completely different course from Saturday, no mud by 3:30 pm. The four rolled along until Johnson took out page’s front wheel in the sand and got free, that was it and Page finished second, a bit pissed. Andy J-M rode solo for 5th, alone most of the race, the only racer from Cali I recognized, and not super friendly.
Edwin rolled at 11:00 am and it was still wet. There were a few guys who did not race Saturday who were fresh. No runup and the twisty course did not suit Edwin as well as the mudfest on Saturday. Started on the front row and rode in the top 10 the entire race, finished 8th. Maintained his 5th place in the series.
Katrina started 3d row again because callups are based on uci points from last year. Tough go to start 3d row in this group, 30 women back. Course was almost dry by the time Katrina went off. Katrina moved up to 18th, finished 20th. Lynne Besette dropped out, Ntashia Elliott won ahead of Van Gilder. Katrina rode well, faded a littlle toward the end, but got her photo on Cyclingnews. Roy Bruno was in the mix but slid out on one of the tight turns, transitioning from dirt to wet sandy blacktop.
Off to Providence next weekend, for two more races. And oh by the way the locals have practice races on wednesdays in a city or state park. So you do not need to worry about a lot of training, race Saturday and Sunday, rest Monday, run Tuesday, practice race wednesday, coffee shop ride Thursday, ride the course Friday, and voila.
TEAM Rambuski did make their presence noted, we got free beers because of Ed’s good look ……… Katrina is just awesome.
Have a good season!