6, November 2007

Greetings -

It's another Monday night in paradise and time for me to re-cap the weekend's racing. The
Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team's 2007 season is a tad more than half over. Ack - maybe
it's three quarters complete. It kinda' sorta' makes me sad to think in these terms since so much
of our year is consumed with getting every freaking detail dialed in just so that a 16 week season
runs smoothly atmo*. We have the first few weekends when we get back into the groove: the
Sucker Brooks, the Bedfords, the Amesburys. And then the UCI races begin as do the road
trips and the three day weekends. Our foray into the Hamptons for pal Myles' races in early
October now seems so long ago. But the memories linger, and all of our travails (I just wanted
an excuse to use travails in a sentence) are what makes hanging around my team mates for
four months so rewarding for me. The smart money says they feel similarly about each other!

This past weekend was another round of UCI events, and thankfully they were nearby. On Saturday
I was afforded the luxury of an event that was only 30 minutes from the Worldwide Headquarters.
Just up Route 9 in Farmington, at the Winding Trails Nature Preserve, we raced the Chainbiter 9.0.
On Sunday, the driving took us a bit further north to the 17th Annual Cycle-Smart International.
Both days of racing are high profile events that are also part of the Verge New England Championship
Cyclo-Cross Series sponsored by the official apparel supplier of the RS 'Cross Team, Verge Sport.

The race results from the weekend are quite good atmo. At Winding Trails, Pookums showed
exceptional tenacity and focus and came home 9th in the Elite Men's event, and Justin was just
seconds behind at 12th. In the Elite Women's race, The Amy had a great start and was in the front
for nearly all 50+ minutes, and finished in 6th place on the day. And I am pleased to post that Alie,
aka "Comeback Kid", was shy of a minute back in 13th. On Sunday in Northampton's Look Park,
the racing was as fast as I have ever seen in the Northeast. In the men's race, a break of 5 went
from the first turn, leaving the remaining 50 or so racers scrambling and wondering what would
playout. Fortunately for us, Matt and Justin were 1) thinking on their feet, and 2) quite fit, so we
had some good representation. Justin yoyo-ed between 8th and 13th place for the duration, and
did end up 13th on the line. Sadly, a brake cable mechanical with 3 laps to go cost Matt his chance
at a second good result in two days. Bwaaaa. In the Women's race, Amy put in another great effort
and finished 8th again, while Alie rode in 90 seconds later at 16th. All in all, we put our collective
imprint on both race days and in all four events.

In case some of you wonder about these things, pal The Brian has had fewer than usual mentions
lo these past few weeks, and it's all directly attributable to his recent graduation from UConn and
going straight into the work force as a web designer for a TDF firm in Northampton, Fuss Productions.
But Brian is with us weekly and is racing as time allows, and is always helping with team support
and morale no matter how busy he is! These past two weekends he put in some yeoman efforts
for all of his team mates, and sent over this text with some thoughts...

"A Day In the Pits"

As we move into the first week of November the cyclocross season is in full swing. We've passed
the opening rounds of both the New England Verge series and the USGP, which you read about
last week. This point in the season also marks a time when some people start to feel the effects
of racing a full road season or begin to focus on their final preparation for Nationals. I would like
to say that either one of those was the real reason I wasn't racing this past Sunday in Northampton
but they may only be overlooked benefits. Early in the week and received an email from good
friend, and race manager, Steve Weller, asking for additional volunteers for the weekend. Feeling
that I could be of use I decided to lend a hand. I spent the morning helping out and watching the
races from the sidelines. It wasn't until the elite race that I was able to sneak away to meet up with
Richard in the pits.
Watching the elite race is something that I don't get to do that often but is something that I truly enjoy
when I get the chance. Watching both Justin and Matt race was great. Shouting encouragement to
them as the raced couldn't have made me feel any better, and hopefully made them go faster. When
you're racing you notice so little of what's going on around that when you take a step back it's almst
overwhelming to see everything that really goes on in the race. Seeing my teammates attack and
fight for position during the race was great as it's something that I normally only get to hear about.
I'm glad that I was able to take advantage of the situation and spend a day watching the race from
the pit.

Too cool, huh?!

For those who read these updates and are used to the wacky, zany hyperlinks that I embed - sorry!
This email contains very few. To make up for this, I'll simply paste some cool links here so that you
know that the heat hasn't gotten to me.

Here is Sucker Brook's Jack Chapman holding an example of why his is the only event that is Zagat
rated. Here is a cool pic, posed of course, broadcasting the fact that the RS 'CrossTeam is always
prepared to take on a Challenge. Here is a link to my personal fan club as well as wind beneath
my sails atmo. Aw heck, here's another one. Want one more? Here. And here is what we might
call a happy memory. Okay - that's all for now.

This coming weekend we have another road trip down to the MAC 'hood for two more UCI events in the
Garden State. On Saturday we do the Beacon Cyclocross in Bridgeton, and on Sunday we are in
Jamesburg for the HPCX.

Gotta run -

Thanks for reading.
e-RICHIE©™®
*according to my opinion
______________________________
Thank you for your interest and support.
The Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team is sponsored by RGM Watches,
Rex Chiu, Radix Group LLC, Ozell, Stankus Architects Associates, as
well as by Cane Creek, Crank Brothers, Rudy Project, Oval Concepts,
Challenge, VergeSport, Selle San Marco, JB Custom Paint, Nelly's Deli,
and The Wheatmarket
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