The Clothing Drive Grand Total

 The Clothing Drive has come to and end and you are looking at the results.
We were able to raise over 306 pounds of clothes to be donated to Cradles2Crayons.   I don't want to have anyone here crying foul, but the winner was Newbury Comics at 287 pounds with HUP United coming in second at 19 pounds. This was a very painless way to do some good!

Special thanks to RSC,Landry,s, and Chip Baker for helping us out with this drive.

Competition Never Goes out of Season!

The Newbury Comics/High&Mighty Cyclocross Team Clothes Drive Competition!

We are neighbors with a very cool charity called Cradles2Crayons who work to provide kids with clothes and school supplies. They are in their "Gear up For Winter" campaign. They expect to get 15,000 requests for coats and warm clothes this year.
The CX season is over and we are starting to miss seeing the NECX every weekend. So, we thought it would be nice to try and help out a good cause and continue the spirit of competition beyond the season.
From now until Friday February 3rd, we challenge you and your team to see can generate the most donations for Cradles2Crayons!  Below are things they are in need of

*new or gently-used( this means cleaned and no rips, tears, patches,spikes, or studs)*
*coats
*clothing
*boots
*hats
*glove
*mittens

**new only**
*socks
*long underwear

So how it works
Donations can be dropped off during business hours at these locations. Please bring your donations in a bag.  If you want to be part of the competition leave your name,  team name and an email contact with your donation.
If none of those locations work for you contact us and will figure something out.

1. Newbury ComicsWarehouse 5 Guest St Brighton MA
2. The Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington
3. Landry's Bicycles Boston  890 Commonwealth Ave
4. Landry's Bicyles Norwood  1210 Boston-Providence Tpke

Once we gather all the clothes we will weigh them before delivering them to C2C.  The team or individual that delivers the most weight wins! Winning team gets a case of High&Mighty beer and bragging rights for CX do gooder of the year..... Winner will be announced on Monday February 6th.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. 

Below are some items and sizes they are most in need of. Check out their website. They are doing great things for kids!
Boys coats: sizes 0-5/6
Girls coats: sizes 0-7/8
Clothing: sizes 18-24 months
Boys pants: sizes 5/6 through 18/20
Boys tops: sizes 5/6 through 18/20 (especially sizes 7/8 through 14/16)
Boys gloves & hats
Girls winter hats & gloves: sizes 0-4T, 7T
Girl tops: sizes 2T-7/8
Toys for ages 9-12 years old
Crib sheets


Big thanks to Landry's and The Ride Studio for helping us out.

Winner, Winner....

....you know the rest. Besides I think that is trademarked.

We had a pretty impressive 24 responses to the digital heckling contest. It was hard to pick a winner, but we did. We actually picked a couple. Because we know so many of the people who replied, I submitted all the heckles to a panel of impartial Newbury Comic's Employees to judge. Votes were tallied and here we go.

Honorable mentions go to
Chip for "This is the time before the barriers when we dance... ' and
Seth for "Colnago's are notoriously frisky if not properly broken and trained, this one has bucked its rider after catching sight of a young pinarello off course."
Both Honorable mentions will receive a 22oz High&Mighty Fumata Nera

2nd place goes to
Ian for "..and then the guy on the recumbent was all like... "
For this gem, Ian will receive a 6 pack of refreshing High& Mighty XPA. But will he
ever have time to drink it?

1st place for heckle goes to .......drumroll.........

Parke with "He hit the deck so hard even the Newbury Comics logo lost a tooth."
To the victor goes a 6 pack of XPA and a set of Newbury Comics mudflaps!

But that is not all. One entrant really went the distance and unleashed his photoshop skills. So we feel it necessary to reward the best visual heckle by awarding that prize to Matt Roy for this. So he can expect a 6 pack of XPA to come his way.


Thanks to everyone who took part! Prizes can be picked up at Shed Park or another race. Or get in contact and we can figure out another delivery method.

Caption Contest

Apparently the barriers at Northampton brought many people to grief-including Nick.
This photo needs a caption. Submit your caption in the comment section. Winner gets a six pack of High&Mighty Beer and a set of Newbury Comics Mud Flaps(winter is coming!)

Good Luck. Winner will be picked on Friday. Prizes can be picked up at Shed Park.

photo from Spoke'n Shutter Photography

CSI Northampton Day One

Got to Look Park early on Saturday. Set up the tent. Posted up next to the Hup tent to make a sweet duplex. Took a few laps. Was totally chill. No nerves. No stress. Lined up at the back, ready to go. Whistle and we're off..... about 10 pedal strokes in, I am grabbing two handfuls of brakes and flying through the air. Tangled bikes. Deep breathes. Remount and back at it. Look down and I can see a cut on my leg. Catch back on for the lap one traffic jam at the run up. The run up was pretty chewed up this year, but the left side seemed to be the fast lane.
Course was fast and fun. But you were doomed if you let gaps open. The wind and the watts would conspire to leave you alone. I managed to crash at the little pavilion thing on the top of the course and twist my bars about 45 degrees-which I didn't realize til I was flying over them after remounting. Tip,take a second and examine your bike before jumping back on. 2nd to last lap, I manage to stack it in the sand pit, to complete a trio of crashes. So now, I have a face full of sand and a couple more laps to go. Coming into the barriers I hear everyone screaming about a hand up that has just taken place. I look up and there is Nick riding with something in his hand. I was afraid it was food, but dragged myself up to him to see if there was any liquid. BEER! Success. He gladly handed me the remnants of his beer and we enjoyed a mid race drink. He pointed out we were about to get lapped, and I was bummed and resigned.
My lack of form this season, forced me to reevaluate my goals and "finish a Verge race without getting lapped" had creeped to the top of the list. So I mustered my final few watts and managed to get across the start finish without being lapped. Sort of a Pyrrhic victory as that got me almost another 10 minutes of racing. But hey, set a goal and accomplish it. Then feel good.
When I finished up and rode back to our bum village both Nick and Billy looked at my leg and said way too calmly, "You should probably have the medical people look at that.." So I waked over and interrupted the EMTs lunch to get cleaned up. Looked nasty, but NBD in the end.
So that was day one. I turned myself inside out not to get lapped after crashing within 10 seconds of the start of the race. Finished 128th which was better than that stinking race predictor said I would!
As far as day two, maybe one of the other dudes will chime in. For me it was about the same minus the crashes.

I came into this weekend feeling a little burnt out. Not sure if it was the sun, the taco truck,the NECX, or what, but I felt pretty recharged and stoked coming out of it. As a wise man said, CFR! Thanks to everyone that made this race happen.

A Wicked Good Time

Well I'm still awake after the Nacht Weasel. Here's some quick, maybe coherent, thoughts:

1. Boy am I glad that running is part of my cross "training." That was the least riding I've done in a cross race.

2. Chris Zigmont does a great job.

3. The race could have been called "Bog Weasels."

4. "Mudworld no rules!"

5. Way to go Colin and Chip and everyone else who put this together

Suckerbrook

Been pretty quiet on the race report front. We raced Quad and the Green Mountain Weekend. I can only speak for myself, but it has been a tough start to the season.
Suckerbrook is a NE classic with a pretty timeless course. I decided to double down and race the 3/4 Masters and the 3s.
It was pretty humid when we arrived and the course was still wet and pretty greasy after a couple races. 85 dudes lined up for the 3/4 masters race-that is a lot. Had an OK start, but bleed places over the course of the race. Finished up 40th.
The course featured all the classic chicanes and little rollers and off cambers.


The big surprise was in the woods after the fire road. No more little log you could ride over. They had a double stack of telephone poles. I ran it. Some rode it. Sand pit had a new and improved layout, but was ride-able.

Had an hour between races. Did not stop sweating. It was humid, and nasty. Hot enough for feeds and bottles in the pit, and there was more than one bike with a bottle cage.
Lined up for the 3 races. Small turnout for the killer Bs. Rode 2 laps and called it a day. Racing once in the heat is OK. Twice not so much. The course had dried out and it was fast. Billy and Nick hung tough in the heat to finish 29th and 38th.
Suckerbrook is such a good race, but you know this. I also bought a new camera which Nick took charge of. Here is some of his work.
Me going through the barriers.

So in closing the double down was a fail, but the race itself was a blast. And where was Thom? Down in Philly seeing the Descendents! Pretty good reason to miss a race.