Trail was in really good shape they got some rain on friday but not as much as up. Laps were 10 miles a piece sport class had to do 2. Course was fun no big climbs just a lot of short ups pretty fast overall. I used big ring almost the whole way through the first lap.
We took off through a big open field down a small hill immediately out across the open and then up a grassy hill onto blacktop then into the singletrack. I got in about fifth or sixth because I was feeling a little too full still to push too hard. One guy got of the front and after about 2 miles me and the guy and front of me passed a guy so I was running 5th. We continued riding together and I felt pretty comfortable riding with the 3 other guys. The guy who is leading the point series was leading our chase group and I was happy to be there on his wheel. After about 4 miles his tire popped and it was pretty loud so he pulled off. That was kind of neat because I was looking for the opportunity to get some points on him. So then I'm running fourth. Some guy caught up with us but then after about a mile we started to drop him a bit. The guy in front of me attacked and moved up to second position. The kid in front of me is someone I've beaten a few times and I can usually hang with him in single track just on handling skills alone. He got a little gap on me though and when I started to pull him back I started to think about how if I passed him I'd be running third so I got antsy I guess and soon enough I ended up washing out in a right hand turn at a good speed hitting my head and cutting up my shorts a little in the hip region. I rung my bell a little so it took me a second to get back on my bike. My bar-end was straight up in the air. Before I could get back on the guy who had caught up to us but been dropped came past. I got back on my bike and started riding a little too timidly and it took a while to get my head out of my ass. So suddenly I'm in fifth again.
Finish the lap and in the wide open grass section I see the 4th place rider but he is way off. I start trying to get back to rolling like I was first lap so I put it back in the big ring and try to make my chicken legs do some work. At about 15 miles in I finally caught up with the guy running 4th, it was a gray goat rider who I mentioned earlier that I feel like I can handle in the singletrack. I got around him and start laughing about how once again I was going to finish fourth. But then, at about 17 miles in I was counting my loses but I started hearing the bike of the kid in front of me, it would squeak a lot when he stood up so I realized I was reeling him in even though I couldn't see him. I caught with him with about a half a mile to go and he let me around immediately. I though, "well, alright." He didn't really contest it and I got myself a 3rd place finish. After I saw the finishing times though, I was a bit sick because I was only 15 seconds off of the 1st place finisher for my age group. Probably the best result I've had all year but not necessarily my best ride all year. Won myself a new pair a socks everyone had already taken all the cases of hammer gel and the kenda tires they have this year looked like something I would never use and would be hard to sell.
Now I'm sitting at home pretty beat up from that wreck.
Ben richardson got 2nd overall for the expert/pro field
rusty broke a derailuer (again)
john hughson wrecked a few times and looked a little more beat up than me
blaine hepner got 6th in the sport open and sport overall, those guys were rolling he probably finished close to 10 minutes before me.
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