Waverly - tales from the back of the pack

What: Race at Waverly Park
When: This past Sunday morning
Why: Apparently because I'm dumb
How: Not very well

Showed up a little late, got my pre-ride on and decided it wasn't gonna be my day. Legs were dead and I was already hot. Went off with about 20 or so of my closest MTB buddies, hitting the singletrack somewhere near the back which was right where I wanted to be. Figured I'd get bottled up a little bit and that would help me conserve some energy early so I could get up all the hills each lap. That went according to plan.

Actually the start went well, I never really got too tangled up and was able to maintain a pretty constant pace up to the front of the park. Came across Canadian Greg from the Indiana Master's team sprawled out on the ground at the slippery bridge, looking like he really wasn't doing too good. He said he was OK, so I continued to ride. Passed a couple of guys going up Montana's and settled in to a sustainable pace. The rest of the first lap, all of the second and most of the third lap went well. I did try to crash on the slippery bridge on the last lap but managed to only bang my knee while keeping the bike upright. Then I managed to fall down on the big log crossing on the top by the golf course. I don't like that log crossing and did my best Cyclocross move to get over it on the first two laps. Worked great. On the last lap I fell down as I dismounted. What a moron. I thought I saw Trevor from the Scheller's team so I started chasing but could never close on him. Some other guy was chasing me and I figured if I could hld him off through the climbs up the new IMBA trail I'd be in good shape. I looked back when I got to the top and saw the guy, so I decided I was either going to beat him or crash trying. Fortunately I didn't crash and was able to hold him off to the end.

I had some cramping issues on the last climbs, but I was pretty happy with my bike handling for once. Maybe Butler will be better. I'm not sure how I placed overall, got 4th in the 40-49 class. Probably ended up around 10th or so. If the results were up by now I'd be able to tell you exactly how I placed. But they're not. At least they handed out medals and prizes at the race.

Edit: I placed 9th out of about 35. They finally got the results up.

Duane