Friday. The course was open for pre-riding for one hour only. As I rolled into the lot, I got chills, it was an atmosphere like you find at mtb nats, and all these people gathered on our local practice course. So 3 dry laps (as dry as it gets after having 7 inches of rain mid-week) gave way to the sky lettin loose for one last little shower for 3 slimy turns around. It was good to see Treefarm again who hadnt had the privelege of beating me for a couple years, we used to do it on a monthly basis, and I missed the reminder of why I am "local pro" only.
Sat. Got to the race plenty early to watch the masters 35+ race. It was fun rollin around visiting and looking at some of the bling from SRAM, Cannondale and Mavic. But, that wasnt goal 1, I could do more of that tomorrow, I needed to get ready to race. After having to DNF the last 2 CX races due to lung issues, I had no idea how it was going to go. This was hardly the prep I was hoping for for the biggest CX race I have ever done, and being right in my backyard, I wanted to represent well.
My race was a who's who of the fastest guys in the country plus the starting field was in the 80-90 range. Shoot. Man, this was gonna be painful. I started around the 5th row, about 2/3 the way back, not too bad. The gun went off and I had a great start, seemingly just sliding up the inside taking spots by the handful. Then, once again, I got pinned right behind a crash, the first transition onto pavement took a few guys down leaving me no place to go. So I spent the next few laps chasing hard, making small goals of catching different riders and picking off as many as I could. Having someone shouting my name seemingly every 20 feet helped spur me on as well, a little hometown advantage I guess. Working up to around 35th was about as much horsepower as I could muster and rode with a group of 2-4 guys for the next few laps.
The last two laps, my back started to really hurt and legs started cramping up, given my lack of CX racing in the run-up to this race, I was givin my muscles a bit more than they were ready for. I started getting passed and just couldnt muster the energy to kill myself for a few spots up the pack-fill ladder.
Oh well, in the end I was happy to not get lapped and felt like I rode a decent race, all things considered.
Gritty, determined, focused...
and in pain, much pain
USGP Day 2
Some a-hole broke into the back gate of the 3rd street compound and stole my barely one month old Redline. I dont think I need to really say much about my feelings on this matter. Suck.
1 comment:
I hope the asshole rides out in front of a car on your stolen bike.
Rico
Post a Comment