On the edge

The last time I posted on this blog was a while ago, but things have been moving along just as fast. The last WORS race was nothing to call home about, I came in for 13^th which was a good finish, but no what I was looking for. I wasn’t riding the mud all too well, but was still able to hold my own in a pretty deep field. I then had a good finish at the WCA Washington Park race on Halloween where I was second to Matt Shriver. Nothing out of the expected, but I was happy to have a solid finish after the WORS race was a somewhat disappointment.

The following weekend I was heading down to Cincinnati for the Cincy3 CX festival weekend. It’s a big UCI weekend on some good courses. I was excited to race against the pros again and see where I could stack up. Especially after USGP, where I accomplished my goals, but nothing more. Friday was a tough but short course. I didn’t really know what to expect. Was finishing good enough? Or should I expect something more.  Turns out I was riding well. After a good enough start, I was sitting top 20, and only moving up from there. I was picking guys off each lap and making my way up, peaking out at 13^th where I finished. No points, but at the time, points weren’t even in the cards as far as I thought.

Saturday was a night race, so we had all kinds of time to hang out. I watched a few races in the morning, and chatted up the Raleigh team and they offered me a bike! I raced their bikes in the race and was sitting 12^th until I had a mechanical. Not their fault, as I shifted the chain into the spokes and then ripped the wheel out trying to fix it. I ended up running half a lap and got pulled. Not the best, but I was happy with how I handled it. Sunday was another tough day as I flatted mid-way through the race and couldn’t recover. All in all pleased with the surprising performance on Friday and happy with how the rest of the weekend ended up.

I was totally blasted on Sunday though. It’s been a while since I’ve done 3 big races in a row. In fact, it was almost a year. I ended up taking that Tuesday off and using the week mostly for recovery and skills work. I was also organizing the race that weekend, so I was all over the phone and emails that week getting things finished off. Pretty stressful week, but it was totally worth it.

It was totally worth it because I got a pair of nice wins that weekend. The Cam-rock race was good because I didn’t make the same mistake as last year. I sat down a lot and remembered to eat. Legs were firing well during the race and I came through with a dominating 20 second victory over Mark in the P/1/2 and also grabbed a win in the collegiate division. The next day we traveled up to Ripon for their Cookie Cross Collegiate race. I really did enjoy the course, despite it being very tough and technical. I have to say, they used the terrain very well.

Now to keep it short, we’ll talk about next times post a little bit. To be honest, I’m sitting in the hotel room at Jingle Cross Rock feeling happy, but a little tired. I’ve had some success, but I’m looking for more. Keep it posted for a more detailed report later.