Going
into this weekend I had a good recovery after three solid weeks of training.
 It was probably the best I have felt going into a race weekend since I
returned to racing last year.  Instead of the usual worries about what I hadn’t done I spent the week working out some of the bugs in my bike position
and getting my tires dialed in a little better.

Saturday
was going to be a hard race no matter how you looked at it.  It was a monster field, 150 riders, and there
where way too many guys racing in this that had not business still being in the
Cat. 4’s. I wanted to try something a little different for this race, so at the
start I just plain went for it knowing full well that I was going to pay for it
later in the race.  I was rewarded with a
really good position after the first lap and surprisingly the cost wasn’t as
high as I thought it would be.  Yes, I
did give up some positions later in the race, but my lap times after the first
lap were 9:11, 9:13 and a final lap of 9:12. 
Never expected my times to stay that consistent after the effort I put
in at the start.   The one thing that I
did notice that I need to work on was at the start of the second lap a teammate
passed me and I was able to hang with him for the second lap.  On the third lap, every time we accelerated
out of a corner a little gap would open and it got harder and harder to close
it down until I finally snapped.  All of
a sudden I was 19 seconds behind him.  Finished 54 out of 133.

Sunday
I knew was going to be a totally different day as soon as I started warming
up.  My legs had no snap to them.  I could push a big gear, but had no cadence at
all.  After the results from the day
before, I decided to try the same thing and just go at the start.  They ended up being the best move of the day
as there were at least three pileups right off the start.  I managed to stay clear of all the chaos and
had a good position when things settled down. 
Unfortunately my legs never came around, and although I kept a steady
pace for the whole race I did give up positions slowly throughout the race.  I was in a group at the end of lap two and didn’t hit the lap counter, but what I did get was my average speed for laps 2
and 3 was 12.9.  My average speed for the
last lap was 13.2, so that still tells me that I was going as strong at the end
as the beginning.  No complains there!  Finished 55 out of 132.

As
for the course, it was great.  Adam
Myerson and company put on a first class event and it is one that I am already
looking forward to for next year.  The
course was fast, dry and still challenging. 
Both days had full fields in the Cat. 4’s, but the course was open
enough that the racing fun.  Can you use
fun to describe a ‘cross race?

Saturday:
I went into this event without any real plan.  I had been sick all week and lost 10 pounds in the 9 days heading into the weekend.  I hopped onto the course to get in a quick pre-ride after the first race ended.  Then I took my pit wheels to the pit area.  At some point during this they called for staging and I never heard it.  By time I arrived at staging it was too late for my call-up, so they stuck me in the back.  If nothing else, it gave me a plan for the race.  Go hard until you can’t go any more, and then go harder.  It may not have been the most elegant plan, but I did learn something from it.  For the 40 minutes of the race I had an average heart rate of 182, which was higher than I thought I could maintain.  I ended up with a solid 60th out of 99 finishers.

Later in the day I found myself sitting with a bunch of great friends watching the pro race.  Holy shit those guys are fast.  In my race I am looking to go about 45 seconds a lap faster to finish near the front.  These guys were going 4 minutes a lap faster than me.  Watching them also showed me that you can really hammer through some of the corners that I was crawling through because I just didn’t feel like there was enough traction.  They seemed to trust that the bike was going to go where they pointed it.  Jeremy Powers held on to win over a determined looking Ryan Trebon.

Sunday:
I had a solid plan for the race today.  Make my call-up, start hard and suffer.  I dropped my wheels off in the pit area at the start of the race before mine and then started working on getting a good warmed up.  I made my call-up in the 5th row.  It was kind of neat being that close to the front without having to kill myself getting there.  Once the whistle sounded, I again tried to get by as many people as possible before the course narrowed.  I really worked on trying to trust my tires and drive through the corners during this race.  I have no idea where I was running position wise, but this was the first time that I could still see the leader at the end of the first lap in a race of this caliber   The next three laps where just a case of holding my position and gaining any that I could.  I had a much better sprint at the end and gained two spots in the final 100 meters to finish 34 out of 77 finishers.  It ended up being a GREAT race, and lets me know that what I worked on all summer should pay off.  This was far and away the best ‘cross race that I have had.

It was great seeing the crew Saturday at the pro race and even better getting to line up with a couple of good friends and battling it out on the course.  This might be the best part of racing ‘cross.  I didn’t see any pictures of the three of us together, but someone had a good one of John and Gary.