Another one of those races that I have wanted to do, but the calendar never allowed for it, but not this year. I have been looking forward to this one since it is the most local race we have, and I can ride the trails beforehand. I was able to get on them twice this week, and had a good feel for them.
Got there nice and early for both a decent parking spot, and look for some places to take some good pictures. Ran into a couple of the other HBA guys, one of which is doing the Expert race, and start to do some warming up as we take off just after noon. Got all warmed up and head to staging. The released us in waves, starting with the Expert men, the women, singlespeed, collegiate, and finally us. I am in the second row, and look back to see a very large field, I guess there were 53 of us altogether including the 3 women, biggest turnout this year, so I know getting into the woods first is important. He gives us the count and we are off, I am right behind the 2 other HBA guys that I wanted to be with as they are both strong on the road, I believe a Cat 3 and a Cat 2. We get into the woods in the top 10, and there are a couple of gaps starting to form early on both in front and behind, so I keep pushing trying to keep it close. By the time we get through the lower side of the course, Karl is gone, and me and Chris are riding together. We keep it that we for quite sometime and swap positions back and forth, coming into "Cyclocross Hill" I know there is no need to try and ride it, so I plan to get off and run it, which worked out well for me because it proved to be faster than the few guys I saw trying to ride it. Get through lap one with Chris about 15 second behind me, and he is with a couple of guys.
Lap 2 starts with me making it into the woods with that same gap, only I am catching up to some of the collegiate guys that are doing 3 laps, so they aren't going quite as hard to conserve energy. I am at a spot where I am not able to get around them, so I have to wait, well at that time the gap behind me closes, and I have Chris and another guy on my wheel. The trail opens up and I get around them, as do the others behind me, which is good, but now there are 3 of us in the Sport race all together again. The one guy gets behind me and I am just maintaining a pace that is comfortable to go at, and not loose anymore time, Chris is right behind me now, and he is my motivation to keep going hard. We got to a spot where my wife was taking pictures, and Chris needed some water, well she had some for him so he stopped to fill up real quick, didn't loose much time there, and 2 sections later he was back on my wheel. We get back to the gravel road, and head to the upper section of the course, after passing one of the Expert women and a singlespeed rider. The two of us keep on working until we hit one section and I look back and see Robin, the Expert woman, and no Chris, I get to the top of that trail and it is basically 100 feet from where you go in, and Chris is running towards me needing a tube, so he grabs that out of my camelback, and I am able to get back going without loosing any spots. I get to the bottom of the downhill, and it is back to "Cyclocross Hill" again, this time there is a bigger crowd, and once again I get off and run it, apparently the crowd isn't a huge fan of that one, but oh well, no need to kill myself or break my bike over a couple seconds. I get to the last field section and put it back into the big ring and never look back, cross the line in 11th place overall, and 7th in the Sport Open. So we will have to see what that does for the Series Standing, and if I head to Council Bluffs or not next weekend.
From the HBA Team, Karl placed 4th overall and 1st in the Masters 35+ and Chris was in 23rd after his mechanical.
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