Sunday, October 26, 2008

Spooky Cross Day 2

In the past few years I have had mixed results doing 2 day races back to back. Today started out with checking the weather to see there was a high wind warning, sustained winds of 25-35mph and gusts up to 50 at times. That would play a huge roll in today's race as the section just off the bean field from yesterday was in it again, and right into the headwind.

Got to the starting line earlier today and was able to get a spot on the front row, the ref said go and I was off, actually I holeshotted to the first set of barriers, and was still in the lead going through the first hard left before heading up to the field. I started to loose some spots there, but I knew that would happen, then I could find a place where I was content and ride my own race. The course layout was very different from yesterday, and I would say laps were just over 2 miles long, and instead of dropping down and climbing we had to cross a bridge, which you had to run as the barriers were there, then you did a short climb, then a longer road section, and then drop back into the valley and climb back out of it. They had the 2x4's across the course again, but the hill was rideable. Lap one I had to get off and run as the guy infront of me decided he wasn't going to ride it and I actually ran his foot over, oops. Got back up to the starting area, and could see a couple guys in front of me and behind me, so I couldn't let up, and wasn't sure if I would reel in the others. next couple of laps were about the same, I guess it was lap 3 Ang told me I was in 20th place, and I could now see there was a group of 5 guys in front, so I had to step it up some. I did just that and by the middle of the 4th lap I was right in a group with them, and passed one of them on the climb. I would catch the others right before going into the 5th and final lap. I did manage to catch 3 more of them, but the one guy was able to catch back up and gave it a final big effort to the finish line.

I ended up in 17th place out of 34 guys in the 3/4 race, and I reached one of my goals of not being lapped. Next weekend is the State Championships over in Altoona.

Spooky Cross day 2

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