It's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock and roll.

Well, today wasn't as successful as yesterday. Yesterday I was in the mix the whole race. Today I lasted almost a full minute before I was totally out of contention. The start was a little more what I'm used, more like the start of a mountain bike race. We went out hard, up a paved road, onto gravel and into a 90 degree double barrier corner. I made it through the corner about midway through the pack, feeling pretty good about my start. We headed down a gravely parking lot type field, into a couple rough corners and over a little barrier run-up. It was at this point that my chain bounced off and fell down on the inside between my chainring and 3rd eye chainkeeper. I had to get off the bike and wrestle the chain back onto the chainring which dropped me back to dead last. I picked off a few people as the race went on, but never felt too great. My legs felt flat, and my head wasn't really in it. I never felt comfortable on the course, there were a lot of really wierd dismounts and run up type obstacles that I just couldn't see to get down. I stumbled and fell over some railroad tracks, missed pedals on my remounts, couldn't get off my bike before barriers, plus I messed up everything else that I could. I dropped my chain a few more times, and ended up breaking my 3rd eye trying to get my chain out, and I think the true goo in my tires is drying out because I was losing pressure the whole race. I think I finished with about 30 psi max in each tire. On top of that my legs felt pretty flat all day. I think yesterday's effort and Friday night's lack of sleep caught up with me.

Overall I'm not really excited or disapointed with today. It was my first pro race and I went into it with no expectations. Since I didn't set any goals except to finish the race, it was pretty easy to accomplish all I set out to do. I would have gotten throttled whether I dropped the chain or not, but I wish I could have at least ridden with the fast guys for a few laps before getting dropped like 3rd period French. According to the ACA results I finished 20th out of the 25 finishers. I know a few more people started that didn't finish, but they would have beat me if they'd stayed in. I know I could have been a couple places higher without the mechanical trouble and who knows what would have happened if I would have felt like yesterday. Who knows, next weekend will be interesting. It's a Boulder race which means probably 80 starters instead of 30, I'm sure it will be another great learning experience.

On a very important side note, our very own little Scotty Boy Wenzel moved right up into the top ten in only his third cyclocross race. Everyday he rides it he looks faster and faster on a cross bike. I'm scared to see what happens when he can actually get in and out of his pedals. You'll all have to check out his site in the near future as I'm sure there will be some great pictures from his mom.

Thanks for checking in.

P.S. An hour is much longer than 45 minutes.