The Last Few Weeks.

I haven't been too good about keeping up on this. Oh well, maybe Thanksgiving break will give me a little chance to catch up.

My mom was here for the weekend to watch some cross races, so I tried to put on a good show, but it didn't really work out on Saturday. The race was in Louisville, at the rec center. It was a great course, and I had a good start, top 3-5 for the first 3 laps, but then my legs quit turning over, and my mind turned to mush for about the next 4 laps. I finally got into a good little group of 4, and we worked well together. Actually I mostly sat in. The group got reduced to 3 by the end, and I took 3rd out of it for 9th overall. There was an uphill double barrier with a 90 degree before and after it, that I kept trying to hop in my warm up. I got it maybe once all morning, and tried it a few times in the race which was pretty ugly. I did get over it on the final lap, but I think I lost about 5 seconds even when I cleared it.

Sunday's race was at the State Patrol Training Facility on top of South Table Mesa in Golden. The course was super flat, with some fun corners you could really rail, and a single barrier on a fast smooth road, as well as a couple technical barrier sections and a lot of road. Once again I had a good start, but got caught up in some guys rear wheel when he missed his clip in after a barrier section. I chased a little, and found myself in the top 4, which soon turned into the lead group. Three of us traded pulls with one guy pretty much content to sit in. I was hopping the single barrier every lap, and they weren't so I got to rest this really rough section and pick my own lines, then I'd be able to catch back up over the barrier every lap. With about 3 to go, Chris Case attacked and got a good gap with the eventual winner. Mike Hall and I chased for a lap, and got them back and then I attacked with 1 to go. I thought I got reeled in, but when I looked over my shoulder, it was just one guy and he flew by me. I tried to grab his wheel, but couldn't and eventually got reeled back into the chase. Chris Case dropped his chain and Mike Hall and I finished the lap out together. I thought I'd have the sprint sealed up if I led through the last corner, so I just tried to hit out of every corner hard so see if I could gap him out, but I couldn't and sure enough, he came right around me at the line.

I'm happy with third, but there are a lot of things I should have done differently. Oh well, live and learn. It was fun to have a good race with my mom there. I think she had the whole crowd cheering for me. Thanks to everyone for cheering loud, it helps, and thanks to Dave Towle for saying my name about a hundred and fifty times. Now I have a test to study for. I'll hopefully have some pictures of the races soon. Thanks for checking in.