I raced 2 times both days. I felt really tired saturday, I barely road on friday...maybe I should have road more?
The ss race, the colavita team took the top 4 spots out of a 15 rider field. Kent and I were together, then we hit this root section that I had not preroad, and I fumbled, he was gone. He crushed it and dan and I road together, I wasn't feeling good and didn't want to lead, and he was tired from the 5th place in the masters race...so we just cruised. He beat me with Lyles coming in behind us. Kent never slowed down in the ss race. It was 40 minutes, a really long time, especially if you are planning on racing the open race (60 minutes) 15 minutes later.
I was late to the start line for the open, 2nd row. I got a good start for being in the 2nd row, maybe 6th place, worked my way up to 3rd behind Tilford and Coe, I didn't last long. Soon the big shark guys passed me along with Travis and Mills.
I don't recall much from this race. I had no rhythm, no motivation, just trying to finish as fast as I could to get it over with. Most people I talked to agreed that the saturdays course was harder than manions. Just speed trapping dirt/gravel sections and hard turning. Last year I liked it more because instead of gravel, there was pavement...so you come out of grass, it the pavement, get speed/momentum, then bomb back into grass with all this speed. Not this time.
Sundays race was better, the boss cross people had music playing today, and we actually brought some food to eat so I didn't starve. The ss race I was a little sore, I didn't ride hard, just enough for 2nd, Kent killed it and beat me by a few minutes at least.
In the open race it was different, many of the fast dudes from Lawrence were doing a 100 mile gravel ride, so we had a smaller field, still Coe, big shark, Travis were there.
I was 2nd row. They changed the start to be "safer." Instead of sending us 200 meters on grass into a 90 degree turn(on grass), they sent us 300 meters on grass into a 90 degree turn on gravel, it was very bad. Travis opened a huge gap, 10 seconds by the time we were out of the gravel, I had a really bad start, probably 12th out of 15. Just no place to move up and the guys in front of me weren't going, even though I was yelling at them to go. I must line up behind Travis next time.
After some battling we hit the sand and I passed some, then some more, I was in 7th or so, then a crash, not a bad one, rider down, rider in front of me runs into him, and I into him, I got going fast and caught up to 5th in the sand, road in 5th, then in 4th, then started losing a little power, though I still had a big gap. Finally, I crashed, it wasn't at speed, it was a hard corner and I just messed up, put a bunch of black/blue marks and red cuts into my legs. It hurt, I lost some time, I got going again and with 1 to go Cameron caught me, we road together, he was going hard to get rid of me, finally we were 300 meters from the finish and I just couldn't keep pedaling, I was tired. I think I was 7th.
Its going to take some patience to get faster. I'm hoping by November I am a little lighter and quicker on my feet. The sand sections killed me this year, my legs just didn't like it.
Thanks to all you who helped watching Benon while I raced, I hope he was good. And to you cat 3s who got lapped by people faster, please be aware that it is not easy to lap you, it is really hard. Guys are litterally killing there legs and bodies to get the race over with as fast as they can while some of you are walking through sand and coasting through flat sections....just saying, its not easy for fast people, they are hurting way worse. My legs hurt so bad right now, it is unbelievable.
Monday night ride tonight! Leaves at 6pm.
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