A dry, very dry day at Alpenrose Cross Crusade

The SS Line Up

Dry it was, very dry, especially compared to last weekend at the Battle of Barlow, we even had rain most of the week. They say there were 1048 racers, with 175 women out there, and I think the lower categories were some of the biggest.

The SS Start

I raced the SS race, I had a good start, 4th or 5th going in the course, and felt okay. The first lap is always a sprint and with the lack of racing this year for me this one really hurt. I settled into a rhythm but just felt like I was going slower rather than faster with each pedal stroke. I felt like I was doing the technical challenges really well but I wasn't recovering. I was sitting in 6th position and pretty much alone for most of the middle two laps of the race. 2 1/2 laps to go and two guys were able to catch up to me. I tried to sit on their wheels to try and recover but then I started to really fall apart. I had a couple bobbles, missed a turn, screwed up the stair case and had to chase back on each lap. I could see it was another 15-20 seconds to the guy behind me and I decided to let the two in front go and concentrate on not blowing up with 1 lap to go and really loosing a lot of places. I think the last lap was my best lap of the entire race, I felt great, hit all the challenges just right and finished strong.

The Six Pack

Overall it was about the same performance I had last year, yet I finished 1 place lower in 8th (same as last week), but physically and technically it felt the same. Which with the way I finished the season last year (taking silver at the District Championship) is a good feeling, it should peak me just in time for Worlds and District's again.

A hard left hander

I also started the Mst A race, I intentionally started in the back so I could practice the passing and get the feeling of having more people around me on the course. so many times when I start I am in the front 10 or so riders that if something happens it's nice to have the experience of having to pass other riders and deal with not being able to take the fastest lines. I only raced for 35 minutes before pulling out, part of it was I was about done the other part was I got a really bad vibe from another racer. We were in the back 1/2 of the race, around 35-45 position, and he felt like he had to be aggressive enough to try to force me out of a line from behind. Sorry but if you are coming up from behind and are not lapping a rider than you need to pass on your own and not expect the rider in front of you to move. we had some words, he was mad and then road aggressive for a bit. A real bad way to show other riders how to have fun, the way I figure it if you can't have fun out there then why are you out there?

Anywase, I had fun for the day, drove up with some friends, saw lot's of other friends, had a good race and enjoyed the experience. Next up it Hornings Hideout.

A lot of car's

Also handed the camera off to a teammate and he got some good pictures, I've uploaded them to the Picasa web album feel free to download them if you want.

The end of the day

Crank My Chain Video of the day