Nearing the End

I only have two races left in the cross season this year. It seems like I was just starting to shift my training around, and getting things around for 'cross. This past weekend was a local race called Storm the Greens. It was held at the same place as the USGP's when they came to town. The course Sunday was pretty nice, pretty much a shortened copy of the gp course, but the conditions made it nice and slick.

We started out the day with reasonably warm temps, with on and off rain. This made the course pretty wet and slick. Mary had a bunch of falls, and managed to have just a little bit of fun. I think its the first time she has raced her cross bike in the mud, so it was a learning experience from the first pedal stroke.


It actually started to cool off right before my race, and the wind really picked up as well. So we had a little different conditions than the earlier races did. The mud wasn't wet any more, and just became super sticky. I had 34 Fango's on Grover, and 32 Grifo's on Kermit, and I should have run my 30's. It was that kind of mud. The kind of sticky that wouldn't go away. This was the first time that Mary and I did bike changes too. I think we did a pretty decent job for the first time out. Mary was a trooper in the pits, washing the bikes by hand each time.

I was generally disappointed in my results once again, I started well, but when you falter in the first lap, you're hosed. Someone bobbled in front of me in the big sandpit, and I had to take a different line. That different line swallowed the bike whole, and put me on my head. There went any chances of a good result. This entire year of racing has just been one thing after another. I know I'm getting faster, I know that I have good tech skills, but I keep finding myself outside of that window. It seems like the window that you have to squeeze through to get results, is just getting smaller and smaller. The competition is improving, and just getting deeper and deeper. Some of the guys in the back of these races, are super skilled, and really fit, but just had that one bobble.

All of these races have beat me down a little bit, but I am about as stubborn as the mud we raced in; so I will keep pushing, and hopefully I can squeeze through that window soon.