Sunday 23 October 2011

Double It

Even when the race is in DC, it's an early morning when you're going to do the 8:30 C race. Cold and dark. Did some pre-riding to warm up, then went to my spot on the grid - in 85th spot. There were quite a few crashes in the prologue, which I sliced and diced and slammed on the brakes to avoid. Moving up through the first lap was certainly doable, but there's no time for recovery when there are that many guys to pass. One guy from Bike Works was really good at the running sections and we must have passed and repassed each other 20 times. My moment of the race came in the section before the pits when I took the sweeping left hander crazy fast and went through a big pack of guys. Sometime after, people in our tent told me I was in 5th. The top 3 were pretty far ahead, 4th was maybe catchable if I put on my red cape but the effort of the first lap took its toll. 80 dudes passed and fifth for the race, but I was only 6th in the "who passed the most people" challenge. I think the Bike Works guy won it - he wound up 2 behind me but had a really high number.

1/2/3/4 Masters at Granogue was just a bit harder than the C race today.

The 3/4 race was a bit harder than the 4 race. I rarely double up on races, but I need the time on the track so I did it. Some good friends were in the race and though my legs were a bit spent from the morning, I still wanted to ride well. Couple of crashes in the prologue, and generally much faster pedaling of the bicycles than in the C race. When you start in 113th place, the front of the race gets away from you a little bit. Maybe a lot. Or a ton. All of the practice makes a big difference, and though the rate of passing was way slower, it was happening. Made it from 113th on the grid to 45th, exactly mid field of the people who got scored. Not great, not bad.

2-0 vs crossresults.com predictions on the day, and a grand total of 148 kills on the day, so that was pretty cool.

Kinder Kross next.

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