Concordia Seminary and Suson Park double header

This past weekend provided the opportunity to double up and get a couple of races in to try and regain the rhythm for the remainder of the season. WIth Saturday's race a block from the shop, I managed to convince the powers that be that rolling down the street to pummel myself was a good way to spend the last three hours of my workday. And a pummeling it was.

The race started well, I was where I wanted to be. The sweeping left off the start toward the barriers had me in the top six, but I gracefully kicked my pedal backward while running the barriers to derail my chain, a skill I picked up in the sandpit at Louisville.
Somehow, I recovered relatively quickly from that blunder and dangled from the back of the leaders for a few laps before a couple of major impacts to my tires led me to believe I had both pinch flatted my rear tire and cracked the shop demo wheels. Luckily, I had done neither, but the excessively low pressure coupled with the tall knobs of the Rhinos had me riding with minimal confidence through the corners and all the rough terrain, which was plentiful. While the course layout was spectacular, the absence of rain over the last few months has led to bone dry ground that serves as a jackhammer to those of us that try to ride 32c tires across it. No matter, the course was a great deal of fun and I fought a last half of the race battle with Paul Quindry and Kurt Fletcher until I hit the wall on the last lap and hung on for 8th.
Lessons learned from the race: 1. Airing tubulars up in the morning to your desired pressure doesn't mean they will have the same psi come 3 o'clock start. 2.It is important to preride reasonably fast in order to feel this phenomena 3. No matter how cool one might feel with Zipps and Dugast Rhinos, they aren't necessarily the right tool for every job.

With these factors in mind, I got to Suson Park extra early on Sunday for a proper course inspection to help with equipment selection. After a few laps, I settled on box section wheels to cope with the jarring potholes and prepared to see what I had left after the previous day.
I followed a few bad wheels early on allowing unwanted gaps to form and after some attacking and counter attacking from our chase group, found myself in a group of three with Bob Arnold and Stroot fighting it out for sixth place. We traded pulls well and headed into the second last lap with me leading down the fast hill. Despite telling myself every lap to be conservative through the corner at the bottom of the hill, I threw common sense out the window and hit the corner, and immediately after, the ground, very hard and had to baby my bike around the course to the pits. I lost my group in this moment of foolishness and had a few others pass as well before lap's end. I finished the race on the single speed in 10th. I was a bit frustrated afterwards, but remained calm and satisfied with both how I raced and another top ten finish. Regardless, another rock star course was there for my enjoyment and plenty of good friends provided support throughout the race.

Race result aside, subsequent days have reiterated to me that bike racing is a trivial part of life and there are far more important considerations than how one places in a riding around in grass contest. Positive thoughts to those with legitimate issues and losses, I can't imagine the strength you guys manage to find. You know who you are.

Next weekend is being help at Mt Pleasant winery, home of the most life sucking course I've done. Hopefully, the fine fellows who set these things up can figure out a way to provide marginally less torture, but even if they don't, it promises to be another week of CX good times.


Thanks to Mike Dawson and Dennis Fickinger for photos.