Almost Done for the Season

My penultimate race for the season was the Elite Masters Cyclocross Championship. For the past few years the championship has been held at the end of October, early in the CX world, at Vets Park in Ann Arbor. A hilly course with lots of ups and downs along with plenty of off-camber turns and straight-aways. For those who said “‘cross is dead” are wrong - there seemed to be more at this years event than I remember and the course layout provided some fun vantage points for spectators.

As I get older and the field gets younger, I came into the race wondering if I’d actually make the podium this year, which would be a bitter pill to swallow after winning last year. Nevertheless, I had a plan.

On the whistle I had a decent start and found myself on the wheel of the favorite for today’s race and we got a good gap on the crowd behind. I tried to hold on to the front of the race but with all the short punches on hills and turns, the elastic snapped and I lost the wheel. As usual when over the limit I started to look behind to manage my effort but the time over the red line was starting to really hurt.

I sat in second until the bell lap and lost my place with about half a lap to go. I continued to dig really deep to hold the wheel, fighting to close the gaps on each corner. The finish was a pretty long run to the line, on grass and slightly uphill - I was going to have to dig even deeper on the sprint. There I sat, on the wheel waiting for the perfect opportunity to unleash all I had. In the drops I came around my fo at the line and collapsed on the grass fighting hard to gain my breath.

I thought I had it. Looking down at the line I was convinced I crossed the line first but waited for results. When posted I was given third but the USAC Official came over and shared that these were the timing results and that he and his colleague had placed me second. I told him that I didn’t want to challenge the results yet he wanted to talk with the both of us and explain the result.

In the end I was given second and was happy with that. A hilly course versus my size and lack of CX racing meant the event wasn’t in my favor but I gave it my best for some final efforts before Iceman Cometh next weekend.

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