Estabrook CX

After a poor start in my last few races, at Estabrook I finally got off the line well and did a little pushing for position. About a minute in I was in a great spot, like 4th wheel, and Maciej was behind me. I let a little gap form into a corner so I wouldn't have to brake as hard and Maciej jumped around (he doesn't like any gaps forming). Everything was going well until halfway through the lap and we got into the pinwheel of death.

There were no brakes in the pinwheel until we got to the crux of it, suddenly Chris slams on his brakes, Maciej slides into him, and I slide into Maciej..

To stay up, I crushed a stake with my foot like a giant and somehow, on the other side of me, I came into Maciej's wheel in the perfect way to make it catastrophically fail. It bent up like a dna helicase. He has trying to ride it still and stuck a foot or something into my front wheel, causing my bike to rear up and me to slam my danger zone into my headset. Behind me, Andy was like "Whoaa!" as my rear wheel was in his face. (This all took place in about 5 seconds in the crux of the pinwheel of death)

Andy went around me and I started going again as I yelled at Maciej to grab my wheel out of the pit. I kept yelling but he just stood there catatonic. I needed to get onto Andy's wheel since the front 4 had created a sweet gap on the rest of the field at this point. I never closed the gap on Andy since he dropped the hammer to catch the lead and I was nursing a sore stomach from having my danger zone pushed through my back.

I then spent a lot of time in the wind by myself. Two mwi guys passed me fast. Then the eventually winner of the race passed me and I couldn't hold his wheel. Then another guy passed me and I held his wheel for a bit  but eventually failed. At the same time I was passing guys from the p,1,2 field. But I pretty much moved backwards in my own race for 2 laps. Then a group of 4 guys were working together to get me. I wasn't going to let that happen.

In the last 2 laps I started to catch Chris who apparently exploded, but once I got within about 8 seconds he started to push it again. As I ran up the hill with one to go someone yelled "slow down, the leaders are coming". My will was relatively crushed by then and I didn't see much gain in doing another lap, so I did slow down and let 1st and 2nd place of the p,1,2 race pass me just before the finish line. Thus allowing me to skip the last lap.

It was a hard fought 9th place. Not exactly the placing I would like for that kind of effort, but that's racing. When I got back to my car I thought I had the wrong one because a bunch of my friends got together and filled the back of it with diapers. Thankfully, they weren't used because that would be a much different surprise! So even though it wasn't a great race for me, it was still a great time to hang out with friends and that is why I do this in the first place.

Next Saturday is my last race this year. Time to leave everything I have on the course.