There are going to be race days that are great and there are going to be race days that just don’t go my way.  Yesterday ended up being pretty good.  I rode solidly the entire race and even though I was having a couple issues with the bikes, I still rode well.  Today was a different story and it started from the gun.

After yesterdays course that left all of us licking our paws today, today was a course I grew excited to race.  The park had two distinct hilly sections, multiple sweeping corners and a really sweet sand pit.  Power was going to be key, but the course had a few sections where handling was also a factor.  This was also the first sand pit of the year and I was really excited to race it.

Yesterday I was nervous about the race and as I have said before, much of that has to do with not knowing the outcome.  On top of that though I was not looking very forward to racing the extremely bumpy course.  Today, was a different story.  I knew that I should be racing in the mid twenties and finishing on the lead lap.  When you are looking forward to racing on a course, the stress level goes down even further because you know you are going to have a good time.

We were keeping the same numbers so I started in the forth row again, but this time lined up behind a few guys I was unfamiliar with.  Was I in the big chain ring this time? Check.  One minute to start, and the gun.  Twenty feet into the race, the group directly in front of me exploded as everyone started going down.  I was not involved in the initial mix-up, but in a full sprint I dove right in.  The chaos of trying to pull apart a bike wreck is never fun.  The guy on the ground, torn up, was being run over, and there was total lack of regard for equipment as bikes were being ripped from one another.  Somehow, I got out of it unscathed and started plugging away at my hour.

I had no idea where I was in the pack.  A group of ten of us or so had pulled away from the crash one at a time and had created a nice little pace line.  As we tried desperately to get ourselves back into the race, the hammer was buried deep into the ground.  We were all pushing the pace as fast as we could.  The first indication from Julie I was given as to my placing was mid-twenties and I figured I was in a good place.  The problem was that the crash started in the second row and the group I was in contained guys I can normally easily beat as well as guys slated for the top ten.  So while I pushed to stay in the group, my entire box of matches was being lit ablaze.

I managed to make a few good moves and stay with the front of the group.  I was making it through the sand pit faster than many of the riders and making up time over the barriers and through some of the more technical sections.  With five to go, I topped out around 21st.

And then everything started to fall apart.  Across the finish line with four to go I could tell I didn’t have the snap in my legs as I did from the previous laps when the two riders in front of me put a gap on through the straight away.  I did not have the charge through the barriers either.  Around the backside of the course and up the slow grind of a hill my body had had enough and started to give up.  Powers mechanic looks at Julie as I rode by and says, “Your rider is pedaling squares.”  I did not feel like I was pedaling at all.

Damage control does not even really sum it up.  With three and two to go, my lap times probably increase by minutes.  Racers were passing me like I was standing still.  Mid way through two to go, Powers past me and that was it.  I had two riders catching me and I pushed what little was left into my legs through the remainder of the lap to take 33rd one lap down.  In those last two laps I probably had eight or nine guys go around me and I felt defeated.

I had put so much effort into getting back into the race from the beginning that I did not have enough left to close it out.  There are days where I really feel like I belong in this field and then there are others where I feel like I should just stay home.  Today fell somewhere in between the two.  The course was fantastic and I really enjoy racing against such fast riders, but at the same time, getting lapped is no fun either.  There are so many ways to look at it and I just need to stay focused on the most important one.  I love racing cyclocross and I am having a fantastic time this season.  Tomorrow I need to race my best and really push for that top twenty.  Going to leave everything I have on the course.