2019 CX season - wed week 5

After the "bike ball" Friday night, I was really useless saturday, actually did a solid ride/workout sunday, and then have felt like garbage all week. I was really on the fence about racing, but figured if I felt bad enough I could just dial it back, take some handups, or even quit. I had some motivation to show up though because there is a series overall podium with pretty good prizes. Dan and Robert are very firmly in 1st and 2nd, but the points are best 5 out of 6 races and Andrew, Ivan, Toby, and Kory have all missed at least 2 races so the 3rd spot is going to Charlie, Shaun, or me. My worst race was 9th on week two, so my goal was to do better than that, and finishing ahead of Charlie and/or Shaun is a bonus. Charlie wasn't there tonight, but Shaun was. He missed week one, finished ahead of me weeks 2 and 3 (week 3 was a sprint finish), and I beat him last week. Charlie and I are also 2-2, and one of those I only got because his chain kept coming off.



Course was the same spot as weeks 1 and 2, but the other direction. This meant no gravel parking lot after turn 1, but the first two turns were still pretty tricky as you're coming off the driveway into the ditch, and then through a 180 degree corner across/out of the ditch. I think the Bs had a pileup there tonight. Off the start I missed my pedal and was way back, but somehow managed to move all the way up into like 5th wheel after the first couple of corners. Andrew was immediately by himself, then Dan, Rob, Toby, were together, then I was right there for most of the first lap. But we hit the track around the baseball field and gravel lot and paved start/finish straight and they were gone too. Then it's me, Shaun and Kory. Early in lap 2, Kory comes by and I actually get on his wheel. The 2nd half is a little more technical and I can follow him there more easily, but he's really strong and it was a struggle to get to that point. I'm watching him pedal out of corners and trying to follow and just thinking "fuck, what am I doing?" Then it was fine for a bit and I got in his draft to the start/finish. He messed up the turn out of the ditch and I'm in front again, but after the barriers he passed me back. I moved over to let Shaun through. Who just said "no." I decided, yeah, that's fine, let him go, and now it's a rematch from two weeks ago.

We're comfortable, I ride a couple laps on the front, he rides a couple on the front, and before you know it we're on the last laps. I'm on the front with 2 to go, with 1 to go, and I'm wondering what I'm going to do because the sprints between us don't usually go my way. The previous shitty rocky gully thing that you went down was now uphill, then you take a banked 180, go through a narrow track and a gap in a fence, and then down a bank, through a chicane and a big fast sweeper into the runup. I had a less then obvious line through the fence that gave better speed down the hill, and then it comes down to willing yourself not to touch the brakes and trusting the tires around the sweeper. I notice i have a bit of space here and that's my chance so I hit it up the run/ride up a little harder than usual, keep it on through the next twisty section, then I'm in the drops sprinting around the baseball field, carry good speed through the gravel, and stay ahead to the finish.

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