Thursday, December 1, 2011

Quad Cross

Life's been out of control lately, way more stuff coming at me than I have time to process. Things like sleep, quality time with my wife, and this blog are paying the price. It's 9:35 on Thursday night and I'm dedicating the next EIGHT WHOLE MINUTES to updating this thing.

By updating, I mean writing a race report on an event that happened 3 months ago.

Waaay back in September I drove out to... I forget where now... but it was some sort of Rod & Gun club (#TWSS) to race the first race of the year in the single speed category at Quad Cross. The last time I raced Quad Cross I was about to get beat down by Lynne Bessette but was spared that fate when I twisted my ankle wickid haad and had to go to hospital for medicine.

This year, Quad Cross was a true jungle cross course with lots of fresh cut sucky woods sections and a severely undersized field. Hey, racing is racing so why not have fun.

I have this habit of checking my skewers and valve caps on the line. Usually the official calls "one minute" loud enough for me to know how much time I have to walk through my little OCD routine, but on this day they were speaking softly or I just had manure for brains and I never heard it. So I'm standing there bent over my bike when I did hear the whistle and woosh... we (they) were off!!!

Not many races start with a flying right-hand side remount, but this one did for me. I was pumped up with adrenaline and quickly got through traffic and off towards the front. The course was very short... 5 minute laps short... and eventually took the lead half way through lap two. I felt great and started to pull away from everyone... except Chandler. He wasn't making up ground, but at that point he was the only dude that was keeping pace. By lap three it was clear he was making up time and he blew by me half way through lap 4.

It was DAMAGE CONTROL time, I backed off for a lap or two and waited for the good sensations to return so I could make a run back to the leader. Looking at my watch after 5 or 6 laps I figured we had three to go as we had only been racing for 20 minutes. WRONG! I came through the finish line and they were ringing the bell for final lap. Crazy I tell you.

I chased, gained nothing, and finished second.

Boo hoo.

Time's up - I'm going to bed.

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