bay area super prestige cyclocross #3
bianchi 'cross
coyote point, san mateo
2005/12/3
cat b
9th/28
teammates: nada
after listening to my coworkers cough and sneeze their way through the week, i was starting to feel like a hypochondriac going into the big weekend. an energy drop on friday night was starting to make me nervous so i just went to bed early and tried to get lots of sleep. felt okay in the morning, but still a little sluggish. i think this saturday racing thing is just challenging for me. once i got to the venue, bundled up against the cold wind coming off the bay, and got out on the course i was feeling better, and my heartrate was coming up fine. nutrition worked out better for me than earlier pilarcitos races with late starts. managed to choke down an extra pb&j on top of my usual assortment of pre-race stuff, and it got me through the race without feeling like i was fading like in the first 2 races.
got a bad bad start off the line despite getting my first callup in a pilarcitos race. didn't have my balance after my first pushoff, so had to take a second step before clipping in. oh well, didn't really get stuck in any traffic jams, and managed to avoid several minor incidents just in front of me. managed to find wheels and stay out of the wind the first several laps, but by midrace i was alone making some headway on a couple guys that seemed just a little too far up the road, making faces at the camera planted at the bottom of the little drop down to the pits, and trying to maintain my gap over a ritchey guy behind me. with one lap to go i thought i had him, but he must have put in quite an effort, because by the time we got back down the hill onto the back section he was on my wheel. drat. he came around and i grabbed his wheel for the long finishing straightaway. he stayed on the left line through the woodchips, so i decided to take the right line. in retrospect i should have stayed in his draft on the left, because i think the longer line i took slowed me down just a bit more than him, and i couldn't quite get around him before the line.
a little disappointing to lose the sprint, but on the bright side 9th is my best finish in the series thus far. i held my 8th place standing in the points. only 1 point from 7th...
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