2TG Dirt Crit # 4, 17th

                                          ***awesome shots from RainbowMarks last night!

After the race last night I was trying to recall if I ever started a race DFL and remembered one instance. It was my hardcore endurance racing year of 2007, doing lots of 3 , 6 and 12's with the ultimate goal to set a new course record of 10 laps at the Burnin'. I lapped a few fields and set some course records along the way but failed at the Burnin' when a flat and poor planning ruined the day early on.  Too many eggs in one basket for twelve hour racing  so while back East with my family at Thanksgiving I  declared I was going to train for XC  and come back to  race Expert Nationals at Mount Snow the next year if they all would go. I succeeded at that goal. Anyway, in 2007 I went up to Wisconsin to race their big endurance series, the WEMS, and since it was early in my season I opted for the 6 hr. Long story short, I got lost in the woods warming up, missed my start by 10 minutes, clawed my way back through a huge field of tight single-track where it was tough to pass and came in second, by less than 10 minutes. 

I'll admit after being torched the week before I put training aside and did a mini taper because I wanted to see how I could do if I felt fresh. I was feeling great. I really don't know what happened  but about 7 seconds into the bunch start sprint for the first corner I hit the deck pretty hard and fortunately didn't take anyone down or get ran over. I picked my shit up, knocked my bars and shifters back in place and jumped on the back of a 57 person train. It was pretty tough to pass, especially without the grassy section and generally the people in the back of the pack would accelerate or go with full NASCAR blocking techniques if you tried. As I got closer to the faster guys this was less of an issue, may be a trend. Oh well, I rode pretty clean and had great power when gaps opened up, but never really got a chance to run the ponies because of the traffic.  I worked my way up to 17th and am pleased I stuck with it and that  it felt "easy," hopefully a sign that my body is responding to the intensity work of the first few races, which I haven't done any of in training, if you can call it that. Really just enjoying everything about being on a bike again!

Loving everything about this series. Going to be bummed when it's over but the smell of sweet embro is just around the corner!