2TG Dirt Crit #5, 13th - Time to cut my losses.

 I was talking to one of my buddies before signing up to do some of the dirt crits and remember saying I was a little bit nervous about racing on a CX bike and getting hurt, especially something that would prevent me from racing CX. Three weeks in a row of crashing and I'm starting to notice a trend. Last night particularly sucked with rash covering the left side of my body and some deeper cuts on my knee, hip and forearm. Crashing into glass sucks. I remember some crashes when I raced on the road but in 10 years of mountain bike racing I can only remember one crash with this kind of carnage at Rhett's Run in 2010, which was a complete and utter mud fest. 

Race start was civilized and I was committed to trying to leave a little gap on the group of 7 or 8 so I  wouldn't burn as many matches getting brake checked in and out of turns. The dust was brutal from back there though and when we hit the flat riser on the back of the course the gap was opening up a little but I stayed patient and kept my pace. I think I was passed up by one or two in the field, had two riders dangling 10-15 seconds followed by Sandnop. I hit the left hander into the glass and went down hard; bars twisted and headset loosened but otherwise didn't think it was too bad. I got passed by the two chasing riders and jumped on. I could see Sandknop coming up behind me but recovered, for the most part, and kept going.  

I think Sandknop passed me like a banshee in the field but I didn't have the juice to hang. Going into the left hander I was concentrated on picking a different line and my front wheel washed out again but luckily I was able to dab and stay upright. Confidence as definitely shaken but I was still in the mix so pushed on.

Other than practically stopping before the left hand turn every lap the rest of the race was fairly uneventful, fortunately. Sandknop charged and caught the second big chase group  which was pretty fun to watch. I was able to maintain about the same gap of 30 seconds until the last lap when they started going after each other. 

I think the only logical solution is to dismantle my tubeless set up while I'm still in pain to avoid making the same mistake 4 weeks in a row.