12/4 Bubba 10 The Little Big Show State Championship @ Queeny Park, Masters, 3rd (*2cd MO Rider).

 

This is going to be long winded so when I look back on this I won't forget it.

Still haven't totally digested this one yet. My preparation and expectations far exceeded the way I feel I raced. I trained through nearly every race this season and while some wear harder than others, they never came close to the way this felt. In retrospect, I can only attribute it to a stressful week at work and adding far heightened pre-race anxiety/pressure as this race has been on my mind since I started riding again last November. It was my goal. 

Racing is hard and the competition was strong but what I experienced on Sunday wasn't relative to the hard course or competition. For reasons I can only guess at, this was harder than any race this year by a factor of 10 and I really contemplated quitting after about 10 mins.

 After beating J Doug pretty handily the weekend before  at Spanish Lake I had some confidence and was coaching myself that I was going to go down swinging trying to stay with Anthony, because I really didn't want there to be that *first MO Rider if I were to win.  I also committed to going out hard as I felt the course suited me and thought the climbing would separate things early as it had the weekend before. The wider radius turns and clean course really suited my strengths.

I got a good jump off the start and led the charge the first lap. My breathing was heavy, which is typical, and I figured I'd settle into a pace and things would normalize. They never did.  Anthony and I had a small gap after the first lap and I think he started to gap me a bit on lap two. At this point I started to notice I wasn't recovering at all and was really suffering. My breathing was labored, the muscles in my face felt fatigued and I started to get a little blurred vision. The only time I remember my face feeling that was when I used to do 12hr racing and everything just kind of goes numb from total fatigue. 

I kept pushing and by lap 3 had a decent gap, maybe 15 seconds, over J Doug. Anthony was still close and Harre was coming up behind me when we crossed through the big parking lot before the uphill 180 right hander. I don't know what happened but I tried to avoid the tree and ended going through both lanes, taking down a lot of tape and a stake. I really didn't know what happened. Harre was in awe and could only muster a "whoa!" 

Whatever gap I had was all but gone and J Doug caught me shortly after that, not really sure. I jumped back on and saw 5 or 6 laps to go and thought there was just no way I could ride that long but pushed on. J Doug rode my wheel and I was pretty much just waiting for him to make a move, which he didn't, so I kept pedaling. Nothing was getting easier but I knew I couldn't quit as long as I was able to keep pedaling. 

As the lap cards counted down there was never a time I was able to open any kind of a gap on Jason, mainly trying to by taking chances on the downhill sections and just trying to keep the pace up so he couldn't pass me. With 2 to go I was sure he was going to pounce on a hill, but he didn't. I really had nothing to give and wasn't thinking clearly enough to consider my tactics. 

On the last lap I thought my only chance was to take risk on the downhill before the barriers and try to give everything I had on the switch back climb in the field and take more risks on the next downhill. I wasn't able to fully commit to anything, I just didn't have it in me, and made no appreciable gains. I think I grew complacent with him being behind me and tried to keep the pace up going though the uphill part of the parking lot before that right handed 180 again but didn't realize (at the time) the importance of making that turn first and didn't commit. About 3/4 the way across the lot, Jason did and blew my doors off sitting down waiting for it (the jersey) to be handed to me. I latched on and was going to try one more time when I washed out on a 180 and unclipped. Game over. 

Congrats to Anthony for taking the series overall, which earns him a training camp in Tucson! Also a huge congrats to Jason Douglas for winning his first Jersey, he's a great guy and super strong competitor. Looking forward to racing with both of these guys a lot more in the future.