DCCX

I had a pretty good day on Sunday. I didn't place very high or anything, but I also didn't get lapped against some pretty fast guys in DCCX. I held the field for a bit, but again my horsepower is just a bit off or as I later found out, I need to just push a bit of a bigger gear. Coming into the last few hundred yards of the lap with 2 to go, I was able to see the leader, Blair Saunders coming up at about 45 seconds behind. Dammit, I was going to finish this race and it wasn't going to be at a lap down. I pushed it through the road section past the finish line. I'd dumped a small group a couple laps back and was just riding a steady pace. Now I had to put in an actual hard effort. I was worried about getting caught in the far fields where there were some long stretches that required nothing but horsepower, technique was optional. I had it in the big ring and saw I was actually holding my gap. Blair had closed a bit but not too much. In through the uphill barriers, I still did not see him closing and with only half a lap to go, I was feeling confident. In the end, I managed to stay about 20 seconds ahead and was able to push through the final lap. Even though the gun barrels are pretty low right now, I can look at the bright points. I'd not gotten lapped. In the areas where technical skills were a help, I came through clean and my dismounts and mounts were clean and quick. When you are getting back on the bike and it feels like you're just stepping onto the bike and not jumping on, you've got the flow going. I opted to bail out of the second race which would've had me lapped pretty quickly as Wes Schempf is going pretty well now. Instead, I had a beer in the pits and was heckling some riders while pretending to have their bikes ready. Even Melanie had a beer there as she was pitting for Judd. The elite race was cooking and there was a 5 man group of the front. All of a sudden, we heard a call go up about a wreck. With the exception of last years Natz, this was the first time I'd seen a serious injury at a cross race. We'd initially heard it was a leg break, but I think it wound up to be an ankle. Either way, it had to suck for that guy. The lead 4 came through the next time. It stayed like that until about 1.5 laps to go, when something went awry and a couple riders tangled and went down. I guess it's not too surprising that it would turn out like that as the leaders were riding as close as you would as if you were on the road. With the wreck breaking it up, the race went to Wes who won for the second year in a row.

After a bean&cheese burrito and a long drive back with Gunnar and Betsy's dog Jackie on my lap for a good portion of the way, I wound up having to go into work when I got home at around midnight and fix a net connection. Comcast definitely sucks in this department. Someone should put some code in the modem that as soon as net traffic goes down to reboot itself. These pieces of shit go down at the worst time(like today, when I'm 5 hours away from the damn thing). I guess this is why I get paid the big bucks. To go in at midnight and do stupid shit like this. Oh, well. It's a living. I just wish I could clone myself and then pay the clone minimum wage. I might get some training time in then.