Any Given Sunday

Cross race number two, the ACA series has two of five events in the can. I guess I have the lead, I guess. The race panned out rather oddly. T-Brown went away about half way through the first lap. He was on the pink singlespeed, a perfect course for a single and a good day to not worry about shifting, too much other stuff going on. Dubba and I rode solidly in second and third until he dropped his chain, I went away until a guy started catching up with me and wouldn’t pull through on the dirt road sections, I guess he was riding the mud bog and on the next time through I kind of stepped into his way and his front wheel hit my calf, that sent him flying into the bog, well that’s racing. After that I didn’t have to deal with him, he lingered a minute or so back. Then the mountain bike guy from last week surged up to me and tried to attack through. I let him lead the techy sections so I could see what he had and then made sure not to give him too much room. I was trying to figure out where to attack and drop him when out of nowhere Dubba came up and went through us, I quickly got on his wheel and we both dropped mtb guy. going into the last lap I had a 5 second or so gap to make up on Dubba and I tried to ride the smoothest line and not blow it too soon. After the last tech section I saw him fixing his chain again, sprinting past him I said “sorry buddy!” he came in a few seconds later for third. Overall a good day, second behind a full-pro is ok with me, I would have preferred to give him a race but I wasn’t on a great day anyway. My skills are getting better but I need to be sharper, with fewer mistakes handling wise. The drive home was amazing, we had great views of the peaks and valleys, the trees were perfectly colored and we had a good drive listening to radiohead with Shaubie and Little B in the car. It was just one of those days that sticks in your mind, almost perfect!