Lucky Days

Good cross weather for the weekend of two races above 9000 feet. Not that the altitude or the weather bothered most people, the courses were hard because the racing was hard. Saturday was cool and rainy on a very narrow course that even on the road stretch you didn't have a ton of room to get past others. Two guys on the same team on opposite sides of me at the start pinched me off and gave the team leader a clear window to take the holeshot that made for an absolutely horrible start that took me the whole first lap to make the front of the chase after one had already checked out (the team leader who pinched me) and had 15 seconds on us. Not wanting to be behind anyone I drove the chase solo to get him back. That broke down the chase enough to have it be one (me) trying to drag him back, certain parts of the course favored me and I took my time on him there only to lose a second or two where it didn't favor. Two laps to go I nailed the hard run-up and got the feet in the pedals perfectly, and just drilled it for as long as I could, Taking back a big chunk of time, I went around him at the bell and got lucky to drive thru the first corners of the lap cleanly and get a good gap that was just a matter of staying on the gas and not going down. Lucky days, 15 seconds at the line. Good course, pretty techy and a big field on a narrow track. I saw video of the race and saw that I had guys behind me who offered nothing in the chase but were content to watch me do the work, oh well, I got to the line when I wanted to, just closer to the others than I hoped. Sunday we woke to a few inches of fresh snow at the house butthe 15 minute drive to the race had the snow line midway there. 2 inches at my house and nothing but a bit of moisture in Frisco. The course here really suited me, great track that had a proper tarmac section to start on that funneled well into the first dirt stretch. Not like Saturday's mess that started on dirt and had a 90 degree rooty turn 50 meters from the start line also on dirt. A nice long 60 meter run up that was steep enough to cause separation but not too steep to cause slowing mid way up. I deal for an attack later on in the race. Good stuff to be in the first few off the road into the dirt and onto the run. 5 of us checked out pretty quick, leaving the race to thinned slowly. A few laps later on the bumpy and techy bits I turned the screw a touch whittle it down to 3 of us. Finally, a group to race with, not the marching off alone like the last few races with just one guy. Three of us kept the pace and the others were left to fight for 4th. Seeing my spots I tried not to show my hand too soon, Iwanted a god effort and to try to get the others to show their cards first. I gave it all I had on the second to last run up and got a good that second place held at 10 seconds or so until it ended. I got lucky to have the legs to go on the run and see that I had a clear shot at the last lap and a half, a few lappers and a woman warming up pissed me off a bit as I had to yell to her to move out of the way, odd this girl wasn't paying attention to the race coming around and she got a bit surprised to see me go by with only a word, "move." Two races at home in the County and two more good results, bigger fields than last wekeend and great courses too. That makes five cross races on the season, five of the same results. I like that. Racing at mid day suits me. That's it.