Fini

the 08 season has finally come to a close, a good year of ups and downs ended with the always super fun State CX race. Good thing it is done too, another month of hard training would probably kill me. To anyone who is doing nationals, have fun training in the cold, wet, and dark. I'll be racing my couch!

Anyhow, on to the State CX race. As usually the biggest race of the year, as usually a good course. With the expansion of the race to include the far side of the park, things got quite interesting.

Good thing the race started 15 minutes late, I was not paying any attention to the clock, I was just going to go take a lap of the course when I saw the entire field lined up and just about ready to go. So I choked down my sports beans and lined up, within a minute we were off. And somehow I actually had a good start, despite not being ready at all. I was right where I wanted to be until the corner after of the stair run the first lap where I botched the turn and got gapped. From there on out it was Mr. Casper, Mr. Taylor and I chasing the lead group. We were working quite well together, eventually catching a hurting Harland and Swanson. the remaining 4 of the lead group held there lead. Thus we were racing for 5th place. Mr. Casper put in a hard attack on the pavement before the sandpit. As we came into that at about 50 mph I missed the rut I was aming for and just about went over my bars, Mr. Taylor and Casper were gone. I chased hard but they are just to fast to try and catch after any mistake. In the end I rolled across 7th. Not bad at all, but not the top 5 I was going for, at least I was in the running for it though. This race was probably the most fun Ive had all year.

Eurostyle, one of the reasons this race is so much fun. A tunnel of people yelling at you.

Hard day

Stairs are fun.

The pit. My eventual downfall. However, Mr. Taylor probably beat me out of the pit this lap too. He just blasted through it every time.
most photos stolen from Sean Burns

Well, thats it for 08 bike racing. It's fat season! After a week or two off it will be back to training, hopefully some skiing. Which I will be able to afford, because no bike races!