First race for me since the May shoulder injury. It was a dry, hot, and dusty day in Webb's forest. The course was in fabulous shape and was wicked fast, thanks for all your work Mark. I slotted in around 10th after the bouncy mass start out of the field and had planned on staying their for awhile. But the dust was thick and the legs felt ok, so I decided to try and move closer to the front and out of the cloud. Got into the top 5 overall by the first trip into the pig's wallow and was actually leading my age group. Don Seib and I swapped the lead a few times during the first lap, then I led the entire second lap and thought he had fallen back. Start of lap three I was proven top be wrong as Don went by and took over the top spot. I figured I would hover on his back tire for the lap then make a move on one of the climbs on the final lap. Well the hovering took much more energy than I had anticipated and he started to open a bit of as gap on the last circuit. I could keep Don in sight, but was not able to make any gains. Then I got all smart and deviated from a perfectly good line that had worked fine the first three laps to try a potentially 1 second faster line. The rear tire let me know how stupid the choice was by promptly going flat. Got the tire fixed in a few minutes and hammered as hard as I could to the finish. Don and I had opened a good gap, so the flat did not cost me any age group positions, but I did lose a few spots in the overall. Ended up 2nd in age group and 6th overall. Was a minute/lap slower than last year, but did not expect to be this competetive, so went home very happy.

Tyler got on the lower step of the podium in his first sport race. More important to me, he was 32/54 overall. So my pushing him up to sport appeared to be an OK move.

Nothing now until Great Glen. Need to find that minute/lap in the mean time.
 
[img:7c60f52a7e]http://www.team-pinnacle.org/albums/bc_personal/120x90.png[/img:7c60f52a7e]

9 10ths of the first lap went well, caught a stick that snapped the rear derailleur clean off. That was my race.

This was my first race of the year, and first NECS points race as Expert, so my goal was to finish and hopefully not be dead last. I have not been able to train a whole lot this year, so I was a little nervous about how my legs would react. I started out pretty easy just settling in behind a line of riders which is always a bad idea at Webbs, I should have known better. Coming into the first turn with all the ruts, 2 guys ahead of me went down and I basically rode over the top of them. What fun. Not sure how they crashed, there was nothing in front of them except bumpy dirt. Oh well. After a little bit I could see Clint Dowd up ahead of me, my goal was to catch up to him and stay on his wheel. I continued to work my way through the line of Expert riders ahead of me and made it up to Clint by the end of the first lap. I used him as my pacer for most of the second lap, but decided that I wanted to go a little harder. Clint bobbled a little on some roots, I went around him and started to push harder. About half way through my 3rd lap I could feel the cramps starting to kick in a bit. Every couple minutes I could feel the little shocks going through my quads. I ate a few of the gummy things, drank some more water and made it through my 3rd lap. I stopped at my watering area, drank some red bull, refilled 1 water bottle and ate a few more of the gummy things. One lap to go and I still can't see Clint. About 1/4 way into the final lap the cramps kicked in completely. My quads took turns letting me straighten them, but I was not able to straighten both simultaneously, so I was never able to get a strong pedal stroke, which killed me on the few climbs. Coming into the final stretches of the course I could see Clint gaining again. I continued to push through the cramps, finally out of the woods, around the last corner and through the finish. OUCH!! that hurt. Clint finished 20 seconds behind, we shook hands and congratulated each other on finishing a fun race. I finished 3rd in my age group and about 16/38 overall, so I was very happy with the results.

Course was wicked fast and fun. Thanks for all the hard work Mark.
 
"If you brake, you don't win." Racer Mario Cipollini