A few weeks ago I raced the Storm the Greens race in Louisville. School Halloween dance was the night before and so that was a late night. Luckily Louisville was only 2 hours away and the race was in the afternoon. Hit my brakes going into the first turn and was dead last, awesome.. Spent the whole race jumping up from group to group until I was chasing only the last 3 lead riders. Got within 30 seconds of the leaders and 15 seconds of 3rd place. 2 of my teammates took the top 2 spots and I took 4th. Almost swept the podium, which would've been really cool. The curse of constant 4th places continues..
The next 3 weeks consisted of maybe 4 or 5 rides, none longer than an hour. I was crammed with school stuff and it was starting to drive me insane. Then the clock changes and it gets dark at 3pm now, even better. If you value your sanity, I recommend not taking 7 courses in a semester..
Decided to leave school a little early so I could make it back longer for thanksgiving which has so far been a good move. A lot of stress has gone away and it's just been awesome to be back.
Went straight to Ann Arbor to watch the Harry Potter release with some of my best friends. What could be even better than that you ask? how about a Harry Potter themed party the next day! Decided to go back to Rochester Saturday afternoon to check out the Bloomer CX course and make sure I still knew how to ride a cross bike. I had only done one cross ride since Storm the Greens so I was a bit nervous. Luckily for me, there were a lot of people out ridding the course so I got some good practice in.
My house is a 30 second bike ride to Bloomer park so it was nice not having to get up and drive in the morning. I rode there to get my number and then rode back home and changed in my warm house :) Chilled out for a bit and caught up with a lot of old friends. It's been so long since I've done a Tailwind race and it was such a great feeling to see the old usual crowd. The temperature was a bit colder than what I'm used to in KY, but It was perfectly comfortable for
racing. I'm always a bad starter and this was no exception. Sprinting to a slightly muddy turn tends to freak me out so I was a little cautious at first.
Photo credit to Tenmilemedia
Anyhoooo, worked my way up to a group for 4th place and kind of chilled there for most of the race watching them attack each other. I would get gapped a few times, but I just kept my own steady pace since I knew I would blow up if I did all of the accelerations with my current fitness. After the halfway point went by I decided to do an attack of my own and went in persuit of the 3 people up the road. Apparently Vince crashed and flatted and I got close to Burke, but blew up when I got within 5 seconds. Managed to recover though and hold off the chase group for 3rd. Thank you muscle memory!
A little history with this race/venue..
Bloomer Park was actually my first mtn bike race (beginner men 15-18 in 2006) and my first cyclocross race (Cat-4 in 2007). I actually haven't done a cyclocross race in MI since 2007, so this was a very special day for me. This was also my first cyclocross race in MI on an actual cyclocross bike.. Again, it was so great to be around the old crowd and I'm glad I didn't embarrass myself. Mark P is a great guy and has been super strong this year. Tom is always an insanely strong rider and for me to be able to finish up there with those 2 means so much. I always dreamed of making it to the podium one day in elites in MI when I started racing and I'm glad to have finally accomplished this goal. It's just not the same when you race out of state, it is such a special feeling to come back to where it all began and see how far I've come.
Photo credit: Tenmilemedia
Anyway, I plan on hanging out in MI for the rest of this week, then it's back to school for the last week of classes. Then some OVCX action in Indy, then final exams, then fly out to OR for nationals. Then FREEEEEEEEDOM oh it will be sweet....
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