Racing was a bit iffy after my crash the day before, but I was already prereg'd, and I had a few friends who would be there, it was the closest race to home all year, so off I went. Slightly later start, which was nice as I could have breakfast with the family, instead of running out at ODark o clock.
Watched the earlier race, got a lap and a half in. Super steep and long run up. Some really fun flyover berms. A treacherous downhill complete with a short wall to keep you from pitching off the downhill side. And a bunch of bumpy corners in a cornfield. Cool course.
Race lined up, small field. Only 12 cat 4 35+ racers, a couple of dozen cat 4s, and another two dozen women and jrs behind us. We were first off, and someone gunned it for the holeshot, leaving the group in the dust. There was about 1/4 mile of gravel road before we hit the technical parts of the course. I jumped on his wheel, and killed myself to get by him, but did not have the power. Rolled into the grassy part of the course second wheel, which was first and very exciting. Unfortunately, I was very quickly swamped by several riders. My lungs were heaving, and the pain in my chest from the rib injury had me cross-eyed.
Kept rolling along, getting passed every few minutes by another cat 4, or occasionally by a jr who started 10 seconds behind. My buddy Tom rolled past, and I tried to stay on his wheel, but after one lap, he just slowly drifted away. I was making up ground every time up the run up. However, this was just passing someone who had passed me a while back, and most times, they came around at the barriers.
Rolled in 9th out of 12 in my group, which was my highest placing this year ( or ever), but I would have hoped to have done much better had I been in good health. My friend John got on the podium with a third place! Ran into Tom and Darren, who was not racing but had come out to take pictures of the race.
Pretty sure I am done racing for the year. I can still ride at a slow pace, but it would be best to take a few weeks off of the bike and get 100% healed before getting out there again, and before ski season kicks in.
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