After heading back home, hitting the Memphis Velo team dinner… I was already pretty tired from the race…we manged to hold it together and be social. We got up in the morning and made the trek to McEwen for day 2.
I was a little worse for the wear for racing today… I had some scuffing and soreness due to the tumble yesterday, but mostly it was my hip. Nevertheless, I planned to race the CX1/2 (+CX3 + Women 1/2/3) race in the early afternoon. The combined field meant we started with about 10. Some of the field had already raced (either Masters or CX3), but there were a few pairs of fresh legs in the group.
The course was nearly identical to Saturday’s course…except it was run in reverse with a slight modification incorporating a run up (or a small hop + ride up if you could pull it off).

Run up (ride up) [photos by Marsha White]
Unfortunately the sketchy up hill off camber turning into a downhill version of the same.. I never really figured that out…..

Sketch corner

We started out and quickly it started to develop like Saturday. Andy was well out front, a group of 2 behind (Jeremy + Jeremy), and then a group of 4 (my group). The first lap or so, I wasn’t really in a groove yet and would fall back from this group and rejoin them after long grass sections. One of the times down the hill, I tried to pass on the inside… on that sketchy downhill. Rather than take out a large group as the line closed, I rode into the tape and left a huge gap. I took nearly a lap to get back to the group. Once back, I started to attack where I could. I generally sucked the descent (maybe gun shy from the previous day’s crash?).

By 3-4 laps to go, I was successful at dropping the rest and tried to chase down the Jeremys. I was able to hold the gap, but didn’t really make up much ground. 4th place.

Finish
I had already signed up for the “Hoss of Cross” race at the end of the day, so I got resuited up even though I was pretty spent from the race. The idea is a 2 lap race for a wheelset (and other prizes) with all categories racing together and against each other for one winner. The start was staged by average lap times of each category’s winner. This meant that I would start at the back.. The junior went first, then 45 seconds, then Andrea. Another 45 seconds, the Cat 4’s and the S/S’er. After 25 seconds, Barrett (CX3) and I were allowed to go.
Barrett started out fast (my lack of warmup was showing here). I ended up coming back to him and lead us into the run up. At least that was my plan. I suspected that he might ride it, so I was trying to go outside…that would have been great if I would have unclipped. I ended up on the ground before the log at the bottom and Barrett basically half-crashed into me. Nice. We managed to pick up the pieces and start the run up pretty quickly. As I pushed my bike up the hill, the rear wheel was dragging…the brack shoe had pushed past the rim. I took a second and dislodged it. By the time I got going, Barrett was well ahead, but I stayed close enough to him through the back section of the course passing one CX4 along the way.

We passed the next CX4 (part of a larger group) going to the run-up the second time. He rode, I ran it…. When I tried to remount, I was overgeared (dumb) and stalled going on the pavement. Fail. I was passed back the CX4 racer and had to ride behind him. I didn’t overtake him until half-way around the course (messed up the decent again and then was jammed up a few times). By this time, I was all over anyway, so I just rode it in. I think I ended up 6th? Barrett did well to get up to 3rd place to take a prize. The grand prize… the Junior took it. Andrea dropped out when her chain dropped below her chain watcher effectively ending her race.
After the race, we stayed around, helping finish off the keg and (at least somewhat) helping teardown. Actually we didn’t do much with that. All-in-all a good weekend, even though I had a mediocre weekend of racing (results wise)… Sketchy stuff (in the dry) isn’t my strength. Andrea and I will have to return there for some mountain biking… maybe the weekend after next…
One more weekend of cross. Outdoors, Inc on the island. At least it is a hometown race!