Date:
18 December 2005
Category: C
Distance: 35 minutes
Field: only 11 braved the rain
Conditions: Windy, Raining, and yes finally Muddy
Teammates: none
This was a race I have been waiting for since
this course is mostly flat but this time around
they took away the real long straight sections
so we would do more laps. I woke up late this
morning listeneing to the rain and as I made my
usual what I though 45 min drive to Fort ord turned
into about 1:15 drive due to the rain and wind.
Lets just say 45mph was about the max in most
places along highway 101. Finally made it there
about 8:20am and went to register to find out
they gave my number away to someone else (we use
the same numbers the whole series) But I made
sure that I could use mine since I was 3rd overall
so they tracked down the other guy and had him
change his number. I got back to my car to change
to realize I forgot my SJBC jersey so I panicked
then decided to use my white undershirt as my
jersey and pinned my number on. I did 1 lap of
warmup to see the mud and sand and how much they
took away of the course to make it shorter. The
course was still flat just alot muddier than the
last race we did here and it suited me just fine.
This would be my first CX race in the mud since
yesterday was only a mud puddle followed by a
sand pit. With 5 minutes before the race I decided
since I brought both bikes I should have a pit
bike just in case so I ran down to the car and
grabbed my other bike. You know you are a sandbagger
when you are the only guy with a bike in the pits
for a cat C race...
So I lined up and for some reason I looked over
at the guy next to me and saw his number was on
the right not the left I did a double take then
scanned the crowd just to make sure. The reg lady
even said right but I decided to pin mine on the
left so with a minute before the race I asked
a guy standing on the side of the course to cheer
on his junior racer to help me repin my number
on the right and another guy helped to. Just as
they finished we started so I passed alot of people
by starting on the side and was in 4th going over
the 1st set of barriers. I knew I would pace high
since 1 of the Bay Cities racers wasn't there
and the 2 of them are usually my competition in
the C category. I passed 2 guys to move into second
which is where I stayed as the course got muddier
and the mud sections were filling up with water
it made them harder to tell which line was best
and I seemed to pick the worst line each time.
With the wind and rain it was perfect day of cross
racing. As luck would have it after I changed
it stopped raining which I thought was a nice
touch and i picked up my silver medal.
Andrew Lanier was there and broke his chain doing
his preride of the course but luckily had his
back up mtb so he raced in the juniors category
and out of 7 juniors came in 4th for his age division.
Next CX Race: Jan 08, 2006 Fort Ord
Travis Tonn
San Jose Bicycle Club
Racing since 1939
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